Rose POV
The chamber was a storm.
Voices cracked against marble walls, fists struck the table, accusations rose like smoke from a battlefield. The air was so thick with rage and ambition that breathing felt like dragging knives into my lungs.
This was supposed to be the council. A place of order, of judgment, of alliances woven and unmade. But tonight it was a pit of wolves, every one of them baring their fangs at me.
I sat at the head of the long table, unbent, black silk coiled like armor around my frame. I didn't blink. I didn't tremble. I didn't show them the fire simmering in my veins, threatening to scorch everything in reach.
Because if I burned too soon, I would give them exactly what they wanted proof that Chaos was all I was.
"You call this rule?" one of the minor lords spat, his beard flecked with wine. "Our people live in fear of her dogs in the street. Families disappear. Markets bleed. No peace, no profit… only war." lies.
A chorus rose behind him. Others slammed their fists down in agreement, their voices dripping with rehearsed outrage. They had been waiting for this moment, gathering their courage like hyenas gathering around a lion, thinking numbers would shield them.
My lips curved in a smile sharp enough to cut.
"Peace? Profit? You think Shadowhand will offer you peace when you kneel to him? He'll hollow out your families and feed them back to you in ashes. You live in fear because you've grown soft. I burn the weak so the strong remain."
The chamber rippled. A few heads bowed, cowed by my voice. A few more lifted, hatred hardening in their eyes.
And then Shadowhand himself moved.
He leaned forward from his seat, long fingers steepled, voice smooth as poison poured into a goblet.
"She admits it herself." His words rolled over the table like silk and steel. "Chaos. Disorder. Blood. Is this leadership? Or is it tyranny in prettier clothes?"
The insult was clever, but I saw what he was doing. He wanted to weave doubt into the families' minds, to make them believe their rebellion was justice instead of cowardice.
But the minor families weren't fools. Fear was not enough for them. They needed proof.
And Shadowhand knew it.
"You demand order," he said, voice carrying. "You demand stability. Look at what she has given you. Ask yourselves what crimes has she buried beneath her name? What secrets does Chaos keep?"
The chamber stirred. Eyes turned to me, searching, calculating.
"Proof," one of them muttered. "We want proof."
And that was when Adrian stepped forward.
The chamber shifted. He didn't have to speak yet his very presence was a blade sliding free of its sheath. My pulse tightened. I knew that smile, sharp and wicked, the smile of a man who wanted not just to win, but to watch me break.
"You want proof?" Adrian's voice rang clear, smooth with false confidence. "I'll give you proof."
He began to list them.
One by one.
Crimes carved from my shadow, sharpened into spears. Smuggling routes gone wrong. Arms deals ending in blood. Families slaughtered, children taken. Details too precise to be rumor. Too precise to be coincidence.
I felt every word like a blade digging into my skin. Not because they were true because they were mine now, painted over me with his venom.
His sins, his handiwork, twisted into a noose meant for my neck.
Murmurs tore through the chamber, gasps and growls, voices demanding answers. Division split the room like cracks in glass some leaning forward with fury in their eyes, others pulling back, uncertain, afraid.
My fingers itched for the weight of my gun. My chest burned, fury pressing against my ribs until I could barely breathe.
But I didn't move.
I sat in silence, my stillness louder than the frenzy, my eyes locked on Adrian with a promise I would carve into his skin when the time came.
And then, the knife twisted deeper.
"Even her own people are sick of her chaotic, bloody rule."
The words dropped like stones into a pond, rippling outward until the entire chamber stilled.
For the first time tonight, they all leaned forward. They wanted blood.
I narrowed my eyes, my voice low, lethal. "Who?"
Adrian smiled. Oh, how he smiled. Like a wolf who had finally cornered the lioness. His eyes gleamed with cruel delight as he leaned forward, savoring every word.
"It's bloody and chaotic…" His pause stretched, cruel and deliberate. "Isn't that right, Mister King?"
The chamber froze. I froze
Every eye turned.
Every breath held.
Asher.
His name didn't have to be spoken. The weight of it filled the silence, heavier than any blade.
My gaze snapped to him. My betrayal waiting to happen.
The chamber blurred. My pulse roared in my ears. The fire in my chest threatened to explode.
Adrian's smirk lingered, savoring the silence like it was victory already.
And Asher
He just stood there, eyes shadowed, unreadable.
The chamber leaned forward. The world tilted on its edge.
And me
I stood unbroken, fury and betrayal tearing me apart from the inside, refusing, absolutely refusing to let them see me bleed.