I didn't care.
I hit him again.
Same spot.
This time he doubled over with a sound that was barely human—wet, broken, like something inside him had finally given way.
The hallway rang with the echo of it.
Then nothing.
Just his wet, ragged breathing and the distant smell of smoke still drifting from the pyre outside.
Still he didn't fight back.
Still he didn't run.
Satoshi spoke carefully. His military training was probably the only thing keeping his voice steady. "Kenji. . .the Lion is waiting."
I looked at him.
Satoshi’s face was pale beneath that rigid composure. I could see his pulse jumping in his throat—this man who'd beendishonorably discharged for something involving five bodies and zero witnesses, now looking like he might be sick.
I scowled at Satoshi. "Let the Lion fucking wait. This is important."
I returned my attention to my Roar, grabbed Reo by the hair, and yanked his head back, forcing him to look at me.
Blood smeared his chin.
His lip was swelling.
One eye was starting to bruise. But those eyes—those goddamn eyes—still held that infuriating certainty.
"If you're truly that angry with me," Reo said quietly, "if you believe I've betrayed you—then let me go. I'll walk downstairs right now, leave this mansion, and throw myself into that pyre."
The words hung in the air.
Behind me, I heard someone shift their weight.
Kaoru, maybe.
Or Rin.
No one spoke.
No one dared.
The air in the hallway had turned thick with the kind of fear that made men forget how to breathe.
My grip tightened in his hair. "You think I won't?"
"I think you'll do whatever you believe is right." Reo didn't look away. "I've served you. I've killed for you. Bled for you. I've done things that guaranteed my place in hell long before today. If this is where it ends—if my last act of service is showing your queen the truth of what she's chosen—then I'll burn grateful."
The hallway went deathly silent.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
