Gunfire echoed through the walls.
Screams.
Shattered glass.
Sirens in the distance.
But Amethyst's world had gone still — balanced on a knife's edge between two lives.
One behind her: Elias, holding out his hand like a lifeline to the past. Safety. Escape. The version of herself who still believed in stars and promises whispered in the dark.
The other in front of her: Luciano, bleeding from his shoulder, fury burning in his eyes… but something else, too. Something silent. Afraid.
Not for himself.
For her.
"Please," Elias whispered again, gripping her wrist. "You don't owe him anything."
And for a moment, she wanted to believe that. Wanted to be the girl he remembered — innocent, sweet, worth saving.
But that girl was gone.
Amethyst looked at Luciano — at the violence behind him, the danger wrapped around him like a crown — and stepped toward him.
"I'm not leaving."
Elias's face cracked. "What?"
"I made my choice the moment I didn't say no."
Luciano's jaw clenched, blood trickling from a cut on his lip. But he didn't speak. He didn't move. He just watched her.
Elias grabbed her arm harder. "Amethyst—"
"I'm not yours," she said, louder now. "Not anymore."
The words cut through the chaos like a gunshot.
Elias stared at her like she'd betrayed everything they used to be. Maybe she had.
But she didn't look back.
Luciano reached out, gently pulling her behind him as his men closed in. Elias vanished into the smoke and shouting, retreating into the shadows he'd tried to rescue her from.
Silence, then.
Then—
"Why?" Luciano asked, breath ragged. "Why stay?"
Amethyst looked up at him — blood on his suit, fury in his posture — and lifted her chin.
"Because you're not the only one who's dangerous now."
He stared at her, stunned.
And then, for the first time, he smiled.
Not cruelly. Not smugly.
But like she'd just become his greatest weapon.
And maybe… his greatest weakness.
"Then marry me," he said, voice low and wrecked. "Tonight."
Her heart stopped.
"You're insane."
"I'm in love."
She blinked, stunned silent.
"I'll burn this whole empire down for you, Amethyst," he said. "Or I'll build you a throne from its ashes. Just tell me which."
Her breath caught in her throat.
Outside, the world burned.
But in this moment — standing in broken glass, dressed in silk, heart racing with something that might be power or love or both — she wasn't a victim.
She was the Queen.
And she didn't say no.