~ElenaKatherine sat across from me, calm as ever, her eyes steady, her tone sharp enough to slice through the silence.“You think death is the end of control,” she’d said. “But sometimes, it’s only the beginning.”I let her words hang, rolling them in my mind like dice. Dangerous. But deliciously bold.I leaned back in my chair, my lips curling into a slow smile. “Valuable how, Katherine? Words are cheap. Tell me something worth the weight of your life.”She didn’t blink. Didn’t tremble. Instead, she drew in a measured breath and straightened in her seat, folding her hands neatly on the table between us.“You’ve already proven you can kill,” she said. “But you haven’t proven you can rule without tearing everything apart in the process. Keep me alive, and I’ll give you something Luna never could.”Her voice lowered, softer but lethal. “Loyalty. Not love, not friendship. Pure loyalty. I’ll bind myself to your side if it means I keep breathing.”I studied her. Every angle of her face, e
Her fingers were trembling where they clung to my shoulder, but it wasn’t fear, it was hunger. I kissed down her chest, then back up to her throat, tasting her pulse as it pounded against my lips.“Thorne…” she whispered again, breathless, but still she didn’t stop me.That was all the permission I needed. My hand slid down over the flat of her stomach, undoing the button of her jeans with a roughness I couldn’t contain. She gasped as I tugged them down her hips, dragging her underwear with them until she was bare beneath me.The sight of her stole the air from my lungs. Beautiful. I crushed my mouth to hers again, devouring her moan as my fingers slipped between her legs. She was already wet, the feel of her nearly undid me. I teased her, stroking slowly, deliberately, until her hips bucked against my hand.She broke the kiss, head falling back into the pillow, lips parted in a cry.“Don’t stop,” she begged.And I didn’t. I slid two fingers inside her, curling them until her walls
~ThorneI eased the door shut behind me, careful not to let it creak, and let my eyes adjust to the dimness of the room. Isla, no, Luna sat at the edge of the bed, her fingers brushing through Liam’s hair as he slept curled against the pillow.She pressed one finger to her lips the moment I stepped closer. “Hush,” she whispered, her eyes sharp but soft at the same time. “He’s asleep.”I nodded, lowering my voice. “Isla…” The name slipped out of habit, but her gaze cut across the room, silencing me sharper than a blade.“Luna,” she corrected firmly, though her tone wasn’t biting. “Just call me Luna.”I studied her for a moment, the way the shadows moved across her face. Tired. Strong. Guarded. I swallowed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Are you still angry?”Her hand lingered on Liam’s shoulder, almost absentminded, before she finally turned her eyes back to me. “No,” she said simply. No bitterness. No venom.
~ElenaKatherine’s mouth was quivering, not quite a smile. She let the silence sit for a second, like a challenge, then reached into the clutch at her side and produced a thin envelope. The move was small, practiced, one of those gestures that means you’ve rehearsed surrender and leverage a dozen different ways.“You want something worth my life?” she said, folding her fingers around the paper as if it were delicate glass. “Fine. I’ll give you three things, Elena. Three reasons to keep me breathing.” She slid the envelope across the table. The paper made a small, clean sound against the wood.I didn’t reach for it. I watched her instead, watching the way her hands kept steady. People get nervous when their value is in a little packet. They either crumble, or they become lethal. Katherine was the latter.“First,” she said, “I know every route, every safe house, every smuggler and broker that keeps the border towns fed and armed. I can strangle or feed. I can make your enemies starve
The cab they had arranged for me waited at the curb, engine purring softly. I slipped inside, the door closing with a muted thud, and let the city blur past the window as the driver carried me to the destination they had chosen.When we stopped, it was in front of a quiet restaurant tucked between taller, noisier buildings. A place that seemed too discreet, too carefully chosen to be accidental. Inside, a host led me through the low lit dining room and toward a small corner table, slightly apart from the others, as though it had been waiting for me all along.I settled into the seat, the air faintly scented with wine and roasted herbs, my nerves pricking with every second that passed.Then she appeared.Katherine slid gracefully into the chair beside me, her expression unreadable, her perfume lingering like a secret between us. I glanced around the room, searching for familiar faces, but Freya, Lorenzo, Lucien, and Rosy were nowhere to be found. Only Katherine had come.And that, s
~ElenaPeople have a way of turning up early when they’re afraid.Cowardice breeds punctuality, desperation arrives in neat rows, buttoned cuffs and rehearsed apologies. Katherine’s lot will be like that, first to send a deputy, too eager to bargain. They think negotiation is a ladder they can climb. They don’t know the ground they’re stepping on.I sit at the cafe near Gate 14 and watch the bodies move. Not the security theater, the people. The ones who assume they’re still in control. A businessman argues into his phone about a flight delay, a teenager tries to upload a story of her overpriced latte, a tired pilot sifts through a magazine with the ruthless efficiency of a man who has seen the sky chew up men. All of it is noise. I like noise when it reminds me I am the pause in the middle of it.My people are in familiar positions, Sera and Marius two seats over, talking low, the pilots I vetted occupy a booth that gives them a clear line to the tarmac, the broker I paid for sits