"You told me there was nothing between us." Her voice cracked. "You said I was just a tool for fixing wards. And now you're angry because someone treated me like I matter?"
He had said those things. Had watched her face crumble and said them anyway, telling himself it was protection when it was cowardice.
And now she'd found someone who offered her everything he refused to give.
"Do you want to go there?" he asked quietly.
She stopped. "What?"
"To his domain." His shadows went completely still. "Would you be happier there?"
She stared at him. "I don't understand why you're asking me that."
He looked away, focusing on the maps rather than her eyes.
"If you would be—" His hands clenched against the chair's edge. Wood creaked under his grip. "I won't..."
Won't what? Won't stop her? Won't beg her to stay? Won't admit that the thought of her choosing Caelum's light over his darkness felt like dying?
"You won't what?" Her voice had softened slightly.
Every instinct screamed at him to take it back. To demand she stay. To stop being such a coward and tell her the truth.
But Elizabeth's dying eyes flashed through his mind. The betrayal as his nature drained her life.
He couldn't do that to Brynn. Couldn't risk her.
Even if letting her go felt like self-mutilation.
"I won't stop you," he managed finally.
The silence was deafening.
She stood frozen, something shifting in her expression—hurt and anger and something else he couldn't read.
"Dante—"
A sharp wail cut through the air. Ward-stones throughout the palace began screaming, crystal shattering over and over, echoing with increasing urgency.
Dante was on his feet instantly. His shadows exploded outward, his hand moving toward Brynn without thinking. Reaching to pull her behind him. To shield her.
He stopped himself just in time.
"Major breach," he said, moving toward the door. "Stay here."
"Like hell," she replied, already following.
The palace erupted into chaos. Death knights surged from the shadows, hollow eye sockets igniting with pale fire. Servants darted into passages.
"My lord!" Lord Aldric materialized beside them. "Multiple attackers are exploiting the ward chaos. They've breached outer defenses!"
"How many?"
"Unknown. They're masking their numbers?—"
Aldric's voice was swallowed by the first attacker barreling around the corner—humanoid but flickering between shadow and substance, wielding blades that drank light.
Dante reacted instantly, positioning himself in front of Brynn. His power tore through the attacker's form, dispersing it.
