Rose POV
The chamber did not breathe.
The silence was heavier than the marble pillars that held up the obsidian ceiling. A hundred eyes darted, but none dared to settle too long on me. The taste of betrayal still clung to the air like smoke after a fire. My skin hummed with it, every nerve pulled, but I did not flinch.
I sat, unbroken, though I was breaking inside.
The only sound was the steady beat of my own heart, loud in my chest, a war drum muffled beneath silks and steel.
And Asher. I always thought Cassian was a king of disguised not untill tonight's performance.
Asher. He had not spoken, not one word, when Adrian laid my throne bare with his venom. He had not denied, not defended, not so much as twitched when my cousin pointed the knife at me and dragged Asher's name into it.
Instead, he had walked across the room with a soldier's calm, his boots ringing against marble like tolling bells, and taken his place behind Adrian.
Behind him.
Nightmare. My nightmare. My storm. Mine....
I shut the thought off before it could finish. My fingers curled under the table, nails biting into my palm until I almost drew blood.
He stood there now, unreadable. A wall of shadow carved into the shape of a man. His arms folded loosely behind his back, his face carved from ice, his gaze locked nowhere and everywhere at once. He looked like a god the mafia whispered about in the dark, the man even Shadowhand had once refused to provoke.
But he was not looking at me.
And that was worse than all of Adrian's gloating combined.
Adrian, of course, reveled in it.
His smirk stretched like a blade across his face as he rose to his feet, basking in the murmurs of the families. Shadowhand leaned forward in his seat, his masked face glinting faintly in the chandelier's light, feeding the fire with every subtle nod.
"Even Nightmare himself knows," Adrian declared, his voice slick with triumph. "Even he will not stand with her chaos. Do you hear it?" He gestured wide to the chamber, to the mutters, to the whispers that curled like smoke around the long table. "Your queen is abandoned by her strongest hound."
The words should have cut me in half.
But I refused to bleed.
I leaned back in my chair, shoulders squared, every inch of me the daughter of Salvatore Varela. My face was marble, my voice sharp as glass when I finally spoke
"Have you finished performing, Adrian?"
The chamber stilled. Some gasped, some choked on their wine. Shadowhand tilted his masked head, curious, amused.
Adrian, of course, only smiled wider. "Not yet, cousin." His tone dripped with mockery. "Not yet. Because I haven't given you your choices."
My eyes narrowed, but I rose with deliberate calm, letting my steps echo against the marble floor as I circled back toward my chair. whispered behind me, dark silk trailing like shadows.
"Choices?" I repeated, voice smooth, controlled. "You presume to give Chaos choices?"
He ignored my venom, his smirk carved deep, his posture the false poise of a man who believed he had already won.
"Yes," he said, loud enough for all to hear. "Two of them. And both merciful, considering what you deserve."
The murmurs swelled again. My blood burned, but I masked it with silence.
I sat gracefully in my chair, folding my hands in my lap, looking every bit the queen I had been born to be, forged to be. My eyes locked on him, icy calm.
"Then let us hear them," I said.
Adrian's smile widened. He straightened, spreading his arms as if to embrace the entire room.
"Option one: Unity. There is no law against marriage between cousins." He let the words drag, savoring them. The chamber stirred, disgusted, scandalized, but none spoke. Adrian's eyes gleamed as he pinned me with them. "Marry me, Rose. Rule with me. Together, Vipers will be strong again, united under blood and name. And in my mercy, I will forgive you for clinging to what is mine."
My chest tightened not with fear, but with revulsion, disgust. His words dripped like poison, his obsession revealed in every word he spoke. His love, if you could call it that, was rot dressed as roses, an infection he wanted to bind me with.
But he wasn't finished.
"Option two," he said, his voice sharp now, cruel. "Bend. Swear fealty to me as your Lord. Kneel. Serve. Live as nothing more than a pawn beneath my throne. Humiliation, yes but survival, too. Your chaos tamed, your bloodline preserved, your life spared."
The chamber hummed with whispers, some scandalized, some eager, some too afraid to breathe.
I heard none of it.
My eyes were not on Adrian.
They were on him.
Asher.
I searched him for anything a flicker of defiance, a crack in his mask, a shadow of the man who had kissed me like fire only minutes ago, who had told me we were bound in chaos. I searched for even a hint that he was still mine, that he still stood with me.
But there was nothing.
His face was unreadable.
And that God, that broke me.
I almost faltered. Almost. My throat ached, my chest screamed, my heart cracked like glass beneath the weight of him standing on the wrong side of the room. But I did not let them see it. I swallowed the pain, forced it down into the abyss where all my grief lived, and let the mask of Chaos settle over me once more.
Adrian leaned forward, savoring my silence. "So, cousin," he purred. "Which will it be? The unity of marriage.....or the mercy of kneeling?"
I rose.
The chamber froze. My chair scraped back against the stone with a sound sharp enough to cut. Every gaze locked on me as I stepped forward, calm, unhurried, every inch of me carved from steel.
"Neither," I said.
Adrian's smirk faltered. "What?"
"I'll take the third option."
Confusion rippled through the hall. Even Shadowhand stilled.
Adrian blinked, his lips twitching. "And what option is that?"
I smiled. Cold. Sharp. Deadly.
"Your head."
My hand moved in a blur.
Steel sang as I drew my gun, the barrel glinting under the chandeliers. Gasps erupted, shouts rang out, bodies surged to their feet
And I fired.
The shot cracked like thunder, deafening in the enclosed chamber. The bullet tore past Adrian's cheek, carving a line so close it kissed his ear. Blood spattered, hot and red, as he screamed and stumbled back, clutching the side of his head.
The chamber exploded into chaos.
Families shrieked, servants ducked, chairs scraped against marble as the lords scrambled. Shadowhand's masked head snapped toward me, unreadable, his fingers twitching at his side. Adrian's men swarmed around him, dragging him back, pressing cloth to his bleeding ear as he howled curses, his composure shattered.
And me?
I stood calm, gun still raised, smoke curling from the barrel like a crown of flame.
"War," I said, my voice carrying over the frenzy, calm and merciless. "That is my choice. I declare war on every coward who dares stand against me. Let the streets burn before I kneel."
The chamber silenced not with peace, but with fear.
My gaze swept across the hall, daring anyone to speak. Daring anyone to challenge me. And when it finally landed on Asher, I held it there. Searching. Waiting. Hurting.
But he remained unreadable.
That was the worst wound of all.
I holstered my gun with deliberate calm, turned on my heel, and walked out of the chamber. My gown swept behind me, my boots rang against marble, and not a single soul dared to block my path.
Behind me, the hall was chaos. Adrian's wails, Shadowhand's poison, the families whispers they all bled together into noise.
But ahead of me, there was silence.
A silence that burned hotter than fire.
Because I carried my pain with me, hidden beneath my crown of chaos.
And if I had to bleed, then the world would bleed with me.