“You work for Lord Calvin.”
The statement hangs in the air—not a question. Selena says nothing at all, yet her silence speaks louder than any answer could. Her expression remains carefully composed, but Rose sees the slightest tightening of her jaw, the almost imperceptible flicker of her eyes. She knows.
Andrei keeps walking toward her, each step calm, deliberate, unhurried. He does not reach for a weapon. He does not shout. He simply walks forward as though he already holds every card in the game.
“You were ordered to bring Rose back,” Andrei says, his voice steady and sure. “Alive.”
A flicker crosses Selena’s face—barely there, but unmistakable. Confirmation.
“And if you fail…” Andrei’s voice drops, growing quieter, sharper, cutting through the night like a blade. “…he will punish you. Severely.”
Rose sees the change instantly. Andrei has struck a nerve. He is not guessing. He is not reading the situation—he is reading her. He already knows.
“I can see it,” Andrei says softly, his gaze never leaving hers. “The fear. The pain that waits for you if you return empty‑handed. The darkness you dread more than death itself.”
Selena’s mind betrays her. Images flash through her thoughts—sharp, vivid, impossible to hide from him. Agony. Silence. Endless punishment for failure. She fights to push him out, to seal her thoughts away behind walls of iron will, but it is too late. He has already seen everything he needs to know.
“You are not leaving here with her,” Andrei says, and there is no room for argument in his tone.
elena’s patience snaps.
Without warning, she vanishes.
Rose barely catches the blur of motion as Selena closes the distance—fast, impossibly fast, faster than the twins ever were, faster than any foe she has faced. But Andrei moves first. He does not draw a weapon of his own. His hand shoots out, snatching one of the daggers from Selena’s belt before she can even raise her arm. In one seamless, brutal motion—he twists it around and drives it deep into her shoulder.
Selena cries out, a sharp, pained sound that echoes across the empty road. She stumbles back, blood spilling dark and thick over her clothing. Rose stares, stunned, her breath catching in her throat. There had been no hesitation. No doubt. No wasted movement. Just one perfect, devastating strike, placed with absolute precision.
Selena’s face twists with fury. She slams both palms hard against Andrei’s chest. A shockwave blasts outward, throwing Rose back a step even where she stands. Andrei is lifted off his feet and hurled backward, sliding across the rough asphalt before crashing to a halt several meters away.
“Andrei!” Rose rushes forward, her heart hammering against her ribs.
He coughs once, a low, rough sound, then pushes himself up. He brushes dust from his jacket and straightens his collar as though he has merely stumbled on uneven ground. Rose freezes mid‑step, watching him, and a quiet realization settles heavy and cold in her chest.
This is not the first time.
The is not the first time that Lord Calvin’s people have come for her—and Andrei has appeared. Not the first time he has stepped between her and danger, asking nothing in return, expecting no gratitude, making no demands.
She does not understand it. Why him? Why always him? Why does he risk everything for someone who belongs to a rival family, someone he is supposed to stand against? And perhaps the most unsettling question of all—why does her own heart stop racing the moment he stands beside her? Why does she feel safer with him than she does even with her own brother?
Selena straightens slowly, breathing hard, her hand pressed tight against the hilt of the dagger in her shoulder. She glances upward, toward the moon hanging low and pale above the treetops, then back to them. Her expression has shifted from fury to something else—calm. Almost satisfied.
“My lord expected this,” she says, her voice steady despite the pain.
Rose blinks, frowning. “Expected what?”
“Your refusal. Your defiance. And that you would not come willingly.” Selena’s gaze locks onto Rose, and her eyes hold no anger, no malice. Only certainty. “Lord Calvin sent me to tell you: the war has already begun.”
Silence falls. Heavy, cold, and undeniable. Rose’s stomach tightens, a knot forming deep in her gut. She believes her. Every word. She feels it in her bones—the truth of it.
Selena takes one step back, then another. Shadows gather around her, clinging to her cloak, swallowing her form until she is barely distinguishable from the darkness itself. “He also sends one final warning. Choose your allies carefully, Rose Zhao. Not everyone who stands beside you means you well.”
Before Rose can ask what she means—before she can demand an explanation—Selena is gone. No sound of footsteps. No fading scent. No trace that she ever stood there at all. Only the cold wind sweeping across the road, and the memory of her warning hanging in the air.
Andrei walks slowly back to the car, wincing slightly as he moves, and opens the passenger door. He does not look directly at Rose, but his voice is gentle, careful, as if he fears startling her further. “Come on. We need to get her somewhere safe.”
Rose glances one last time at the empty stretch of road, at the spot where Selena stood only moments before, then climbs into the car. The nurse sits huddled in the back seat, pale and trembling, her eyes wide and unfocused. No one speaks as Andrei pulls away, the car gliding silently through the sleeping city.
None of them notice—far back, in the deep shadows beneath an overpass, hidden by spells and darkness—a pair of crimson eyes watches them go.
Selena leans against the cold concrete, pressing her hand tighter around the dagger lodged deep in her shoulder. Pain lances through her with every breath, sharp and hot, yet she smiles. It is not a smile of victory. It is the smile of someone who has found exactly what she came to find.
He is strong, she thinks, running a finger along the hilt of the blade. Far stronger than the reports said. And he protects her. Fiercely. Without hesitation.
She pushes herself away from the wall, vanishing into the night. My lord will be very pleased.
The drive passes in quiet. Streetlights slide past one by one, casting brief, shifting streaks of gold and shadow across the interior. No one speaks. The silence is not heavy with tension—it is thick with thought, with questions too dangerous to voice aloud.
Rose leans her head against the cool glass, watching the city blur past, replaying every moment in her mind. Selena’s terrifying speed. The certainty in her eyes. Her parting warning. And above all else—Andrei. He did not merely resist the mind manipulation. He walked right into Selena’s mind and turned her own power against her. He saw her fears, her orders, her master—everything she tried to hide. He stripped her bare without lifting a hand. A power she did not know he possessed. And it is frightening. Frightening to think someone could know your every thought before you speak it. Could see your secrets as clearly as one sees stars in the sky.
Rose glances at him, at his profile lit faintly by the dash lights, his expression calm and utterly unreadable. She knows so little about him. His family, his abilities, his true intentions—all of it remains hidden in shadow.
He is dangerous, a quiet voice whispers in her chest, cold and clear.
But then she remembers—he stood between her and that woman. He took the blow meant for her. He drove the dagger home to protect her. He did not have to. He chose to.
Rose closes her eyes, letting out a long, quiet breath.
At least for now, she thinks, her gaze drifting back to the window, watching the lights pass in the dark. At least tonight… he is on my side.
She hopes.