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Rafe looked up.

Alaric kept staring at the screen.

“He never was.” He lifted his eyes to mine. “He chose you.”

Silence swallowed the room. I felt my stomach drop.

“He wants me?” I whispered. “No.”

His answer came immediately. “He wants you to choose.”

“Choose?” I shook my head slowly. “Choose what?”

Silence was the answer.

Alaric never looked away. “Ghost stays with Nyssa. Brick on the east wing. Falcon, twenty-four hour overwatch.”

“Do you want to leave?” Rafe asked.

“No.” Alaric’s eyes never left mine. “He got in once, let him think he can come back.”

Rafe watched him for a second.”And the other… the hunt?”

I burned under that stare.

Before he finally answered.

“It can wait.”

The room emptied around us. Boots echoed away. Doors opened. Closed. Until… it was only us. I looked down at the phone still resting between us. Then back at him.

“He keeps asking me the same thing.”

Alaric waited.

“The truth.”

The words hung between us.

“What is he talking about?”

His jaw tightened. “I don’t know.”

I stepped closer. “Alaric.”

He looked at me.

“You do.”

A long silence followed. Long enough for hope to bloom. He was going to tell me. I saw it. The decision. The struggle. His lips parted. Then… he closed them again.

My heart sank. He looked away. Only for a second. But it was enough.

“When this is over…” His voice was rough. “I’ll tell you everything.”

My voice sounded almost pleading. “Why not now?”

He closed his eyes. Then opened them. “Because once you know… I can’t protect you from it anymore.”