Page 136 of Fractured Loyalties
It’s not rage. Not hate. Not even vengeance.
It’s silence. Weaponized.
“You can’t just leave,” I say, stepping forward.
“I’m not.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Building the next move.”
“You said we’d go together.”
“I changed my mind.”
I flinch.
But I don’t back down.
“You think keeping me in this house is going to save me?”
He doesn’t respond.
So I keep going.
“You think this Vale person, whoever he, is afraid of walls?”
Still nothing.
Then Lydia’s voice cuts through the tension. Calm. Icy.
“She’s right.”
Elias whirls.
Lydia holds her ground.
“You want to burn him down? Fine. But you don’t get to do it alone anymore.”
His jaw clenches. But he doesn’t argue.
Then, finally, he looks at me. Really looks. And something breaks. Not the rage. Not the fury. Just the edge of the thing keeping him tethered.
“Then come with me,” he says.
Not a plea.
A challenge.
I nod once.
And I feel it. That shift. The one I was afraid of.
Because now we’re not just fighting for survival.
We’re hunting.
And I don’t know who I am when I go feral for him.
