The room was too quiet.
Too still.
I could feel the squeeze of Lucian’s ultimatum clenching around my ribs like iron chains, suffocating.
“Oppose me… and when Gabriel comes, I’ll have no choice but to return you to him in pieces.”
“Or… you can join me, and we can burn him first.”
The words remained lodged in my skin like venom, poisoning the air between us.
Lucian was watching me.
Not humorously, not condescendingly.
But with patience.
Like he already had some inkling how this would turn out.
I made myself breathe, made myself keep my hands steady when my entire world seemed to break underneath me.
I had been denying it, battling it, for the past few days — but the truth had been staring me in the face the whole time.
Gabriel wasn’t coming for me.
He was coming to kill me.
I
