I ate.

  Not slowly, not politely, but like someone who had suddenly realized just how hungry she really was. The pancakes were warm and soft, the butter melting into the syrup until the whole plate smelled sweet and comforting. My stomach felt like it had been empty for days, and maybe it had been.

  Across from me, Xavian ate too.

  Not quickly, not with any particular urgency, but steadily, like someone who actually did enjoy food even if he didn’t technically need it. He didn’t talk much while we ate, and I was grateful for that. My brain was already doing too much thinking.

  When we finished, Ricky came back with the check.

  Xavian didn’t even look at it.

  He simply took it, pulled out cash, and set it on the tray.

  “I could have paid,” I said automatically.

  “No,” he replied calmly.

  Ricky took the check and disappeared again.

  A few minutes later we stepped outside.

  The air felt cooler now, the afternoon stretching toward evening as the city moved around us like nothing had changed.

  But everything had changed.

  Xavian didn’t take the direction back toward my apartment.

  I noticed almost immediately.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Home.”

  “My apartment is the other way.”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t slow down.

  “We are not going there.”

  I stopped walking.

  “What?”

  Xavian turned slightly, looking at me like the answer was obvious.

  “You will sleep at the house.”

  “The house?”

  “Yes.”

  My stomach tightened slightly.

  “I don’t even have a toothbrush.”

  “You can use the new one in the guest bathroom,” he said calmly.

  “It is packaged.”

  That… was oddly specific.

  I sighed and kept walking.

  The house appeared a few blocks later, rising out of the quiet street like something that didn’t belong there. Tall, polished stone walls, iron gates, windows that reflected the fading light like dark mirrors.

  Every time I saw it, it felt surreal.

  Inside, the place was just as large as I remembered.

  Too large.

  The ceilings stretched high above us, hallways branching off in different directions like a maze.

  “This house is very confusing,” Xavian said as we stepped inside.

  “No kidding.”

  “Do not wander.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it.”

  He nodded slightly.

  “And—”

  The front door opened.

  Both of us turned.

  Cazaro stepped inside.

  He looked exactly the way he had the first day I met him—sharp, composed, his dark coat still draped over one arm like he had just come from something important.

  “You are early,” Xavian said.

  “I am not,” Cazaro replied calmly.

  “You are late.”

  Something in the air shifted.

  Cazaro’s eyes moved across the room until they landed on me.

  Then he said quietly,

  “I need to speak with you.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I assumed he meant Xavian.

  But Xavian simply nodded once.

  Without a word, he turned and walked down the hallway, leaving the room entirely.

  My stomach dropped.

  Cazaro set his briefcase on the table and opened it slowly.

  The sound of the latches clicking open echoed in the quiet room.

  Then he reached inside.

  And placed two things on the table.

  The Bible.

  And the chain with the cross.

  For a moment I couldn’t breathe.

  My entire body went cold.

  Cazaro looked at me, his expression calm in a way that somehow made everything worse.

  “I will give you five minutes,” he said.

  His voice was steady.

  Controlled.

  But there was something beneath it now. Something colder than anything I had heard from him before.

  “To tell me who is leading this.”

  My mind exploded into panic.

  Not the slow kind.

  The immediate, overwhelming kind that crashes into your chest and makes your heart slam so hard you can hear it in your ears.

  Because he knew.

  Of course he knew.

  The Bible.

  The notes.

  The initials.

  He had seen everything.

  Every prayer meeting.

  Every hidden gathering.

  Every name that could lead him to someone else.

  My thoughts ran wild, crashing over each other faster than I could sort them into anything useful.

  If he finds out about Eric—

  If he finds out about the others—

  If he thinks there’s an organized group—

  People disappear for less.

  That wasn’t rumor.

  That was law.

  A law he wrote.

  A law he enforced.

  And now the proof of my crime was sitting calmly on the table between us while the most powerful man in the world watched me like he already knew the answer.

  My chest tightened as the seconds ticked by, each one heavier than the last.

  “I will not ask again,” Cazaro said quietly.

  And suddenly the room felt like it was closing in around me.

  My chest rose and fell too fast.

  The Bible sat on the table between us like it weighed a thousand pounds, the thin pages slightly worn at the edges from years of quiet use. The small chain rested beside it, the cross glinting faintly in the light from the tall windows behind Cazaro.

  Proof.

  Evidence.

  A death sentence if he wanted it to be.

  And he was still watching me.

  Not blinking.

  Not moving.

  Just waiting.

  I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry.

  “I can’t tell you.”

  The words came out quieter than I intended, but they were the only honest thing I had left to give.

  Cazaro didn’t react at first.

  His eyes stayed fixed on my face, studying every small movement like he was trying to see past the words themselves.

  “You can,” he said calmly.

  “No.”

  The panic in my chest kept climbing, my heart beating so fast I could feel it in my throat now. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to lie, to make up a name, to give him something—anything—to make this stop.

  But I couldn’t.

  Because the moment I did, someone would die.

  Eric.

  The others.

  People who had trusted me enough to sit beside me in quiet rooms with the lights dimmed and their voices lowered to whispers.

  People who had prayed beside me.

  “I can’t,” I repeated, stronger this time.

  Something changed in his face.

  It wasn’t loud.

  It wasn’t sudden.

  But the air in the room shifted in a way that made the fine hairs on my arms stand up.

  Cazaro straightened slowly.

  The calm expression he had worn since walking into the house disappeared, replaced by something darker.

  Something colder.

  When he spoke again, his voice was deeper.

  Not raised.

  Not shouting.

  Just heavy with something that felt far more dangerous than anger.

  “I am your leader.”

  The words carried across the room like a command.

  “You will do as I say.”

  The authority in his voice made my stomach twist.

  For the first time since meeting him, I saw it clearly.

  The monster.

  Not the man who sat on my couch drinking water.

  Not the man who joked about pancakes and cinnamon.

  This was the other side.

  The one the world feared.

  The one who wrote laws that erased people.

  The one who decided who lived and who didn’t.

  He had been there the entire time.

  Hidden beneath the calm voice and faint smiles.

  Waiting.

  For a moment I could only stare at him.

  It hit me all at once, like something inside my chest had cracked open.

  I had only known him a short time.

  Days.

  A handful of conversations.

  A few moments where he had laughed, teased me, sat on my couch drinking water like a normal man.

  And somehow, stupidly, I had let myself believe that was the real version of him.

  Not this.

  Not the man standing in front of me now with power radiating off him like heat.

  Not the man who wrote the laws.

  Not the man who had people killed for breaking them.

  God, I had been so stupid.

  “There is no one else,” I said quietly.

  The words felt like glass in my throat.

  “It is only me.”

  Cazaro’s eyes darkened.

  “If that is the truth,” he said slowly, “which I do not believe it is…”

  He stepped closer.

  “…I will hang you in the center of the town for betrayal, Allysia.”

  The words landed like stones.

  “I will not look weak.”

  My vision blurred as tears slipped down my face.

  “I understand.”

  He moved again.

  Before I could step back, his hand closed around my jaw.

  His grip wasn’t gentle.

  It tilted my face upward, forcing me to look at him.

  “No,” he said quietly.

  “I do not think you do.”

  His thumb pressed slightly harder against my skin.

  “You will die.”

  My heart hammered painfully in my chest.

  “In front of the people you are protecting.”

  His voice dropped lower.

  “And for what?”

  The room felt like it was spinning.

  “Nothing.”

  He leaned closer.

  “I command you to tell me.”

  And suddenly—

  The fog came back.

  The same strange, soft confusion that had filled my head at the Blood Bank.

  My thoughts slowed.

  Slipped.

  Like they were being pulled away from me piece by piece.

  “My…” I started.

  The word stuck in my throat.

  I blinked hard, trying to force my mind to focus.

  Cazaro’s voice softened.

  “You know you want to tell me, love.”

  My breathing picked up.

  “I will reward you for this.”

  The words slid through my thoughts like honey.

  “Right after I punish you for the disobedience.”

  My heart raced.

  No.

  No, no, no.

  I pushed back suddenly, stumbling away from him.

  The fog cracked for a second.

  His eyes hardened immediately.

  “Xavian.”

  His voice carried across the room.

  A moment later Xavian stepped back into the doorway.

  “She won’t tell me,” Cazaro said.

  Xavian’s gaze moved to me.

  Understanding flickered there.

  “So you did know,” I said hoarsely.

  Xavian didn’t look surprised.

  “I did,” he admitted calmly.

  “Though I hoped you would simply come clean.”

  The words felt like a knife.

  “You are part of a harem now,” he continued.

  “You do not need those foolish humans.”

  My chest tightened painfully.

  “That faith is dead, Allysia.”

  His voice remained calm.

  The same calm tone he used when discussing breakfast or politics.

  “The people who practice it will die.”

  My stomach twisted.

  “You do not need to as well.”

  I turned, trying to move past them.

  Trying to get out of the room.

  Cazaro’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm.

  I pulled hard, but it was useless.

  His grip tightened.

  “Poor, pathetic human,” Cazaro laughed.

  “You can’t even fight me.”

  My muscles strained uselessly against his strength.

  “But you look so good trying.”

  Behind him, Xavian’s voice came again.

  Calm.

  Almost approving.

  Deadly.

  “Don’t you want to tell us?”

  The fog crept back into my mind.

  Soft.

  Heavy.

  His voice wrapped around my thoughts.

  “Tell me,” Xavian murmured.

  “We only want what’s best for you.”