“The first lash split skin across my back. I screamed again. Then another. And another.” My jaw clenched. “They wanted me broken before they spoke. They wanted fear.”
I laughed bitterly. “They didn’t get it.”
I lifted my gaze to hers again. “I demanded to know who they were. Swore they’d regret it. Swore I’d hunt them down. They laughed. Beat me harder. Blood filled my mouth—copper, salt. I remember thinking I was drowning in it.”
I drew a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“Then one of them leaned close. I could smell cheap cigarettes on his breath. Sweat. Oil.” My hands shook now, though I didn’t stop them. “He said,‘We have your woman.’”
Her shoulders stiffened.
“But then he smiled,” I continued quietly. “And said,‘We also have Seraphina.’”
Silence pressed in around us.
“They dragged me through corridors. Past doors I couldn’t see. I could hear voices. Movement.” My voice lowered. “And then they told me the rules.”
I swallowed hard.
“They said they were taking me to both of you. That I would choose.” My chest constricted. “Choose who walked out alive.”
Her eyes didn’t blink.
“Choose Seraphina,” I said hoarsely, “and they’d let her go. Choose you...” My voice faltered despite everything. “...and they’d let us walk.”
I shook my head once, slow, devastated.
“Then they told me the truth.” My gaze never left hers now. “That the moment we stepped outside, they’d put bullets in our heads. Both of us. Execution-style. Clean.”
I let the words settle between us—heavy, suffocating.
“That,” I said quietly, “was the choice they gave me.”
I held her gaze and didn’t look away. I didn’t deserve mercy, but I owed her the truth—every brutal inch of it.
“They knew about the blood contract in Lake Como,” I said quietly. “The one that binds me to the council. Killing mewould’ve triggered retaliation—war on a scale even they couldn’t contain. They wouldn’t have touched me. Not permanently.”
My throat tightened.
“But you?” I continued. “You had no such protection. No political weight. No consequences tied to your death.”
My voice dropped. “They would’ve killed you without hesitation. Slowly, if it amused them. I knew it. Not logically—instinctively. In my bones.”
I clenched my hands until my palms burned.
“So when they dragged me into that room,” I said, “when they forced me to look at you both—chained, bruised, terrified—I made a choice I will regret for the rest of my life.”
Her breath hitched once. She didn’t interrupt.
“I chose Seraphina,” I said. “Not because I loved her. Not because I wanted her. Not because she mattered more.” I shook my head. “I chose her because I believed—God help me—I believed it was the only way to keep you alive.”
Silence thickened the air.
“I thought,” I went on hoarsely, “that if I chose her, they’d let you go. That you’d walk out alive. That I could find you later. Protect you later. That I could live with your hatred if it meant you were breathing.”
Her jaw tightened, muscle jumping once.
Her voice, when it came, was quiet—too controlled. Brittle as glass stretched to its limit.