Magnus studied Elia again before continuing, noticing details that had nothing to do with the contract and everything to do with the way she carried the conversation. Her fingers hadtightened around the railing without her seeming to realize it. The movement was small, but it betrayed the strain she was trying to keep from showing.
She wasn’t afraid for herself. That much he had already understood. What unsettled her was the possibility that Tommaso’s words had been aimed at Severin rather than ather.
He watched the moment the realization settled deeper in her eyes. She thought she had delivered a warning that might damage him. The urge to absorb responsibility for that possibility sat plainly on herface.
Something colder slid through Magnus’s anger at the sight.
Tommaso hadn’t threatened her.
He had used her.
Which meant the message itself mattered more than the insult wrapped aroundit.
Unless it had been the knife wrapped in silk. Acontract designed to cut Severin gradually, long after the signatures dried.
“What else?” he asked.
“He said I’m just a pawn that’s about to be removed from the chessboard and that contracts have a way of circling back to their original holders.” She turned fully toward him now, and the concern in her eyes stripped away what little patience he had left. “Then he said arrangements like mine rarely stay settled.” Her voice tightened. “Magnus… is there some way this contract could force me back to them? Could Bianca actually claim me again because of it?”
Magnus stared at her for a beat.Tommaso had wanted those exact words carried back to him.Which meant Donati believed the message would not simply unsettle him. It would do worse.It would informhim.
“No,” he said. “There is no version of this contract that sends you back to them.” His gaze held hers, hard and unyielding. “Not while I’m breathing.”
He pushed away from the railing and began pacing once, not from restlessness, but because motion gave shape to thought. The stone beneath his shoes remained steady. The anger in his chest didn’t.
Elia watched him carefully. “You think he was telling the truth, though. There’s something about the contract that could cause a serious problem.”
Magnus stopped and looked at her. “I think Tommaso wanted me to know something without saying it directly.”
“Why?”
“Because if he says it outright, he owns it. If he hints, he can claim he was merely being vulgar and theatrical.” Magnus’s mouth flattened. “Carbone is many things. Stupid isn’t one of them.”
Her arms folded across herself, not in defense, but as if she were trying to contain the chill sliding through her. “Then what is he saying?”
Magnus looked back toward the ballroom doors. Reflections glimmered across the glass. He could see movement inside, blurred by light and distance. Security remained where it should. Guests drifted where they should. No obvious threat. Noimmediate breach.
The contract, then.
He replayed the transaction structure in his head. The debt Bianca had assigned. The phrasing around attached obligations. The way Severin had accepted responsibility for certain subsidiary exposures in exchange for control over access rights and associated holdings. The debt had not carried obvious value. Which meant its value had been hidden somewhereelse.
His gaze shifted back to Elia.“He’s saying Bianca didn’t sell you cleanly.”
The words struck her like a slap. He saw it in her fractional recoil and the way her eyes widened before narrowing again.“Then she didn’t sell me at all.”
“No.” Magnus’s voice dropped. “She sold the appearance of release.”
The balcony door opened behind them with a noticeable click.
Magnus didn’t turn immediately. He already knew who’d come out to join them. Leif’s step was measured in a way few men’s were. Alaric moved more silently. There was always purpose in the way he crossed space, as though his body refused any motion it had not already justified.
Leif joined them first, broad shoulders cleanly outlined against the ballroom light behind him. Dark gray tux. Composed expression. The kind of presence that didn’t ask to be noticed because it assumed notice as a matter of course. Alaric followed a half-step behind, pale green gaze already cuttingthrough the shadows along the perimeter wall before settling on his twin brother.
“We thought we’d find you out here,” Leifsaid.
Magnus angled slightly toward them. “Elia had an interesting conversation with Tommaso.”
Alaric’s expression sharpened at once. “Interesting how?”
