Page 101 of Claimed In Darkness

She is still here.

Watching.

Waiting.

She may hate me.

Forgiveness might be an impossibility from her.

But Naira is not a woman who lets others steal what belongs to her.

And no matter what she tells herself—I still do.

"You shouldn’t have left me," Aereth says, voice like silk.

I almost laugh.

Instead, I lean my head slightly to the side, watching her with cold amusement.

"Did you rehearse that line in the mirror before you stabbed me in the back, or did it come naturally?"

She sighs, shaking her head.

"You always were dramatic."

I roll my shoulders, exhaling a slow, bored breath.

"And you were always a liar."

She steps closer, slow and deliberate.

I let her come.

Let her think she is winning.

She lifts a hand, her fingers brushing the collar of my tunic as if she belongs there.

Like she still has the right.

"You don’t have to fight this," she murmurs.

She whispers the final nail in her own coffin.

"You don’t have to fight him."

The world freezes.

The breath locks in my throat.

And now, I see it.

The truth.

The thing I should have known from the very beginning.

This was never about the High Council.

Revenge? No it’s not.

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