Page 137 of Silk and Sirens

“I love you, kid,” she mouthed, her tears coming freely now.

Then she moved with a sudden, violent surge, kicking out so hard her foot slammed into the man’s shin. He screeched a curse, shoving me off his lap onto the seat beside him.

“You little bitch,” he sneered, lunging towards Mira. She kicked out again, this time hitting his face hard enough that blood spurted from his nose. My screams added to hers, shouts and sounds that made me want to hold my hands over my ears. She kicked and kicked and kicked, the man unable to restrain her as she threw herself against the cage that separated us from the driver.

I felt the car pull over, my heart racing as I tried to see through my tears. Mira was still screaming, so when the door opened suddenly, I barely heard her words.

“Aeris!” Mira cried. “Now!”

I shoved past the man who was leaning inside to try and restrain her.

I ran, and just like she asked, I didn’t look back.

Selene took a step back, releasing me just as the first drops of rain began to fall.

Everything felt distant, muffled beneath the roar of blood in my ears as her words repeated over and over inside my skull, echoing against Mira’s memory.

I had known. Somewhere deep down, in the part of me that had spent years chasing ghosts, I had known Mira was never coming home. But knowing wasn’t the same as hearing it aloud, because now I knew everything I’d done—every death, every sacrifice— had been for someone that was already gone.

The ache in my chest spread slowly, violently, until it felt impossible to breathe around it. But then there was this rage, burning so hot, so bright, it eclipsed everything else.

I may have lost my soul, but I refused to let it define my story.

“Just like Vivienne begged,” I said quietly, my voice steady despite this pain radiating inside me. “When I forced my poison down her throat.”

Selene’s posture stiffened and, for the first time, genuine surprise flickered across her face.

“Aeris …” she growled, my name broken when a single gunshot cracked. Followed by another, then another. “What have you done?” She turned towards the sound, her expression shifting from shock to cold fury even as her guard rushed to her side.

“What have you done?!” she repeated, a scream this time, her voice slicing through the storm as the rain turned heavier.

“It’s over, Selene.” I smiled as her eyes widened. “I chose a side.”

Chapter 57

Caden

The glass doors shattered outward in an explosion of shards as I rushed outside, finding Aeris and Selene standing too close.

Two guards lunged at me from the side, but I moved quickly, slamming my elbow into the first man’s throat, crushing his windpipe with a sickening crunch while the second swung a knife. I caught his wrist, twisted hard, and then drove the blade back into the man’s own chest before lifting my gun and shooting him in the head.

Selene glared, eyes darting around as more of my men stepped out onto the decking to my right. Others, along with Sebastian, were already taking care of everything else while Langdon worked through every single explosive he’d planted in Selene’s properties, making sure their timers went off without error.

Which meant the ones beneath our feet were getting ready to pop.

My watch ticked loudly, the sound like a heartbeat as we slowly ran out of time.

“You really think you had the advantage?” I snarled, consciously aware of how close Aeris was standing to the edge, a gun pressed to her back.

She’d demanded to be here, to tell Selene everything she’d planned, every trick and deceit Aeris had orchestrated over the years. I’d wanted her to have that closure, that fucking satisfaction of watching her tormentor fall from her pedestal. But my chest still tightened, eyes darting between them, because this entire house was moments away from collapsing into the raging sea below.

“It’s too late, Selene,” I shouted over the howl of the wind. “Your pathetic excuse for an empire is finished. Every secret. Every asset. Every penny hidden away in your offshore accounts.”

Selene clicked her fingers, and the guard turned the gun towards me. But I was waiting, ready for when he no longer aimed at Aeris. My bullet pierced him before he could even pull the trigger.

“It’s all gone.”

Selene’s face twisted with fury, but beneath it I saw the first real flicker of desperation. She had nothing left. No guards. No leverage. No escape.