Elise paced the room, her bare feet silent against the cool wooden floors. Silas sat at the edge of the bed, elbows resting on his knees, phone clutched tightly in his hand.
Neither spoke for a long moment.
She could feel the old instincts rising — panic, fear, that deep, hollow helplessness.But then she looked at Silas.Steady. Solid. Watching her like she was something worth protecting, not something broken.
And she remembered who she was now.
Not a pawn.Not a prize.A queen learning to wield her crown.
"What exactly did the message say?" Elise asked, voice calm despite the storm inside her.
Silas looked up, dark eyes sharp. "They're trying to push you back into their control. Rumors. Legal pressure. And..." He hesitated. "They've put a bounty on you."
Elise blinked. "A bounty? Like I'm some lost piece of property they can drag home?"
A humorless laugh escaped Silas. "Exactly. They want you back in the cage."
The fury bubbled up so fast it tasted metallic on her tongue.
"I'm not going back," Elise said fiercely.
"You're damn right you're not," Silas growled. He stood, closing the distance between them in two long strides. He cupped her face in his hands, forcing her to meet his gaze.
"We fight," he said simply. "Together."
Elise swallowed hard. The part of her that had been trained to expect betrayal shriveled a little more under the heat of his conviction.
"What do we do?" she asked.
Silas's mouth curved into a grin — a dangerous, beautiful thing.
"We turn their games against them. Expose everything. Their lies, their crimes, their dirt. You have more power than you realize, Elise. You just have to use it."
Her hands curled into fists. For so long, she had survived by keeping her head down, by being invisible.
No more.
"I want to burn them down," she said.
Silas's grin widened. "Then let's light the match."
As the clock ticked past midnight, they began to plan — whispering strategies, sketching battle lines across the sheets. Elise's mind raced, each idea sharpening her focus, each word from Silas anchoring her resolve.
By dawn, they weren't just lovers tangled in a messy war.
They were co-conspirators.They were partners.They were the storm coming to tear the past apart.
And Elise swore —This time, she wouldn't just survive.
She would win.