That hit a nerve. A deep, raw nerve that throbbed with the phantom pain of my smothered bond. But I refused to let her see the wound bleed.
“You know, Eliza, for someone who claims to be ‘too good’ for them, you’re spending an awful lot of energy trying to convince me they’re worthless,” I took a step into her personal space. I was an inch taller than her, and I used it to my advantage, looking down my nose at her. “It screams insecurity. What’s the matter? Daddy didn’t hug you enough?”
Her perfectly manicured hands balled into fists. I’d hit the bullseye. I knew from what Aiden had told me of his family, that his sisters were kiss-asses, and Eliza was desperately obsessed with validating her own worth, specifically to her cold, distant father, a high-ranking official who barely acknowledged her existence unless she was advancing their family’s social standing.
“Keep my family out of your fucking mouth.”
“Or what? You’ll cry to your daddy and get me in big twouble? I’m terrified. Truly. Shaking in my boots over here.”
‘I could bite her,’Noodle offered helpfully, uncoiling slightly. His tongue flicked out, tasting the expensive, cloying perfume she wore.‘She smells of desperation and fake flowers.’
“Down, Noodle. She’s not worth the venom,” I said aloud, never breaking eye contact with her.
Eliza’s eyes darted to my familiar, a flash of genuine revulsion crossing her face. “You’re disgusting. You and your little monster.”
“And you’re boring. You threw away five incredible men because you were too busy chasing daddy’s approval, and now you have to watch them move on with someone whose magic could literally eat yours for a snack.” I leaned in closer, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “If youeverspeak about Jamie, or any of the Stardust Shield like that again, I won’t use my words next time. I will show you exactly why the Assembly kept my designation a secret. Do you smell what I’m cookin’?”
We stood there, locked in a silent staring match. The air between us practically crackled with the opposing forces of our magic. I was fully prepared for her to unleash some perfectly tailored, venomous retort. I braced myself for the Leo fire, for the condescension, for the Assembly-bred arrogance.
But it didn’t come.
Instead, the sound of heavy, synchronized footsteps echoed on the stone pathway. From around the corner of the amphitheater, four large men strode into view. They moved with the unmistakable, arrogant swagger of elite warriors. The Riftward Shield. Eliza’s mates.
They didn’t look at her the way bonded mates out to look at their axis. There was no soft reverence, no protective warmth. They looked like wardens.
For a fraction of a second, something in Eliza’s expression broke. The mask of the untouchable ice queen completelydissolved. Her perfect teeth clamped down on the inside of her cheek, and her gold-brown eyes flickered to the ground.
She leaned in, closing the distance between us before they could get within earshot. “You think Iwantedthis? You think I was given a choice? If I didn’t leave them... if I didn’t bond with Riftward, my father would have intervened. And it would have been bad. You don’t know what he’s capable of. You don’t know what he does to the things we actually care about.”
It was the exact same visceral fear I’d seen in Aiden’s eyes whenever he talked about the Reece family patriarch, which was rare. I stared at the woman I’d just been ready to mentally and physically dismantle, and suddenly, I didn’t see a cruel, shallow mean girl. I saw a victim. I saw a girl who’d been forced to break the hearts of five men she most likely loved, and her own in the process, just to keep them safe from her father’s wrath. I realized I didn’t know a damn thing about the hell she was living in.
“Eliza—” a booming voice called out.
The leader of the Riftward Shield, a tall, muscular guy with dark eyes, stepped up beside her. He didn’t gently touch her lower back or offer his hand. He clamped his heavy fingers over her shoulder, his grip visibly tight, possessive in a way that made my stomach churn. I wanted to punch his damn lights out. Instantly, the mask slammed back into place. Eliza’s spine straightened, the terror vanishing behind a wall of cold, aristocratic indifference.
“Is there a problem here?” the Riftward leader asked, his gaze raking over me with blatant disdain.
“No, Kael,” Eliza said, devoid of any identifiable emotion. She didn’t look at me. “I was just offering the new girl some friendly advice on how things work at Imperium.”
I swallowed the lump of sympathy forming in my throat. I had to play along. If I showed even an ounce of pity, if I hintedthat she had just exposed herself, I would be putting a target on her back.
“And I was just telling her I don’t fucking need it.” I adjusted my posture, letting my Ophis energy simmer just visibly enough to make Kael take a half-step back. “See you around, Eliza.”
I didn’t wait for a response, just turned and jogged away, keeping my pace steady until I rounded the far side of the amphitheater and was completely out of their sight. Only then did I stop, leaning my hands on my knees as I sucked in the crisp morning air.
Noodle hissed softly, uncoiling from my neck to rest his head against my cheek.‘A bird in a very small cage.’
“This is why women should run the world, not men. We aren’t even human and yet we’re still beholden to every fucking one of their whims.”
I finished my run in a daze, wondering if Eliza was telling the truth, or just trying to justify what she did. The powerful families weren’t just politicians and socialites. They were a mafia in their own way. They controlled their children with an iron fist, dictating their bonds, their shields, their entire futures. Melissa had done what she did to me because her father ordered her to secure the Callahan connection. Eliza had abandoned Stardust because Mr. Reece demanded a more socially and powerfully advantageous alliance with Riftward.
And Aiden... Aiden was still under that man’s thumb.
A fresh wave of grief washed over me, but I forced it down. I couldn’t fix Dominion from London, but I knew five men who were carrying deep, festering wounds because they believed they hadn’t been good enough for the woman they loved.
I headed straight for the dining hall. The room was bustling with the morning rush, smelling of roasted coffee, fresh pastries, and cold fire from the sconces. I spotted the Stardust Shield at their usual table near the arched stained-glass windows.
Rowan was laughing at something Theo said, while Phoenix quietly buttered a piece of toast. Lucas sat at the head of the table, reading a tablet, and Jamie was staring down at his tea, eyes far away.
