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“You should’ve let them take me!” Naia shouted, her hands trembling as they came up into her hair. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done?”

Ronin stood, matching her height. “What would’ve happened had I let your psychopath of a brother take you away?”

It was a challenge of honesty. Proof of the line they’d crossed over together.

Her pride wouldn’t allow her to evade the question and turn away from him. There was no point in keeping secrets now, with their truths spilling out.

“My mother would’ve beaten me as a punishment for running away, and then I would’ve been forced to marry a man I do not love.”

Ronin took a calculated step towards her, eyes blazing. “And that would’ve been after your brother carved you into pieces.”

“I am a goddess, you idiot!” she snarled. “Those things cannot kill me!”

“But they still bring you pain!” He raised his voice back at her.

Naia’s mouth fell shut.

She stared at him for what felt like an eternity.

He stared back, long and solemn.

I am a goddess, she’d once said to Solaris, but that does not mean I cannot feel pain.

It was the first time anyone else had ever acknowledged she was not invincible.

Though at a loss for words, her heart brimmed with warmth.

Avi stormed through the door, the sudden noise causing Naia to wince and instinctively cut her gaze away from Ronin.

“Ronin.” There was an unsettling imperativeness in Avi’s tone that made Naia’s stomach dip. “Shit’s going down on Tempest.”

Ronin’s frustration reddened his cheeks, and he twisted slightly in his stance to look over at Avi. “How many?”

“At least twenty or so.”

Theon entered and settled against the wall once more.

“You crossed into his territory,” he said to Ronin, as if he should’ve expected things to go awry.

“What’s going on?” Naia interjected.

Avi looked over at her. “Your brother sent Runa’s goddamn organization and some of his ghouls in retaliation for Ronin crossing over into his territory.”

“Call Vi, Noah, and Damian,” Ronan ordered. “Tell them to round up their crews and meet us there.”

Avi hurriedly typed out the messages on his phone.

Ronin turned to Naia, his body language clipped and his eyes hard, alive with a warning. “Stay here. Do not go anywhere. There are spells on the building to keep out anyone I do not approve of.”

“What are you going to do?” Naia asked.

“Deal with it,” Ronin said in a hard tone.

The brutal images of dismembered limbs fled into her mind. She was seeing Ronin Kahale in a completely different light now. One where he was no longer a senseless, easily broken mortal, but a dangerous, potentially cruel mage.

The unspoken warning in his tone only fueled her stubborn nature, prompting her to push back even harder. “Is more bloodshed necessary?”

He scoffed bitterly at her underlying judgment. “What you witnessed earlier tonight in Alke Hall was a small fraction of bloodshed compared to what his fucking organizations and ghouls do regularly to my side of Hollow City.”