Asher
The air outside her chamber was heavier than the silence I left behind.
I didn't slam the door. I closed it slowly, deliberately, because if I'd allowed my anger to dictate my movements, the sound would have carried through the hall. She didn't need to see me that way not yet. She was exhausted, wounded, fighting ghosts only she knew. My storm wasn't hers to carry.
But god, it burned.
God is using her to punish me.
The way she brushed me off with that cold flick of her voice, as if I were nothing but another soldier waiting for her command. As if she couldn't see I was the one bleeding every time she kept me at a distance.
I forced myself down the corridor, jaw tight, breath uneven. The manor was quieter than it had any right to be, too many shadows stretching along the walls. My thoughts twisted, coiling in places I didn't want to follow.
That's when I heard it a step behind me, unhurried, measured.
"Leaving so soon?"
Cassian.
I turned, slow and sharp. He leaned against one of the stone pillars like he'd been waiting for me, arms folded, expression carved from something unreadable. His dark coat caught the dim lantern light, the edge of his mouth curled with a calmness that unsettled me more than if he'd come at me with a blade.
"What do you want?" My voice came out low, rough, already edged with warning.
His gaze flicked past me to the closed door. "To talk."
I almost laughed. "Talk? You've had her ear for years. What could you possibly have to say to me?"
His jaw worked once, but his voice low. "That I'm not your rival."
That stopped me. For a heartbeat, my fury faltered, replaced by confusion.
He stepped forward, not close enough to invade, but enough that I could see the exhaustion behind his composure. "You think I'm standing between you and her. I'm not. I never have been."
I clenched my fists, nails biting into my palms. "You expect me to believe that?"
Cassian tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle. "Believe what you will. But she's not mine, Asher. She's… something else to me. A promise I made a long time ago. My loyalty is hers, yes. But not my heart."
The words should have soothed me. They didn't. They ignited something raw, because part of me wanted to hear him admit he wanted her. That would've been simple. I could fight that.
Instead, he disarmed me with honesty.
"Then why stand so close to her?" I demanded. My voice echoed too loud in the hall, sharp enough to cut through the quiet. "Why does she let you touch what isn't yours?"
Cassian's expression hardened. "Because she trusts me. Because when she's bleeding, someone has to hold the knife steady while it's pulled from her skin. And until you learn to temper your fire, she'll keep me close. Not for love, Asher. For survival."
I stepped into his space before I realized it, my shadow overlapping his. "I don't need lessons from you."
"No," he said, his voice cool as steel. "But you need to hear this: I won't fight you for her. Not now, not ever. My role is to shield her, nothing more."
Something inside me snapped then not with rage, but with conviction.
"Good," I said, my voice dropping into something darker, more dangerous than anger. "Because she's mine. She doesn't know it yet, but she will. I'll tear the world apart before I let anyone touch her. If I have to become a monster to keep her safe, I'll wear the mask gladly."
Cassian's eyes flickered with something not fear, not judgment, but of recognition. For the first time, he didn't look like her untouchable guardian. He looked like a man weighing the truth of my words.
"And what if she refuses you?" he asked quietly.
"Then I'll protect her anyway," I said. My throat felt raw, my chest aching with the vow that left me. "Even if she hates me for it. Even if she never looks at me the way I need her to. I'll keep her alive, no matter the cost. That's not a choice. It's a vow."
The silence between us thickened. My pulse thundered in my ears, but Cassian didn't move. Didn't blink.
Finally, he gave a small, humorless smile. "You really are terrifying."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
He nodded once, slowly. "Then maybe we're not enemies after all."
I studied him, suspicion curling low in my gut. "What are you saying?"
"That I can work with monsters, if it means keeping her alive," he said. "And you, Asher King, are the kind of monster she'll need in the days ahead."
For the first time, I heard the faint crack in his armor. A sliver of trust he hadn't shown me before.
I exhaled slowly, some of the tension bleeding from my shoulders. "Then hear this. Adrian is moving pieces none of you see yet. He's planning something bigger than we imagined. And when it breaks, it won't just be her blood he's after. It'll be all of us."
Cassian's gaze sharpened. "What do you know?"
"Enough," I said. "Enough to know you'll need to act. To lie. To bleed in ways that don't make sense until the trap is set and the stage id ready. You're good at masks, Cassian. You'll need them."
A faint smirk tugged at his lips, though his eyes stayed cold. "You're asking me to play the traitor."
"I'm asking you to play whatever role keeps her alive."
For the first time tonight, the two of us stood on the same ground. Not as friends. Not even as allies. But as men who understood one thing clearly the woman in that room was worth every shadow we'd have to step into.
Cassian extended a hand. Not warm, not brotherly. Just a pact sealed in necessity.
I stared at it for a moment before clasping it, my grip firm, unyielding.
"Then we do this," he said.
"We do this," I echoed.
And for the first time, the silence between us wasn't filled with knives. It was filled with the weight of war.
The handshake lasted only a second, but it carried more weight than any oath spoken aloud. When we released, the air shifted as though the walls themselves leaned in to listen.
Cassian's expression hardened again, that brief flicker of honesty tucked neatly behind his mask. "Tell me what you know about Adrian."
I started walking, forcing him to follow. Standing still made me feel trapped, and if there was one thing I wouldn't allow, it was giving him the illusion of control. My boots echoed against the stone floor, sharp against the silence.
"He's testing the waters," I said finally. "Planting whispers, sowing doubt in the weaker families. He's painting her as a threat before she can prove herself as their salvation. That's Adrian's talent he turns fear into loyalty."
Cassian's brow furrowed. "And you're certain?"
I glanced at him, sharp. "I don't deal in uncertainty Cassian."
"And you know this how?" Cassian asked with disbelief in his eyes
"I have people but know this i will never hurt Rose" i seem to have gained his trust a little and that was enough
"Then what's his endgame?" he asked.
My jaw tightened. The truth tasted bitter even on my tongue. "He'll declare her an enemy. Strip her of allies. Hunt her until she has nowhere left to run. And when she's cornered, he'll make an example of her. Not just to break her but to remind the rest of us what happens when someone rises too high."
Cassian was silent for a long moment, his steps echoing beside mine. "You make it sound inevitable."
"It is," I said, my voice flat. "Unless we make the first move."
He stopped walking, forcing me to halt as well. His eyes locked onto mine, sharp enough to cut. "And what move do you suggest?"
The corner of my mouth lifted into something between a smile and a snarl. "Deception. If Adrian wants a spectacle, we'll give him one. But it won't be hers."
Cassian's gaze narrowed. "You mean mine."
I didn't answer at first. I let the silence stretch, the implication sink into his bones.
Finally, I said, "You've always been her shield. People expect you to fall for her, to die for her. Let them believe it. Let Adrian think he's cut off her strongest arm. Let him believe she's weaker without you. And while he's basking in his victory, we'll tear him apart from the shadows."
Cassian's smirk was sharp, humorless. "You'd have me play the corpse."
"You'd be good at it," I said dryly. "Loyal, tragic, noble. The kind of death that makes the families look twice at her. It'll break their sympathy wide open. And Adrian will choke on his own celebration."
He studied me, quiet, weighing every word. "And if Rose doesn't forgive you?"
"She doesn't need to," I said without hesitation. "She just needs to live."
For the first time, I saw something flicker in his eyes respect, maybe, or something darker. He gave a low hum, a sound that carried amusement but no warmth. "You're dangerous, Asher."
I leaned closer, my voice dropping into steel. "No. I'm inevitable."
We moved further down the hall, away from her chamber, where the shadows grew thicker and the candles burned low. I let the silence linger, but inside my chest, a storm was tearing through me.
Because I meant every word.
I would break the world to keep her safe.
Even if she hated me. Even if she never touched me again.
The thought clawed at me. I'd felt her nearness tonight, the warmth of her hand in mine, the brush of her breath when she let herself falter for just a heartbeat. And then she'd shoved me away again, hiding behind her walls.
She didn't understand not yet that I wasn't going anywhere.
Cassian's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "You'd risk everything her trust, her loyalty for this plan?"
I turned my head, meeting his gaze with fire. "I'd risk everything for her life. There's nothing else worth keeping."
He studied me for a moment, then nodded once, as though he'd finally seen me clearly.
"You know," he said quietly, "you remind me of her."
I stiffened. "Explain."
"Both of you would burn the world to protect what's yours," he said simply. "The only difference is she doesn't know she belongs to you yet."
The words struck something deep, something raw. I didn't answer, because admitting how true they were would strip me bare.
Instead, I said, "Then help me make sure she lives long enough to realize it."
Cassian's lips curved into a faint, dangerous smile. "Very well. Tell me everything you need from me."
And so I did.
I told him about the whispers I'd intercepted, the families already bending toward Adrian's influence. I told him of the men Adrian had placed in the courts, the spies who moved like shadows among the servants. I told him of the timing how the declaration would come soon, not in months, but days.
Cassian listened, silent, his mind working behind his unreadable eyes. When I finally finished, he exhaled slowly.
"Then it's decided," he said. "I'll play the part. I'll give Adrian his victory. And when he thinks he's struck the final blow…" He glanced at me, his smirk sharp as a blade. "You'll already be at his throat."
I inclined my head, satisfaction coiling through me. "Then we understand each other."
He extended his hand again, sealing the pact.
This time, when I took it, I knew the world would shift.
Because in that moment, two men who had no business standing on the same side chose to weave their shadows together.
Not for loyalty. Not for friendship.
But for her.
Always for her.
The corridors felt emptier when Cassian left, though I knew the silence was only an illusion. The walls here had ears, and Adrian had a way of turning whispers into daggers. Still, for the first time in days, I felt something like control slide into my veins.
A plan. A pact.
It wasn't peace, peace wasn't for men like me but it was direction. And direction was a weapon.
I walked slowly back through the manor, every step deliberate. Guards dipped their heads, servants shrank against the walls, but none of them mattered. My mind wasn't on them. It was on the war we had just agreed to fight and the woman who was unknowingly at the center of it.
Rose.
Her name moved through my thoughts like fire licking dry wood, unstoppable, consuming. Every choice I made tonight had her shadow wrapped around it. Every word I'd spoken to Cassian had been for her. But if she ever found out what I was weaving behind her back, she'd cut me down without hesitation.
And maybe she'd be right to.
I reached my rooms but didn't go inside. Instead, I turned down another hall, one lit only by the faint glow of a single lantern. The air here was colder, sharper. A place for secrets.
That's where the messenger found me.
A boy no older than sixteen, face smudged with soot, hands trembling as he clutched a folded slip of parchment. "For you," he stammered, voice breaking.
I took it without a word.
He bolted before I even looked down.
The seal was black wax, unmarked but unmistakable. Adrian.
My chest tightened. I broke it open.
One line. That was all.
"Pieces fall easiest when they believe they are whole."
No signature. No flourish. Just the reminder that he was already moving his pieces while the rest of us were still deciding which board to play on.
I folded the note, slipped it into my pocket, and kept walking. My jaw ached from the grind of my teeth.
Cassian thought he understood what was coming. But Adrian had already set the noose; we were just pretending it wasn't around our throats yet.
And Rose, God, she had no idea.
By the time I reached her chamber door, the storm in my chest was violent enough to choke me. I didn't knock. I didn't dare wake her. Instead, I leaned against the frame, letting the silence of her room seep through the wood and into me.
She was asleep. I could almost feel it. The hush of her breath, the warmth that bled faintly into the hall as though her presence itself fought back the cold.
I pressed my palm to the door. Just once.
If she knew the things I was willing to do for her, she'd never let me close again. But I couldn't stop.
Not when Adrian was circling. Not when the world itself seemed to lean toward tearing her apart.
I closed my eyes, letting the truth settle like a brand against my skin.
I would save her.
Not as a knight. Not as a lover. Not as a man she could forgive.
But as Asher King — the monster who knew how to kill monsters.
If she hated me, so be it. If she turned her blade on me when it was all over, I'd welcome it.
Because she'd still be breathing.
And that was enough.
I pulled back from the door, forcing myself to walk away before the urge to open it won. The hall swallowed me in shadow, my boots whispering against stone, my hands curling into fists.
Behind me, she slept untouched by the war already clawing at her name.
Ahead, Adrian moved in silence, tightening his grip.
And between them stood me, inevitable as the ruin I was about to unleash.