A mess hall. At least a hundred people were already there, dressed in black and white like I was—uniform, obedient, part of something.
Not me.
As I stepped in beside Leo, every pair of eyes seemed to clock my presence. Conversations dipped, forks hovered midair. I might as well have walked in naked for how exposed I suddenly felt.
Leo leaned in slightly and murmured, “Don’t let them see you squirm.”
I didn’t answer. Just lifted my chin and forced my legs to keep moving.
If I was going to be paraded like a new exhibit, then fine. Let them look.
Let them wonder.
“Help yourself to whatever you want. There is food and drink over there.” He pointed.
The long banquet table stretched out before me, heaping with plates of steaming food. Eggs, bacon, sizzling in their greasy glory. Muffins piled high, fresh fruit in vibrant colours, pitchers of juice and coffee that gleamed in the morning light. It was an endless spread of abundance, a gluttonous display of excess that made my stomach twist.
I couldn’t help but think of the people outside these walls, the ones forgotten in the shadows. I could almost see them now—starving, their bones poking through skin, hands shaking as they searched for even the smallest scrap of food. The thought of their hunger, their desperation, churned in my gut.
Here, they devoured with reckless abandon, and out there, they would be little more than ghosts, gasping for a fragment of what these people had in endless supply. The contrast was sickening, a cruel reminder of the world beyond these walls.
Leo saw something in my face and he paused.
“What?” He asked after he handed me a plate.
I narrowed my eyes at his obliviousness. “You don’t even see it do you? None of you do. You don’t see what happens outside. You could feed the whole city with this food, but instead you hoard it for yourselves. You are disgusting.”
Leo paused, his eyes narrowing just slightly as he took in my words. For a moment, I thought he might brush it off with that usual charming grin of his, but something flickered in his gaze—a brief, almost imperceptible shift. He set the spoon down carefully, a faint chuckle escaping him, though it lacked humour.
“You really think it’s that simple, huh?” he asked, his tone light, but there was an edge to it. He leaned in, almost playfully, though there was something calculating in the way his eyes followed me.
“I do. You let the world die just to keep yourselves strong. People fight each other, kill each other just to avoid starving to death out there, every day. And you don’t even care.”
He shrugged, his smile never quite reaching his eyes. “You think feeding them would change anything? They’d still fight, still tear each other apart for the scraps. This?” He motioned vaguely at the lavish spread. “This is survival of the fittest,Elira. You can either be the predator or the prey. It’s your choice.”
“I don’t want to do the things you do.” I whispered.
He tilted his head at me, the golden tint of his hair catching the light. “Not yet, but there is a fire in you, angel.” His voice was low, almost teasing, as he leaned in just enough that I could feel his presence like a shadow, heavy and undeniable. “It’s a fire that’ll burn out if you don’t learn how to feed it, though. You don’t get to survive in this world without becoming something more thanthis.” He gestured to me, a dismissive flick of his hand, as if I was just another piece in a game he was already playing.
I clenched my jaw, refusing to let his words sink in. But damn him—there was something in the way he said it, with that unsettling mixture of understanding and superiority, that made my stomach churn. It was the same tone I had heard so many times before in the harsh streets I used to walk. Survival, at any cost. But Leo—he didn’tfeellike one of them.
His eyes softened for just a second, like he saw something in me that I wasn’t ready to see in myself. “I get it. You don’t want to be another slave to the king.” His voice was gentler now, almost sympathetic. “You think you can beat the system, maybe even save your friend. But the thing about systems?” He leaned closer, his breath warm against my ear. “They don’t bend. Not for anyone.”
The warmth of his presence made me bristle, my skin prickling with the instinct to push him away. But I didn’t. Instead, I stared at the table, the food, the opulence that felt like a mockery of everything I had once known. “And what do you get out of being here? Power? Control?”
His laugh was soft, more like a hum of amusement than anything else. “I get to live. Simple as that. You think it’s aboutsomething bigger than that?” He shook his head. “No one gets to survive in this world without learning to make itworkfor them.”
For a moment, I almost believed him. The way he said it—so matter-of-fact, like he had long accepted the way things were, as if he had no choice but to become this... monster.
I took a breath and looked at him, meeting his gaze with something harder now. “I won’t be a Shade, Leo. Not ever.”
His smile returned, but it was more predatory now, sharp and knowing. “We’ll see, angel. We’ll see.”
I picked at my food. Leo had loaded it high with eggs, bacon and something that looked like fried potato, but I could barely force it down.
I was very aware of the eyes on me as I sat next to Leo at the table. The others seemed mystified that one of the elite Shades of the king was taking time to sit with me. He just grinned and winked at me, as if a crowd of admirers was a usual thing for him. A couple of girls waved to him, sending flirtatious smiles his way, but he didn’t even glance their way.
I shifted uncomfortably, the weight of the stares crawling across my skin. It wasn’t so much the fact that they were watching, but the way Leo commanded the space. The power he exuded, without saying a word, made everything feel small—like I didn’t belong in this world of excess and privilege. Yet, there I was, seated beside him as if I were some kind of trophy.
