She stood in the Senate and understood the words flowing around her. Felt power pressing down on her borrowed shoulders, and responsibility like iron across her back, and loneliness so vast it had its own geography. Watched emperors rise and fall. Watched the empire crumble. Watched herself—Victor—walk through history like a ghost, untouched by time while everyone around him aged and died and turned to dust.
The grief was staggering.
She woke gasping, tears streaming down her face that weren’t entirely her own.
“I know,” Victor said in the darkness. His eyes glowed faintly gold, watching her with an expression caught between shame and relief. “I dreamed about your grandmother’s kitchen. The smell of ginger. The way sunlight came through the window in the afternoon. Her humming while she cooked.”
They stared at each other.
“We’re sharing memories,” Ava whispered.
“The bond is deeper than I thought.” His hand found hers. “Are you scared?”
She considered. The grief from his memories still echoed in her chest: centuries of loss, centuries of solitude. But she also felt his wonder at her grandmother’s warmth. His surprise at how much love could be contained in a single kitchen.
“No,” she said. “But Victor, how are we going to do this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
“Probably.” He pulled her closer. “Then we improvise.”
But neither of them could fall back asleep.
Outside, the ocean rolled on indifferent, and somewhere in the resort, Lilith was nursing a broken nose and planning her next move.
CHAPTER 12
The Sunday gala was everything the cocktail party hadn’t been.
Grimm’s eyes found them the moment they entered. That was the first thing she noticed. The chandeliers and the orchestra and the waiters carrying things that weren’t champagne — all of that came second.
The partners sat at the head table like a tribunal from another century. Malphas’s too-long fingers drummed on the tablecloth. Even Azrael seemed more present than usual.
Which, Ava reminded herself, they did. The soul bond humming between them wasn’t fake. The way Victor’s hand found hers under the table wasn’t performance.
But the partners didn’t know that yet.
Lilith arrived late, sweeping through the main doors in crimson silk that caught the chandelier light like fresh blood. She paused just long enough for every head to turn, every conversation to falter, before gliding to her seat at the partners’ table. Her nose was healed from yesterday’s dodgeball incident. Her pride clearly was not.
“She’s planning something,” Ava murmured, watching Lilith settle into her chair with the grace of a predator arranging itself for the hunt.
“She’s always planning something.” Victor’s hand found hers under the table. His thumb traced circles on her palm, and she felt his tension flow through the bond: not fear exactly, but careful watchfulness. The wariness of someone who’d survived centuries by never underestimating his enemies.
Dinner progressed with excruciating slowness. Five courses of excess: foie gras, lobster bisque, beef Wellington, each dish more elaborate than the last. While the partners observed every gesture, glance, and breath between them. Ava caught Beleth watching when Victor refilled her wine glass. Saw Azrael’s green eyes narrow when she leaned into Victor’s shoulder during a particularly tedious speech about quarterly earnings.
They were being evaluated. Measured. Weighed against some invisible standard that would determine whether their bond was real or fabricated.
The irony wasn’t lost on her. They’d started fake and become real, and now they had to prove the realness they’d never intended to have.
Dessert arrived: dark chocolate mousse with gold leaf, because apparently even dessert needed to remind everyone how expensive this weekend was.
Grimm finally stood, tapping his glass with one long finger. The crystal rang out clear and sharp, silencing the room.
“A soul bond,” he announced without preamble. “Unexpected.”
The room went silent. Even the junior associates at the back tables stopped their whispered conversations. The orchestra’s music faded to nothing.
