Page 37 of Fractured Loyalties

“Are you going to kill him?”

Silence.

Elias steps forward. Slowly. Not threatening, not even purposeful. Just…still.

“I’ll make sure he never comes near you again.”

It’s not an answer.

But I realize I don’t need one.

Chapter 9 – Mara - What Follows After Silence

Time doesn’t move the same after a decision is made. After someone says,tonight, the hours swell with too much meaning. They grow teeth.

I haven’t changed out of the same clothes from yesterday. I haven’t eaten. I don’t even think I’ve blinked in the last five minutes. The house feels quieter now, like even the shadows know something is coming.

Elias hasn’t said another word since closing the console. He’s sitting in the same chair I notice he always claims since I got here, back rigid, gaze fixed ahead—like it’s where he goes to disappear without leaving the room. He sits with one leg bent, fingers steepled under his mouth, eyes somewhere far past the walls. I could stand naked in front of him, and I’m not sure he’d notice.

And that might terrify me more than if he did.

I cross the room and lean against the table. My arms are crossed, not out of defiance, but because if I don’t hold myself together, I might splinter.

“You’re different now,” I say, quietly.

He blinks. Looks up. “How so?”

“You’re not trying to convince me anymore. Not trying to make me stay. You’re waiting for something. Something worse.”

He leans back slowly. “I don’t need to convince you anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because you already know what I am.”

He says it without malice. But it lands hard.

I stare at him. “And what is that, Elias? Whatareyou?”

He stands.

Just that.

The act of rising from that chair sends a ripple of cold across my back. Not because he moves like a predator, or even a man with a purpose. He moves like someone walking into a fire they helped set.

He steps toward me, stops short. Just far enough not to touch.

“I’m the consequence,” he says. “The thing men like Caleb never think is real.”

I swallow. Hard.

He doesn’t reach for me. Doesn’t offer comfort.

And still, I feel steadier with him this close.

“Are you going to do it alone?” I ask.

“I always do.”