The guest bedroom at Ashford manor had been decorated with the kind of expensive care that money could buy but couldn’t make feel like ho. dical equipnt humd quietly in the corner, monitoring the vital signs of the man who lay unconscious in the hospital-grade bed that had been installed just for this evening.
Tessa sat in a chair beside her grandfather; her gaze fixed on his pale face with the intensity of soone trying to will life back into a fading fla. At eighteen, she carried herself with the kind of grace that ca from Immortal Tier power, but tonight she looked like nothing more than a frightened girl watching the only person who’d ever truly understood her slip away.
She’d refused to leave the Wilder mansion without him. Even with all the threats, all the pressure, all the supernatural manipulation pressing down on her like a suffocating weight, she’d managed to maintain enough bargaining power for this one request. If they wanted her at this engagent party where she planned to show them what she was, her bedridden grandfather ca too.
The irony wasn’t lost on her—they were threatening his life to force her compliance, yet she’d used concern for that sa life to bring him here. It was a small victory, but these days, she’d take whatever victories she could get before hell broke loose.
"I’m sorry, Grandpa," she whispered, her voice carrying the weight of cosmic regret. "I never told him about the Ashford situation. About any of this clusterfuck."
Her fingers traced the edge of the expensive throw blanket soone had placed over him, probably costing more than most people’s cars but feeling rough as sandpaper against her skin. The guilt had been eating at her for weeks like acid through steel.
Parker—her man, the Prince of Existence, the most powerful being she’d ever known—had to find out about her complicated past this way. Through crisis and manipulation instead of honest conversation during one of their quiet monts together.
She’d had chances. God knows she’d had chances. Atalanta had even given her a vote of confidence about being honest with him, but things had gotten so complicated and busy with the whole Origin Family situation, with Parker reclaiming his throne and getting his revenge after seventeen years. She hadn’t wanted to erase that smile from his face with her complicated family drama.
"Coward," she snarled at herself, though whether she was talking about her own reluctance to confess or Aleric’s thods, she wasn’t entirely sure.
Who would have known that when she’d been called back ho days ago, it was all manipulation to get her here? To put her in exactly this position where every move was controlled, every option eliminated except the one they wanted her to take.
The bedroom door opened quietly, and Tessa didn’t need to look to know it wasn’t a servant. The supernatural energy signature was too controlled, too predatory for human staff.
"Miss Wilder," ca a voice like silk over steel. "Your presence is needed downstairs."
Tessa finally looked up, eting the gaze of one of the guards who’d been assigned to her. Unlike the others, this one still seed to have so semblance of free will, though Tessa could sense the supernatural chains binding her as surely as physical restraints.
"I’m not leaving him," Tessa said quietly, her voice carrying the kind of finality that had nothing to do with teenage rebellion and everything to do with Immortal Tier determination backed by enough fury to lt glaciers.
"I understand your concern," the guard replied, and there was sothing almost sympathetic in her tone. "But the announcent ceremony is beginning. Your absence would be... noted."
Tessa’s jaw tightened until her teeth could have cut diamonds. She knew what ’noted’ ant. More pressure, more threats, more of whatever supernatural manipulation was keeping her powers dampened and her family in danger.
"Five minutes," she said finally, each word precisely enunciated like bullets being loaded. "I’ll be down in five fucking minutes."
The guard nodded and withdrew, leaving Tessa alone with her grandfather and her growing fury that could have powered small wars.
Unlike her family downstairs—who were oblivious to the true scope of what they were dealing with—Tessa knew exactly what was at stake. She could feel the entity behind all of this, so force powerful enough to block her abilities, prevent her from contacting Parker, and manipulate even her Immortal Tier powers like they were toys.
But there was one thing that force hadn’t accounted for.
Killing a mundane bastard like Aleric Ashford was going to be easy. And satisfying. And probably therapeutic.
Oh, she couldn’t use her ti manipulation freely, couldn’t bend reality to her will the way she normally could, couldn’t reach out across dinsions to call for help. But breaking a human neck? That was basic physics, not supernatural power. And she’d been looking forward to it for weeks.
The thought brought a smile to her lips that would have made serial killers take notes. Let them think they had her completely under control. Let Aleric bask in his arrogant confidence downstairs, accepting congratulations for a marriage that would never happen because the groom would be dead.
"I promise, Grandpa," she whispered, leaning closer to the unconscious man who’d raised her to be stronger than this situation wanted her to be. "That pompous little prince is going to pay for what he’s done to you. To our family. I’m going to kill him so thoroughly that death will seem like a vacation."
She stood up, smoothing down her dress—sothing elegant and expensive that had been selected for her by people who thought they owned her choices. The fabric felt like wearing a costu for a play she’d never auditioned for but was about to rewrite entirely.
Walking to the bedroom door, she paused for one last look at her grandfather. "I’ll be right back," she promised. "And when I am, this whole nightmare will be over."
She opened the door and stepped into the hallway, following the sound of conversation and laughter that drifted up from the ballroom below. Her bare feet made no sound on the expensive carpet as she moved toward the grand staircase with the asured grace of soone who’d learned to hide murder beneath layers of compliance.
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