Curiosity.
Attraction.
And something deeper she didn’t yet want to name.
Because acknowledging that feeling would mean admitting the truth.
And the truth was that Lucien Viremont was becoming impossible to ignore.
CHAPTER 18
Lucien
She watches everything.
I underestimated how quickly she would adapt.
That was a mistake.
Tonight, we host three southern affiliates. Men who pretend loyalty while weighing opportunity. The dining hall is dim. Crystal and candlelight. Soft music. Expensive lies.
Sera wears black. Not soft black.
Structured.
Deliberate.
She sits beside me, posture perfect, speaking only when necessary but when she does speak, the room listens. One of the affiliates, Vescari, tests her.
“You must find all of this overwhelming,” he says lightly. “Politics. The danger.”
She doesn’t flinch.
“I find incompetence more overwhelming,” she replies.
Silence.
Then a slow smile from me.
Vescari laughs, but it’s strained.
Later, when the guests leave, I corner her near the stairwell.
“That was reckless.”
“It was controlled.”
“You don’t provoke men like that.”
“You do.”
The argument hangs between us. Then she says something softer.
“I don’t want them to think I’mfragile.”
The word does something to me. I step closer.
“You are notfragile.”
