Only quiet resolve.
The sight of it tightened something in his chest. “You walked into their house alone,” he said atlast.
“Yes,” she answered.
He exhaled once through his nose, the sound almost a rough laugh. “After someone already triedto kill you.”
“Yes.” Her calm didn’t challenge him. It simply stood there between them, immovable.
Magnus lifted their joined hands slightly and turned her palm upward. His thumb brushed across the shield Brand there, tracing the faint outline as if reminding both of them what it meant. “You terrified me,” hesaid.
The admission carried more than anger ever could. Elia’s fingers tightened around his. “I knew you’d come,” she said. “And it was my turn to be the shield.”
Magnus held her gaze for a long moment. Something fierce and possessive flickered through his expression before he stepped closer, crowding her space until she had to tilt her head back to keep looking athim.
“Next time,” he murmured, his voice low enough that only she could hear it, “you bring me with you.”
Before she could answer he bent and kissed her. The kiss was brief but unmistakably possessive, his mouth claiming hers with an authority that sent a ripple of tension through the silent room aroundthem.
When he lifted his head his thumb brushed once more across the shield on her palm. “We’ll discuss that later,” hesaid.
The promise in his voice made Bianca visibly flinch, because she heard the certainty in it and understood Magnus Severin had just claimed Elia in front of the entire room—and meanteveryword.
He turned toward the door. “We’re leaving,” he repeated.
Elia went with him without hesitation. The Severins moved as one behind them, security already closing ranks as they exited the Donati estate. No one tried to stop them. Because everyone in the room understood the truth that had just been revealed.
The Donatis no longer controlled the ports.
And the woman they had tried to kill now stood under the protection of the most dangerous man in thecity.
THE SEVERIN MANSIONwas quiet when they returned.
Not the taut, watchful quiet of a house on alert. That had broken apart the moment Magnus walked Elia through the gates. This was different. This was the silence of a house that had exhaled.
She stood at the tall windows of their bedroom and listened to it settle. Magnus closed the door behind them. She didn’t turn. She watched his reflection, the measured way he crossed the room, his shirt still carrying the faint evidence of the day they’d both survived. He stopped a step behindher.
“You’re still furious with me,” shesaid.
“No.” The word was immediate. “I was afraid.”
Coming from Magnus, the admission landed like a confession. He didn’t traffic in fear. He catalogued it in other people and moved through it like weather.
“I knew you’d come,” she said. “That’s why I went.”
Something flickered through his expression, not anger exactly, but the particular stillness of a man choosing his words carefully. “That’s not the comfort you think it is.”
“I know.” She turned to face him. “But it was my turn to be the shield. Ispent years waiting for things to happen to me. I’m done with that.”
He crossed the distance between them and stopped close enough that she had to tilt her head back to hold his gaze. When he spoke his voice carried none of the sharp authority she’d grown accustomed to. Something rawer thanthat.
“Do you want to know why I bought you?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“The evening in the Donati drawing room,” he said. “The moment Bianca assigned your debt to me. You were standing there holding a tray while your future was decided across the room.”
“In retrospect, I’m grateful it was.” A hint of uncertainty crossed her expression. “But why did you do it, Magnus? What did you hope to get out of it?”
