She needed to tell him everything.
****
Kol wanted to burnthe world down.
The urge hit him fast and hard, a violent, visceral thing that started in his chest and spread outward, tightening his fists and sharpening his vision until everything narrowed to one brutal truth: someone had hurt her, and there would never be enough blood to make that right.
It wasn’t an abstract rage.It had weight.Shape.Faces.
He crushed the instinct down with the same discipline that had kept him alive this long.
Rage could wait.
Eliza couldn’t.
She was shaking in his arms, body locked in a memory that didn’t care about time or safety or logic.Her breaths came fast and shallow, lungs refusing to fill properly, fingers clawing at his shirt as if anchoring herself to the present was the only thing keeping her from being dragged under again.
“I’ve got you,” he said quietly, again and again, voice low and steady.“You’re here.You’re safe.I’m not going anywhere.”
He kept his movements deliberate.Predictable.One hand firm at her back, grounding rather than restraining.The other braced lightly against her shoulder so she could feel exactly where he was—solid, real, unmoving.
Her body fought him at first, jerking and twisting as muscle memory screamed danger.He absorbed it without flinching, letting her burn through the panic while he stayed exactly where he was.
Minutes stretched.
Slowly, the tremors eased.Her breathing stuttered, then lengthened.The rigid line of her spine softened, and she sagged against him, the fight draining out of her all at once.Exhaustion replaced it, bone-deep and absolute.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered finally, voice scraped raw.
The words hit him harder than the thrashing had.
“No,” he said immediately.“Don’t be.You have nothing to apologize for.”
She pulled back just enough to look at him, eyes glassy but present now, awareness creeping back in layers.“Thank you.”
The gratitude in it nearly broke him.
“It will be fine,” he told her, not as a promise of ease or simplicity, but as a statement of inevitability.“You’re not alone anymore.”
She studied his face as if weighing that truth, then nodded once.“There are things I need to tell you.Things your Covenant needs to know.I don’t want to be a victim anymore.”
Something fierce and protective unfurled in his chest.
“Then you won’t be,” he said without hesitation.
He stayed with her until her breathing fully settled, until her hands unclenched and her eyes stopped darting at every sound.Only then did he help her to the couch, setting a blanket around her shoulders before stepping away to give her space.
An hour later, the office looked different.
The harsh overhead lights remained dark, replaced by low, indirect illumination that softened the edges of the room.The servers hummed quietly behind the walls, a steady, familiar sound that grounded him.Eliza sat at the desk in front of the main screen, a mug of tea cradled in both hands.The oversized sleeves swallowed her wrists, but her posture was straighter now—tired, but resolved.
Kol stood just behind her, close enough for her to know that he was there, not looming.Protective without crowding.
The secure line chimed once, then Chicago came into view.
Elias first, calm and assessing as always, eyes sharp even through the screen.Mateo, beside him, was already pulling secondary data streams onto a side monitor.Rafael leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, gaze intent.Dominic’s image flickered in next, posture relaxed but alert.Luca appeared last, Mara just behind his shoulder, her presence as constant and unmissable as Kol had warned.
“This is Eliza Reed,” Nikolai said evenly.