Kane walked down the staircase from the rooftop garden where Lyria had just vanished into thin air.

His mind was running at full speed because the seer had dropped entirely too much information on him at once.

He needed a moment to process the seventeen different versions of the tournament and the terrifying fact that the elven queen already knew he was here.

Kane took a slow breath to calm his racing thoughts before reaching the ground floor.

Firlia was waiting quietly at the bottom of the stairwell.

She wasn’t supposed to be there as she had only arranged the meeting location and was meant to leave immediately.

But she stayed behind.

"She spoke to you," Firlia stated.

"She did," Kane confirmed, stopping on the last step.

"Was it bad?"

Kane looked at her for a long moment.

"It was complicated."

Firlia nodded slowly.

She understood complicated perfectly well, as she had been living inside a complicated nightmare for the last three years.

"The prince sent another message today," she said quietly.

She fell into step right beside him as they walked out into the empty merchant district.

The stalls were all closed for the night, leaving the streets illuminated only by floating magic lanterns.

"He wants physical confirmation that you are weakened. Lothburk’s report was not convincing enough for him. He wants someone from inside your trusted circle to verify the injuries."

Kane stopped walking and turned to look at her.

"And you told him you would get close enough to confirm," Kane said, putting the pieces together.

"Yes."

"So you need something to report back."

"Yes."

The silence stretching between them felt very different from their previous encounters.

There was no hidden dagger this time, and no assassination plan waited underneath the quiet conversation.

They were just two people standing in an empty street, choosing what happened next.

"Something convincing," Kane said, keeping his voice level.

Firlia met his eyes without flinching.

Her noble composure remained completely intact as three years of practice under the prince’s thumb made her very good at keeping her face neutral.

But her slender fingers gripped the leather strap of her satchel just slightly tighter than necessary.

"I know exactly what I’m suggesting," she said.

"Do you?" Kane asked, stepping closer to her.

He wasn’t being threatening. He just moved close enough that she had to make a conscious choice about whether to step back or hold her ground.

"Because I want to hear you say it aloud."

Firlia held her ground perfectly.

"I need to come back to him smelling like you," she said, her voice staying surprisingly steady.

"He will believe I got close enough to assess the damage. He will believe you are distracted and weakened, so he will stop looking for other ways to confirm it."

"And your boyfriend?" Kane asked softly.

Something flickered behind her red eyes.

It was fast and tightly controlled, disappearing before it fully surfaced.

"He doesn’t know I’m here," she replied.

Kane studied her beautiful face for a long moment, reading the tension hidden just beneath her skin.

"I need you to understand something," Kane said quietly.

"This is not a simple transaction. When this tournament ends, however it ends, you don’t go back to the prince’s leash. You come out the other side with a real choice about what your life looks like."

Firlia stared at him.

For the first time since he met her in the registration hall, her composure was not a practiced performance.

It was just a stunned silence while she processed something completely genuine.

"You are offering me a way out," she whispered.

"I’m telling you the door is already open," Kane smiled warmly.

"You just have to decide to walk through it."

She reached up and unfastened the top metal clasp of her traveling cloak.

They found a private room in a quiet inn just two streets away from Kane’s own lodgings.

Firlia had the brass key ready in her pocket, which told him she had planned this scenario before the seer meeting even happened.

The room was small but comfortable.

A single oil lamp provided a warm glow, illuminating a large bed with black cotton sheets and a window overlooking the empty avenue.

Firlia set her satchel on a small table and turned to face him.

Her green hair flowed down.

Kane noticed this for the very first time as she always pinned it up in elegant, tight braids every previous time he had seen her.

Left down, it reached well past her shoulders.

"You’ve been watching me since registration," Kane said, sitting down casually on the edge of the bed.

"You have been hard to ignore," Firlia replied.

There was something almost dry and sarcastic in her tone.

It was the very first hint of personality slipping past her noble mask.

"Is that a compliment?"

"It’s an observation," she said. She paused for a moment, letting a small smile touch her lips.

"It might also be a compliment."

Kane returned the smile and reached out one hand.

She crossed the small room without any hesitation and took it. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

They existed in the same space for a moment without anyone forcing an agenda or performing a role.

Firlia sat right beside him on the edge of the mattress.

"I won’t hold back," Kane warned her one last time.

Then she leaned forward and kissed him.

Her kiss was controlled and slow.

She kissed him like she did everything else, using complete composure and clear intention.

Her soft hand rested flat against his bare chest, feeling his steady heartbeat rather than gripping his shirt for leverage.

Kane let her lead the interaction for much longer than he normally would.

He read her body language the same way he read Lothburk in the fighting pit.

What he found surprised him.

Underneath all her rigid control, there was something fragile that had not been touched gently in a very long time.

The captain she truly loved existed only in secret shadows.

Even her own genuine feelings had been a staged performance for three long years.

Kane closed the distance.

Firlia’s mouth opened to speak, but the words died when his hands seized the front of her robes and tore them apart.

Buttons scattered like seeds across the floor.

She gasped, but Kane already had her pinned, the heavy wood at her back.

"Aahh..."

Firlia’s head hit the door with a soft thud.

’She’s already wet.’

"You came here to spy," Kane muttered against her skin, his voice a low rumble in the quiet room.

His fingers curled, searching for that spot inside her.

He found it as he noticed her breath hitched.

"What are you telling the prince?"

She tried to answer, to lie, but his fingers worked her, and her voice broke into a whimper.

"That you’re... weak," she managed, the words strained.