LOGINLucian POV"I'm not going to marry anyone," she said, her voice shaking. "I know that's what you came for, so you can stop standing there and looking at me like that. I'm not going to sign anything, and I'm not going to be your wife.""I'm not asking for a marriage tonight," I said.She froze. "Then what are you asking for?""Nothing." I stopped a little bit away from her, keeping my hands at my sides. "I heard what happened and I came to see if you were all right, and I'll carry your bags to your car if that's what you want."She stared at me. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she didn't wipe it away. The lamp hummed quietly above us."I'm so tired of being managed," she whispered."Then I won't manage you."She took a couple of steps, grabbed my shirt, and pulled me down before I could even think. She kissed me hard and fiercely, her body shaking, and I held my breath.It wasn't a gentle kiss. She kissed me like she needed to prove she was still alive, grabbing my collar tightly and
Lucian POV"The board voted four to three," Theo said. "She's suspended as CEO, effective immediately."I stood at the window of my office with my back to him, watching the harbor lights shimmer in the rain. It was almost half past nine at night, the Tower had emptied hours ago, I hadn't eaten, and I had not heard a word from the one person I was waiting to hear from."On what grounds?" I asked."A wellness evaluation. Pryce and Hale filed the motion, and they used a proxy Darian says she signed." Theo set his tablet on my desk. "A clerk I know only sent me the court record twenty minutes ago, and there's more. A judge granted an injunction this morning, and starting at midnight she's barred from Aurevia House and the lab."My hand closed around the edge of the windowsill. "Barred from her own lab.""Her own company, her own building, and everything she wrote inside it." Theo's voice stayed flat, the way it did when he was reading something he didn't like. "Every formula she ever made
Elara POV"The green one." I closed my eyes and saw it, the cover soft as cloth from being carried in my back pocket. "I wrote it at the orphanage when I was fourteen. It has Odessa's lavender-and-oat balm in it, the way she made it, with my notes about why it worked.""And that's in the lab?" Margo frowned. "Wait, I thought we pulled your notebooks off the curb recently.""Those are my home notebooks, half-finished ideas and scribbles." I nodded at the box she had stacked by the wall. "The finished ones, every formula I ever signed off on, never left the lab, because Selene checks each batch against them.""So Darian doesn't have the real ones yet.""Not yet. They're on the top shelf, behind the jars of dried calendula." I wrote Green, age 14, Odessa's balm and underlined it twice. "If they lose that one, I lose the first thing I ever made.""Then it's number one." Margo scribbled on her own pad. "What's next?""The blue one with the broken spine. That's Dew Ritual, the first cleanse
Elara POV"I'm not saying anything yet. I'm just thinking."I took the card out and held it in the light. It was black, with gold lettering, and under the name there was a phone number written by hand. The offer stands, he had said, and I had told myself that I'd rather die than owe another man for my life.But Darian's world wasn't a normal courtroom or a business office. It was a fancy tower up on Thornwick Heights, filled with secret locked files and hidden money. And the only person who could help me get past those doors was the man whose name was printed on the card."You're not calling him," Margo said, watching my face."No." I slipped it back into my pocket. "Not yet."We rode down the elevator in silence and walked out into the parking lot as Margo searched her purse for her keys, a man in a gray raincoat stepped out from between two cars."Elara Rooke?" he asked.I stopped. "Who's asking?"He held out a thick envelope, and when I wouldn't take it, he shoved it straight into
Elara POV"Stand up straight," Margo whispered, tugging at the shoulder of the jacket I was wearing. "He'll smell weakness before he sees it.""He can't smell anything through that cologne," I said."Then let him look at you and see someone who isn't afraid."The suit was hers, a charcoal one she had bought for a bank meeting, and it hung a little loose on my frame. I had spent twenty minutes in her bathroom that morning layering concealer over the purple on my cheekbone, and then I had stood in front of the mirror and told myself it was only a meeting.We took the elevator up to the third floor of Aurevia House together. The boardroom doors stood open, and the long walnut table was already full of people who stopped talking the moment I walked in.I counted seven chairs. Margo took the one on my left, and Selene slid into the one beside her, her notebook open and her pen already moving. Old Mr. Tolliver, our first outside investor, gave me a small nod from the far end, and I nodded b
Lucian POV"I'll be brief, Mr. Draeven," Darian said, buttoning his jacket as he sat down. "I wouldn't bother you if it weren't important."Exactly at 8:00 PM, I leaned back in my chair at the very top of Onyx Tower and stayed totally quiet. I did it on purpose, because I knew that when it gets too quiet, people like Darian get nervous and start talking about whatever is scaring them."Go on," I said.He flashed his usual fake, big-toothed smile. "It's personal. My wife and I are getting a divorce. I wanted you to hear it from me first.""I'm sorry to hear that.""Thanks," he said, smoothing his pants. "The truth is, she hasn't been well. She's been confused and worried about money."Inside my chest, Vaelric moved. I felt him wake up whenever someone told a lie. I could smell it."What kind of episodes?" I asked, keeping a straight face."Two nights ago, she ran out into the street in the rain with no shoes," Darian said, putting on a fake sad look."When I tried to calm her down, she







