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“The heir offers a gift. The entity accepts. But the gift must be witnessed. The gift must be sealed. The gift must be proven.”

“Proven how?”

Gesturing toward the iron frame, the Entity continued. “The heir will take the altar. The heir will accept the threads. The heir will allow the witnesses to claim her body as proof that the gift is real.”

I looked at the frame, at the threads, at the bloodstains carved into the iron, I understood what the Entity was asking.

“You want me to let them fuck me. On that thing. While you watch.”

“I want you to prove that your gift is freely given. That your body is offered without coercion. That your desire is witnessed and recorded as evidence that the contract is valid.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Then Dahlia remains bound. The contract continues. And you leave this chamber knowing you could have saved her but chose not to.”

Barely a whisper, Dahlia’s voice reached me. “Zinnia, don’t. It’s a trap. The moment you agree, the Entity will⁠—”

“I know.” Meeting her gaze, I let her see the truth. “But I’m not agreeing to the Entity’s terms. I’m agreeing to mine.”

Turning back to the Entity, I kept my voice steady. “I’ll take the altar. I’ll accept the threads. I’ll let them witness whatever they want. But I’m choosing who touches me. I’m choosing how. And I’m choosing when to stop. Those are my terms. Take them or let Dahlia go.”

The Entity’s smile widened. “The heir negotiates. The heir demands control. The heir believes she can dictate the terms of her own surrender.”

“I’m not surrendering. I’m offering. There’s a huge fucking difference.”

“We shall see.”

Beginning to glow, the black threads hanging from the iron frame intensified, and the membrane walls pulled back further, revealing an audience I hadn’t seen before.

Not the porcelain-masked guests from the main stage. Not the preserved bodies suspended in fluid. But something older, darker, hungrier: shadows with eyes, shapes that moved like smoke, the accumulated appetite of every person who’d ever watched someone else’s suffering and felt their pulse quicken.

The original audience. The thing Evangeline had given form when she turned her father’s private cruelty into public spectacle.

And they were waiting.

“The witnesses are ready,” the Entity said. “The altar is prepared. The heir will prove her gift is real.”

Looking at Malachi, Rook, and Khaos, I saw the same understanding in their eyes.

This wasn’t just about me. This was about all of us. The Entity wanted to turn our desire, our jealousy, our competing claims into a binding hierarchy it could own. It wanted to prove that even freely given gifts could be collected if the witnesses were hungry enough.

But I had a different plan.

“Let’s give them a show.”

I walked toward the iron frame, and the black threads reached for me before I even touched the altar, wrapping around my wrists and pulling me upward until I was suspended horizontally, my body stretched across the bloodstained surface. The threads tightened, cutting into my skin, and I felt the Entity’s attention settle over me like a weight.

The torn white dress from the stage ritual clung to my body, soaked in sweat, blood, and black fluid. The threads began to tear it away, not gently, but with deliberate cruelty, exposing my skin to the cold air and the watching shadows.

Malachi crossed the space between us in three long strides, his hands finding my hips, his gray eyes locked onto mine through the copper Devil mask. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.”

He tore away the last of my dress, not gently or carefully but with the same brutal efficiency he’d used in every other encounter. The fabric gave way, exposing my skin to the cold air and the watching shadows, and I felt the Entity’s hunger sharpen.

Rook approached from the other side, his massive frame blocking out the pink light. The distressed-brown Hound mask made his expression unreadable, but his scarred hands were steady as they found my thighs and forced them apart.

“You want witnesses?” he said, his voice rough and muffled by the mask. “Then they’re going to see exactly what happens when you offer yourself to predators.”