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His presence radiated heat, not warmth, but the sear of controlled fire. A soldier reborn through pain. A blade no longer sheathed.

The shadows binding Ithra writhed with intent, pulsing with his will. They weren’t just power—they were extensions of his wrath.

“Don’t think for a second I’m letting you walk away from this,” Ronan said, low and dangerous, his eyes never leaving hers. And in them, I saw it:

Not anger.

Vengeance.

Calculated. Brutal. Earned.

I stepped further into the shadows, still cloaked by ruin and wreckage. No one had noticed me yet, and I wasn’t ready to change that .

Not until it mattered.

I reached out with my mind, my voice threading through the silence, brushing against Ronan’s thoughts like a ghost.

“Don’t kill her just yet, Ronan,” I murmured, sharp and cold in the privacy of his mind. I don’t want my presence known. Not yet.

“I have a score to settle with her.”

Let her feel fear. Let her wonder when the metaphorical axe would fall.

Because when it did, I want to be the one holding it.

Ithra hisses in the bindings while Ronan’s gaze switches from Elora and back to the vicious siren.

Another flicker in my peripheral.

I turned just in time to see it—

The older Triton, the one restraining Sienna, tightened his grip around her throat. His hand squeezed with practiced cruelty, and before I could so much as move, he forced something between her lips.

A sickly green liquid.

She thrashed, tried to turn her head, tried to resist, but he was stronger, and she couldn’t break free in time. He forced it down her throat. She gagged, choked, and then swallowed.

Not by choice. By violence.

Her eyes flared for a heartbeat—bright, luminous white—before the light flickered out. Her skin, once aglow with faint, natural radiance, dulled before my eyes. Dimmed. Snuffed out.

And just like that… her powers vanished.

She tried to summon them. I saw it. The subtle tension in her limbs, the focus in her stare. But nothing came.

No shimmer.

No song .

No resistance.

Just… nothing.

Trapped in his arms, helpless, her magic stripped clean from her body like it had never existed.

“What did you give her, Thalor?”

Kieran’s voice cracked through the tension, sharp with fury.

A whip of blue lightning snapped from his fingertips, lashing through the air, only to freeze inches from Thalor’s tail, sparking violently before fizzling out.

Thalor sneered, smug and undeterred.

“That’s right,” he hissed, dragging Sienna tighter against his chest. His fingers slithered around her waist—his touch vile. “You can’t strike me without arming your pretty little seer, can you?”

Kieran’s lightning surged again, flickering like a storm barely held back, and Sienna winced in his grasp, her disgust palpable even through the distance.

Ronan’s shadows. Kieran’s lightning.

What if… If they can make chains with their gift, maybe I could do the same with water.

I stayed hidden, cloaked in the wreckage and shadows of the ruined hall.

My breath came slow. Controlled. My fingers flexed as I reached out, not toward them, but to the water.

To the life pulsing through the broken fountains, the scattered jugs, the spilled wine, the condensation on the walls.

It answered me as if it had always waited.

I called it forth.

Silently, precisely, I bent it to my will. No grand gestures, just thought and fury. The water slithered across the floor like a serpent, invisible beneath the chaos. I shaped it into thick rings, weaving them together into coils.

Chains.

Like Ronan’s shadows, but mine were colder. Hungrier .

They snaked around Thalor’s tail first, then up his torso in a crushing spiral. By the time the realization hit him, it was far too late.

The water clenched —

His arms yanked back with brutal force, the chains slamming them behind him in a tangled grip of liquid steel. He grunted, snarled, but couldn’t fight it.

Sienna broke free, stumbling from his grip.

But my focus snapped the moment Draven’s paws reached for my mate. For Iryen .

His hand brushed her chin.

A mockery of tenderness.

I will rip him apart for this.

And I saw her flinch instinctively, pulling back from his touch.

My blood boiled, and I saw fucking red

That was all I needed.

No more hiding.

I stepped into the room.

“Well, well…” I drawled, stepping out of the shadows like a blade unsheathed. “Don’t start this party without me, love.”

The words dipped with mockery, sweet and slow.

But the venom? That was real.

Draven’s head jerked toward me. His arrogant little smirk stuttered for half a second.

Just long enough.

Good. I want him to wonder if the devil had just walked in.

I stepped in fully now, slowly and deliberately, until the light hit my face and my gaze locked with his.

“I see you’ve been busy,” I said, voice low and laced with steel. “Chaos suits you, Draven. Brings out the pathetic little coward you really are. ”

That flicker of rage in his eyes?

Satisfaction.

But I wasn’t here for his tantrum.

My attention shifted to her.

Gods, even now.

She stood tall, head high, the weight of grief and fury wrapped around her like a crown of thorns. I saw the cracks beneath the strength. I saw the cost. But she wore it all like armor. She looked like a queen, and hell if it didn’t punch the breath from my lungs.

She is everything.

And she is mine.

Then Draven laughed. That smug, slippery sound that made my fingers twitch with the urge to rip his throat out.

“Ah, so this is the human,” he said, voice like rot. “A hybrid? How charming. And here I thought the entertainment couldn’t get any better. Tell me, how does it feel to be so… out of place?”

I smiled.

Not the pleasant kind.

The kind that warns you the fall is coming.

“Funny,” I said, getting closer. “I was just wondering the same about you.”

My eyes darkened. My voice dropped.

“You’re standing in the presence of my mate. Touch her again, and I’ll snap every bone in your body before you can form another insult.”

That wasn’t a threat. It was a promise written in blood.

I meant every syllable.

He dared to touch her. To break her. To poison what was mine. And I’d make sure he felt every second of the reckoning that was coming.

But then her voice cut through my mind like a melodic song.

“Adrian. ”

Steady. Commanding. Sharp enough to stop time.

“He’s mine.”

The words stopped me cold and set every nerve on fire.

She didn’t need me to protect her. She didn’t need anyone.

But gods, that didn’t dim the storm boiling beneath my skin.

Our eyes locked, and something passed between us.

A silent vow.

She would have her justice.

But if she fell… I’d destroy this kingdom with everyone in it. There is no world without her. No life.

“Always, princess,” I murmured, voice raw. I stepped back. Just enough.

Letting her move.

Letting her enjoy this.

But I stayed coiled. Ready. One word from her, and I’d tear the bastard apart.

Then her voice darkened, dropping into something feral.

“I want him to watch as I slice layers and layers of flesh from his mother. I want him to suffer as I suffered when I lost my parents.”

Her vow was a declaration of raw revenge.

A chill slid down my spine, and then the fire hit.

Pride surged, thick and primal.

She didn’t just want vengeance. She commanded it.

Goddess, it stirred something dark in me. Something hungry. Her wrath was beautiful. Precise. She wielded it like a weapon carved from grief, and, fuck, it was intoxicating.

She is intoxicating, and so damn sexy when she is in control.

Not just strong, but undeniable. Unshakable. Fire wrapped in royalty.

She had me the moment she stormed into my life with those furious eyes and no patience for my bullshit .

She flipped my world inside out and made me grateful for it.

My queen.

My mate.

She had my heart, my loyalty, my soul. Hell, if she wanted it, I’d offer the blood in my veins with a smile.

There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her. Nothing I wouldn’t destroy if she asked. Whatever and whenever she needed me, I’d be there. As her sword, her shield, or her shadow.

Always. And forever.

No god could save them if they tried to take her from me.