Then say, “You’re right.”
That throws her.
I continue, quieter now. “It was instinct. First thought: protect you, take the fall, disappear into the myth before it eats you alive. But that’s not partnership. That’s a fallback protocol. I don’t want to default to dying for you, Roxy.”
She doesn’t speak.
“I want tolivewith you. Even in this.”
The shift in her is slow. But real. The tension eases just enough for breath.
She moves past me and drops into the pilot’s chair, dragging her hands down her face.
“This thing,” she mutters. “It’s not even about us anymore. It’s about what peopleneedus to be. The Butcher became a placeholder. A permission slip. An excuse.”
I sit beside her.
“We don’t erase it,” I say. “We rewrite it.”
She looks over. Eyes searching mine for the angle.
I give her the truth.
“Marj set fire to the myth on her way out. Fine. Let’s walk back through the smoke and plant our own damn flag.”
“You want to use it?”
“I want to own it.”
She leans back in the chair, lips pursed. “We’re not gods, Vrok. We can’t control what people believe.”
“No. But we can steer it.”
She turns the idea over, slow and reluctant. “You think people will follow a version of the Butcher that doesn’t kill first and ask questions never?”
“We don’t give them a choice,” I say. “We make it clear: the Butcher’s eyes are open. And she'schoosingwhat comes next.”
“And what if I don’t want to be her?”
“Then she becomes something else. Someone else. But onyourterms.”
A long pause.
Then: “And you?”
“I stand beside you. Publicly. Strategically. We make them see us as one front. Not a legend and her shadow, but two halves of a plan.”
Roxy studies me for a long moment.
Then says, softer, “You’re not afraid anymore.”
“I am,” I say. “But I’m not letting fear steer the ship.”
That gets a smile out of her. Barely. But it’s real.
She nods once. “Then let’s do it.”
CHAPTER 38
