“I used your breach of contract as leverage. Manipulated you into an arrangement you never asked for.”
“To protect me. From Lilith. From the partners.” She reached out and pressed her hand over his mark, feeling it pulse warm beneath his shirt. “And you gave me a choice. Every step of the way. Even now, bond or no bond, if I wanted to walk away…”
“I wouldn’t stop you.” His voice cracked on the words, raw and honest in a way that hurt to hear. “It would break me, but I’d let you go.”
“Would Celeste have done the same?”
He didn’t answer. Didn’t need to.
“Also,” Ava added, letting a small smile curve her lips, “I’m pretty sure Celeste never made you watch reality TV.”
The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. “Television wasn’t invented yet.”
“Radio dramas, then. Whatever you had in 1923.”
“Jazz and bootleg whisky, mostly.”
“Sounds like fun, actually.”
The waves counted out seconds between them. Then:
“Lilith helped her.” The words came reluctantly, dragged out of somewhere deep. “Fed her information about the rituals.Stoked her obsession. She thought if Celeste pushed too hard, it would push me toward…” He trailed off.
“She’s going to try something similar with me.”
“Probably.” He pulled her against him, arms wrapping around her like he could shield her from everything by sheer proximity. “But you’re not Celeste. And I’m not the same demon I was a century ago.”
“No?”
“That demon didn’t own a television.”
“Or fifteen identical black suits.”
“Some of them are dark grey.”
She was laughing when he kissed her: soft and sweet, the desperation from earlier gentled into something tender. When they pulled apart, she stayed close, her forehead resting against his chin.
“We should go back,” he said. “Grimm gets vindictive when people skip his speeches.”
They returned to find the ballroom in controlled chaos.
Lilith stood in the center of the dance floor, addressing the partners with barely contained fury. Her crimson dress seemed to pulse in the candlelight, and her perfect composure had cracked enough to show something ugly underneath.
“…emotional manipulation and coercion cannot be the foundation of a recognized bond. The precedent alone…”
“The bond is valid,” Malphas said flatly. His too-long fingers were steepled beneath his chin, and his expression suggested profound boredom with the entire proceeding. “I sense it from here, as I’m certain you do. Real. Freely chosen. Your objection is noted, Lilith, but you have no standing in this matter.”
Lilith’s perfect face twisted. “You can’t be serious. After Prague…”
“Prague was a century ago,” Grimm interrupted. “And entirely different circumstances, as you well know. This bondbears none of the markers of coercion. The resonance is genuine.”
“The penalties for interfering with a recognized bond,” Beleth added, swaying slightly to music only he could hear, “as you know, are severe.”
Lilith saw Victor and Ava in the doorway.
Her mask slipped entirely. For one unguarded moment, something raw and tired flashed across her face: exhaustion. Bone-deep, centuries-old exhaustion from playing the same game and losing every time.
Then the ice returned, harder than before.
