My breath catches. Forgot? I didn't even know.
Before I can stop myself, before I can weigh the consequences—
“She’s what?! She’s fifteen! You said they offered, not that it was a done deal!” My voice cracks louder than I meant it to, and his hand flies again—this time hitting hard enough to knock me off balance.
I slam into the office wall, the impact jolting through my spine. Stars burst across my vision, blinding, dizzying, like my skull’s been cracked open from the inside.
“Since when do I owe you—” His voice rumbles low, a growl that vibrates in my bones. He steps forward, and his shadow swallows me whole, a tide rising too fast to escape. “A bastard child—you—an explanation?”
His hand snaps around my throat, fingers like iron. Not enough to kill, just enough to remind me how easily he could. My breath stutters, thin and desperate, panic searing hot in my chest.
I claw at him, nails useless against skin that doesn’t even flinch. My voice breaks into fragments between his fingers. “I... I’m so—rry...”
He throws me back against the wall. My head snaps to the side, my vision blurring again. My knees buckle. For a moment, the ground tilts like it’s about to devour me. Somehow, I wedge myself upright, body shaking, lungs scraping for air that won’t come.
Each breath tastes of smoke. Of fear. Of shame thick enough to choke on.
I curl trembling fingers around my raw neck, swallowing the pain down as I force my gaze upward. He stands over me,unshaken, immaculate, untouched by what he’s done. Violence never leaves a mark on him—it only brands itself into me.
“Please,” I whisper, barely holding the plea together. “Don’t marry her to that monster. Ivan will kill her. I’m begging you.”
I never imagined kneeling in front of him. Never imagined lowering myself like this, like my dignity has been shredded.
But for Diana?
For her life?
I would. I would crumble, break, fall—anything—to save her.
I sink to my knees. Head bowed, body quaking. Pain lances through my neck, through my limbs, through every pride-filled fiber of me.
The pain? It’s familiar. But this—this surrender?
It feels like breaking all over again.
“Let me take her place.”
Malec
Kayla’s been frowning in the back seat the entire ride home.
Even Bay looked ready to drag that bastard down to merhell herself—so why doesn’t Kayla see it? How can she still be so reckless? Sneaking out alone. Meeting strangers. Acting like the world isn’t hunting her. Us.
She’s the heir to the Mal-El lineage. She needs to start taking that seriously.
Me? I’m only the anchor to my mother. Both of us Black Blooded, bound by rules that choke and orders that shatter the moment we touch them. We’ll never rule a pod.
But Kayla—she’s different. She’s the future. She’s the reason the crescent on my forehead still pulses with power instead of flickering out like many others.
The lineages are thinning. Dying. I feel it every day—the hunger gnawing deeper, the way each newborn seems weaker than the last. Another mark will fade soon. Another pod will fall. The glow will vanish from my skin, leaving only a scar where a dynasty used to burn bright.
The thought makes my skin prickle, my jaw clench.
In the rearview mirror, Kayla exhales—loud, pointed—and folds her arms like I’m supposed to take the hint she’s not happy. Her silent protest.
Well, good for her.
So am I.
