Page 113 of Silk and Sirens

“Aeris, please⁠—”

“Don’t.” I cut him off cleanly, his mouth opening then closing again, as if still grasping for an excuse. “You’re going to keep going,” I continued. “You’re going to do exactly what you’ve been doing. You’re going to answer her when she calls. You’re going to feed her only things I give you.”

“Aeris …”

“But if you make a single move that puts me or anyone I care about in danger,” I added softly, “I won’t need Selene to cut out your tongue.”

His face went pale.

“Do you understand me?”

He nodded, just a single jerk.

“Good.”

I turned away before I did something reckless, like kill him. As satisfying as it would’ve been, it would only create more problems. Selene needed to believe she still had a leash around my throat, that I remained blissfully unaware of the spy she’d planted beside me.

For now, Albus was more useful alive.

Pulling the door open, I stepped into the corridor. Laughter drifted from somewhere to my left almost immediately, warm and careless, before it was followed seconds later by a low, breathless moan.

I hadn’t planned to step onto the stage tonight, but the expectant hush that fell over the room as I climbed the short stairs was almost addictive.

Because up here, I had a voice.

The spotlight felt warm against my skin, my fingers curling around the microphone. There was no music or backing track. It was just me, and my voice carried the weight of everything I couldn’t say out loud from the very first note. Every fractured piece of me.

It was raw and unfiltered, stripped of every mask I wore.

The song wasn’t pretty or seductive. It was about being broken. It was about being furious and fighting until my last breath. It was cathartic and everything I needed it to be in that moment.

When I finally let the last note fade, the silence that followed was deafening. I opened my eyes to a standing ovation, but I barely heard it. Not when I found him almost instantly, my very own personal magnet.

Caden stood near the back, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching me like I was the only person that existed.

For one dangerous, idiotic second, a thrill shot through me, the forbidden rush of having him here, in my domain, watching me bare myself on stage.

Then the feeling soured, because Caden Ackworth could never be mine.

Chapter 46

Caden

I followed Aeris through Atlantis at a distance, the sounds of moans, whimpers, and quiet desperation wrapping around us like a maelstrom of confidence, sex, and carefully curated sin.

She’d been fucking breathtaking on stage, standing alone beneath the golden lights with nothing but her voice to hold an entire room captive. I’d almost crossed the distance between us and sat at the piano, just to give her a melody haunting enough to match the ache in her words.

But I didn’t, not when there were so many eyes.

“Let it all burn,” Dad had whispered to me as soon as Selene had pulled up outside Vivienne’s. “I’d give up every penny before you marry that bitch.”

Which was convenient, because I never had any intentions of marrying Vivienne Blackwater.

“In here,” Aeris whispered, waiting until there were no eyes on us before pulling me into one of the unoccupied rooms. “It’s private. No one can overhear.”

She immediately locked it behind me and then placed her palm flat on the screen until it glowed green.

“What happened to your office?”