Page 72 of Savage Crown

Rylan doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink.

Only his fingers twitch at his side, just slightly, just enough to show me that beneath all that careful calculation, something in him has snapped to attention.

He had doubts before. Now, he doesn’t.

“Say that again.” His voice is low, controlled, but there’s a current of something dark beneath it.

I swallow hard. “The treasure. It exists.”

A beat of silence.

He steps forward, slow and deliberate. His presence presses against me, suffocating, overwhelming.

“You’re sure?”

I force myself to meet his gaze. “Yes. You saw the parchment. It contained information.”

He exhales, tipping his head back slightly, as if the meaning of those words settles over him like a knife at his throat.

His gaze sharpens. Turns on me.

“How do you know?”

I am the key. My life is the price.

But I don’t say that. Not yet.

Instead, I tell him a fraction of the truth—just enough not to lie.

“There’s a vault,” I lie, voice steady. “Hidden, protected, meant to be sealed away forever unless the right conditions are met.”

Rylan watches me too closely. I feel him peeling me apart, layer by layer, searching for weakness.

I offer him none.

His lips curl. “And the catch?”

My stomach tightens. Here it is. The part that will change everything.

“There’s a cost to opening it,” I say. “A blood price.”

The room goes silent.

The meaning of those words settles between us, thick, suffocating.

His jaw clenches. “What kind of price?”

I hesitate a beat.

But he sees it.

He feels it.

Rylan steps closer, until the space between us is nearly nonexistent. The heat of him sears through the fabric of my tunic, an unspoken warning.

“You’re keeping something from me,” he murmurs.

I shake my head, forcing a scoff. “Of course I am. That’s what we do, isn’t it?”

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