Irina’s POV

*He’s my mate. And he’s my ally.*

The words didn’t land right away. They hung there in the air between us, and for a second I just stood there, staring at her face, waiting for something to click.

Then it did.

I took a step back.

Then another.

The backs of my knees hit the edge of the bed and I sat down hard, the mattress dipping underneath me. My hands were flat on my thighs. I couldn’t feel them.

"What did you just say."

Sofia didn’t repeat herself. She was watching me the way people watch someone standing too close to a ledge — very still, very careful, like a single wrong move would send everything off the edge.

I looked at her.

The wet eyes. The white knuckles. The way her whole body was coiled tight like she’d been holding this in for days and had only just let go of it.

She meant it. Every word.

"Sofia." My voice came out flat. Hollow. "He tried to *kill* me tonight."

"I know."

"He had his hands around my throat. He told me his whole plan. He stood there and laid it all out and he wasn’t even—" I stopped. Swallowed. "He wasn’t even *afraid*. He didn’t care. He looked at me like I was nothing."

"I know." Her voice cracked on the second word. "Irina, I *know*. Please just let me explain—"

"Explain." I repeated it like I didn’t know what the word meant.

"Please."

The room was too quiet. I could hear my own pulse.

I didn’t say anything. I just sat there and waited.

---

She told me everything.

A few nights ago. Late. She’d been on the early-morning shift, running linens down to the east corridor, the kind of errand nobody else wanted because the hallways down there were cold and half the torches had burned out.

She’d rounded a corner.

And he was just standing there.

"He’d only just arrived," she said. "A few days before. Under a different name — Pavel. That’s what they have him listed as in the soldier rolls. Pavel Sorin." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know anything about him. I just — I looked at him and I—"

She stopped.

I knew what came after that. I didn’t need her to say it.

"He knew too," she said quietly. "I could see it on his face. For about two seconds."

"And then?"

Her jaw worked. "Then he grabbed me."

My hands went cold.

"He moved fast," she said. "One hand around my arm, the other over my mouth, and he had me pressed up against the wall before I could make a sound. And he just — he looked at me. Like he was deciding something." She exhaled slowly. "Then he said: *Don’t scream. Don’t say my name. And don’t ever look at me like that again.*"

I stared at her.

"Like *what*?" I asked.

"Like he mattered." Her voice went small. "That’s what he said. He said — *don’t look at me like I matter to you. I didn’t come here for this. I came here to kill the alpha. That’s all. If you say a word to anyone, I will cut your throat before sunrise. Do you understand me?*"

The room was very still.

I thought about the look on Alexei’s face in that corridor tonight. The emptiness behind his eyes. The absolute, unshaking calm while he told me he was going to end Nicholas’s life.

He’d meant every word he said to Sofia too. I had no doubt. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"And you just — what? Said *okay*?" I could hear the edge in my own voice. I couldn’t smooth it out. "He threatened to kill you and you just nodded and walked away?"

"No." She shook her head. "I told him I was on his side."

I went still.

"I told him I had just as much reason to want the alpha dead as he did," she said. "And then I—" She reached into the pocket of her apron and her hand came back out holding a small dark bottle. Glass. Stoppered with wax. "I showed him this."

I knew what was in that bottle.

"He believed me," Sofia said. "We talked. Right there in that hallway at four in the morning."

"Sofia." The word came out like the start of a question I didn’t know how to finish. "How could you — he is *dangerous*. You know what he’s capable of. He came here to—"

"Please don’t go to the alpha." Her eyes were overflowing now. "Please. I am *begging* you. If he finds out—"

"He’s going to find out anyway." My voice was steady. I didn’t know how. "Alexei is already *here*, Sofia. He’s inside the walls. He knows Nicholas’s schedule. He knows his routes. He’s been watching—"

"I know." She gripped my hands tighter. "I know. But if you tell him tonight — right now — he’ll investigate. He’ll find Pavel. And the moment he starts pulling that thread—" She let out a breath. "He’ll find me too. He’ll find what I’ve been doing. He’ll find you." Her eyes searched my face. "You gave him something, Irina. I know you did. You did that too."

I reached down and wrapped my fingers around her wrists. Gently. Carefully. And I pulled her hands away and held them for just a moment before I let go.

"I’m sorry," I said.

"Irina—"

"I’m going to find Nicholas." I stepped back. "I don’t care what it costs me. I don’t care what he does when he hears it. If he wants to punish me for what I did, fine. I’ll deal with that." I picked up my shawl from the chair. Pulled it around my shoulders. "But I’m not going to stand here while a man with a kill list walks these halls. I’m not going to do that."

"You can’t—" She scrambled to her feet. "Irina, wait—"

"I’ll try to keep your name out of it as long as I can." I turned to face her. "I’ll tell him what I know about Alexei first. If I can protect you, I will. I promise you that." My throat tightened. "But Alexei—"

"He’s my mate." Her voice broke completely.

"I know." Mine wasn’t much steadier. "But he came here to kill my—" I stopped. "He came here to kill *Nicholas*. And I won’t let that happen."

Sofia stood in the middle of the room with her hands open at her sides and her face stripped of everything.

She didn’t say anything else.

I took a step toward the door.

And then it slammed open.

A girl — one of the younger maids, sixteen at most, the one who refilled the water pitchers in the morning — crashed into the room with her face the color of chalk and her chest heaving like she’d run the entire length of the palace to get here.

"Something’s wrong!" she gasped out. "Something happened—"

She grabbed the doorframe to keep herself upright.

"Something happened to the alpha!"