CHAPTER 16
Seraphina
They moved me to the inner wing. Fewer windows, thicker walls, guards posted discreetly but constantly. I feel like a protected asset or a prisoner.
Lucien spends more time near me now.
Not hovering.
Positioning.
Like a general adjusting troops around something fragile and irreplaceable. Tonight, he stayed in my room longer than necessary. Not speaking, just standing near the balcony.
“You’re not sleeping,” I said.
“Neither are you.”
Silence.
The tension between us isn’t just desire anymore.
It’s survival.
“I don’t want to be the reason people die,” I said quietly.
“You aren’t.”
“But they’re using me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty burned.
He stepped closer.
“If they touchyou,” he said softly, “Iwillend them.”
Something in his tone had shifted.
It wasn't a strategy. It was a promise, and promises from men like him are not metaphors.
Lucien had always believed that loyalty revealed itself most clearly during moments of chaos. Anyone could claim allegiance when things were calm. Promises were easy when there was nothing at stake but chaos stripped away illusions quickly, it forced people to reveal exactly who they were and what they were willing to risk.
That was why he trusted Ronan more than most men in the organization. Ronan didn’t waste time on speeches or declarations of loyalty. He simply acted. If something needed to be done, he handled it without hesitation. In a world built on shifting alliances and fragile trust, that kind of reliability was rare.
Still, even the most loyal men couldn’t control everything.
Lucien stood near the window of his office, the city lights flickering far below like distant stars. Somewhere out there, people were already moving against him. Rivals testing boundaries. Enemies waiting for the smallest sign of weakness. That was the nature of power. The moment someone rose high enough, others began searching for ways to pull them down.
Lucien didn’t fear that reality.
He welcomed it.
Conflict revealed truth faster than peace ever could and when the next storm arrived, as it inevitably would, he intended to make sure only one side was left standing when it ended.
CHAPTER 17
Seraphina
