Seraphina's POV
Ryan had figured it out faster than I expected. He'd put his hand around my throat — the first time he'd ever looked at me with that kind of cold fury — and for a moment I genuinely couldn't breathe.
But in the end, the rib had saved me. The debt he believed he owed had softened his hands and his voice, and I had walked out of that confrontation intact.
Ella was smug in the back of my mind. 'We won. He chose us.'
"He still thinks about her," I said flatly.
"Then we make her disappear permanently—"
"No." I cut Ella off before she could finish.
"Ryan said this was the last time. If I move against Elara again, he'll know it was me." I looked at the torn fragments of the cufflink design scattered across my blanket, and smiled at them. "But I don't have to be the one who
