Page 125 of Forbidden Empire

I crawled to Aidon, struggling to breathe, my chest raw and burning.

He lay limp, blood soaking his shirt, and the sight of him like that gutted me. I pulled him onto my lap, cradling his broken body, my hands shaking.

“Aidon!” I sobbed, slapping his cheek, desperate to keep him tethered to me. “Stay with me, Aidon!”

His eyelids fluttered, his lips parting as he struggled for consciousness, for breath.

Panic clawed at my insides. I whipped my head around, searching for help, but the world had narrowed to this: Zeno,Rhea, and one last guard, the barrel of a gun leveled at Zeno’s chest as he lunged for her.

Rhea’s face was unrecognizable, battered and swelling fast. I wanted to put an end to her, to finish what I’d started.

But I couldn’t leave Aidon, not for anything in this world.

She looked past Zeno, her eyes landing on us in the wreckage, and she laughed, a low mocking sound punctuated by a shake of her head.

“What a sight you two lovebirds are,” she taunted, before locking eyes with Zeno. The tension between them was electric, crackling in the battered silence. “It’s time for me to leave now.”

“This isn’t over, Rhea,” I spat. “Not even close.”

She laughed again, ignoring every word I said, her eyes locked on Zeno like I wasn’t even in the room.

His shoulders stayed rigid, unflinching, but something flickered in his gaze, a glimmer of something raw and sharp that made me wonder just what the fuck had gone down between them. Later, I told myself. That was a question for later.

“Zeno, tell me something, old friend. Do you still think you’re different from me? That you have more power than I do, that you deserve more?” Rhea’s words dripped with a lazy, dangerous kind of amusement as she clicked her tongue. “Zeno, Zeno, Zeno. We both know power is just another kind of cage.”

He sucked in a breath, jaw clenched so tight it looked like it might break. Rage rolled off him in waves.

Aidon wheezed in my arms, fighting for air, and I held him closer, bracing myself for the possibility that I’d have to drag him out of here myself.

Rhea leaned in, her lips curved in a smile meant just for Zeno. “The throne is never secure, my friend.”

And just like that, Rhea and her guard slipped away, vanishing into her office. The only sign they’d ever been here was the echo of their footsteps thundering down the staircase.

Zeno turned to me, eyes blazing with fury, a storm barely held in check.

“You alright?” he asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah. You?”

“If you can call being so fucking angry I could tear someone’s head off ‘okay,’ then sure.”

A ragged laugh slipped out of me. Relief, exhaustion, the adrenaline dump of having survived the whole thing. I shook my head, so fucking glad it was finally over.

It was just a battle. The war still gnawed at our heels, jaws snapping, always hungry.

Maybe it would never be over. Perhaps another would rise, someone to take Rhea’s place, someone just as ruthless, just as hell-bent on ruin.

She’d run.

It mattered not. She was gone, whether by death or disgrace.

We’d won.

I stared down at Aidon, hands shaking as I brushed the blood slick from his brow then traced the line of his jaw. My fingers trembled, raw and aching. I fought to catch my breath.

“We did it,” I said.

He bared his teeth in a broken smile, pain twisting his words.