Rose POV
The hall was too bright.
Too loud.
Every laugh, every murmur, every shift of fabric or scrape of chair echoed like a blade dragged across glass.
I sat perfectly still, spine straight, chin lifted, every inch the Varela heir I was raised to be. But beneath my skin, every nerve screamed, clawing, tearing at me with invisible hands. I want to grab him, stop him.
Because Asher moved.
He didn't move toward me. He didn't stand at my side like he always had, shadow and storm, unshakable in his place.
He walked to Adrian.
And when he stopped, he didn't falter. Didn't glance my way. He stood behind him behind him the way he once stood behind me.
And the hall shifted with it.
I felt the weight of their stares. The Ravens, who had sworn themselves to me, stiffened as if the floor had buckled even Cassian stared at me, his eyes demanding answers. The Serpents leaned forward, glee slithering across their faces. The minor houses whispered, voices trembling, not daring to speak too loudly in case they woke the monster standing at Adrian's back.
Because that's what he was to them.
Not a man. Not a lover.
Not the one whose voice had once made my walls tremble, steadied me.
He was Asher King. Nightmare. The man mothers warned their sons about, the shadow that even Shadowhand's mask tilted toward with a hint of caution and dared not to offend.
And he chose Adrian.
Adrian's voice droned on, gloating, bloated with victory. His words curled around the chamber like smoke, promises of a legacy, of a birthright, of a throne he hadn't earned. His knife-smile glistened as he spoke of power.
But his voice was distant, muffled. Like sound swallowed by storm winds.
I heard nothing.
I felt nothing.
Except the silence that passed between me and Asher.
My eyes burned into his, searching pleading without ever letting it show. I searched for a crack in his armor, a flicker of recognition, a glimmer of the man who had once burned for me. Something. Anything.
There was nothing.
No fire. No storm.
Just stillness.
Just silence.
And that broke me more than his betrayal itself.
The hall shifted again when I moved. I rose slowly, deliberately, letting my chair scrape against the stone so every ear caught it. Silence fell sharp, cutting Adrian's words in half.
Dozens of eyes pinned me, waiting for me to shatter. Waiting for me to weep, to rage, to beg.
I smiled.
It was cold. Sharp. The kind of smile that could draw blood without a blade.
When I spoke, my voice carried like a whipcrack.
"Is this what you call strength?"
The room stilled. Adrian blinked, caught between irritation and confusion. I didn't look at him. My eyes never left Asher.
"The great Nightmare," I said, the words dripping with venom, "standing as nothing more than a guard dog at another man's heel."
Gasps rippled through the room like a current. Even the Shadowhand mask tilted, as if he hadn't expected me to speak the words everyone else swallowed in terror.
Adrian laughed too quickly, too loudly. "Careful, Rose. Jealousy doesn't suit you."
But I didn't flinch.
I tilted my head, smile widening.
"Jealousy? No Cousin. Pity, perhaps."
I stepped forward, my heels striking against the stone like war drums. Each step echoed, filling the silence his gloating left behind.
"Because tell me, Asher King..." I let his name roll sharp from my tongue like venom, and the hall itself seemed to hold its breath
"...what are you, if not mine?"
The words struck harder than any blade.
And though he didn't move, though his face betrayed nothing, the hall erupted around us.
Because I have marked him and I will make him pay