Aveline stopped.

Does he really know who I am?

She wasn’t blind to what had just happened. She knew she had done something. She had felt it, even if she couldn’t name it. She had held him in place... with his own shadow. The memory of it still lingered in her fingertips like a fading echo.

She wanted to understand it. But not from him.

Her fingers tightened protectively around Hamilton.

Slowly... she turned.

Edric had already stilled. His hands, which had briefly tensed, loosened again at his sides. He could feel Kael watching, unbothered, almost trusting, and that alone unsettled him more than the display of power he had just witnessed.

Because Edric knew better.

He had lived too long, read too much, seen too many things buried in records no one spoke of anymore.

She was not normal. And that made her dangerous. But how dangerous? Was she dangerous enough to be a calamity?

"You misunderstand me," he said.

Aveline frowned, confusion flickering across her face as she drew Hamilton closer to her chest. "What do you mean?"

For a fleeting moment, something uncertain passed through her eyes.

Did he know something? Something she didn’t?

Edric caught that brief, fragile desperation in her eyes and filed it away.

"If someone is looking for you," he said evenly, "then leaving now would be unwise."

It was the truth. And not the whole truth. Yes, part of him had wanted her out of his house. But after what he had just seen... Curiosity had taken root.

Something about her did not fit into anything he understood, and that alone made her worth keeping close. Observing. Studying.

Protecting... for now.

Aveline watched him carefully. She didn’t trust him. Not even a little.

But he wasn’t wrong.

Theron had stepped away. Whether to protect her or to distance himself, she didn’t know anymore. And right now, she needed something she didn’t have.

Protection. Answers.

And this man... might be the only one who could give her both.

"I don’t care about that," she said quietly. "You tried to hurt Hamilton."

It wasn’t politics for her. It wasn’t strategy. It was simple. It was about the ones she loved and nothing more.

Edric paused. She had stripped the situation down to something almost... inconveniently pure.

He stepped closer.

Aveline didn’t move. She held his gaze, steady despite the faint tremor still lingering in her chest. For a brief second, she glanced at Kael.

He was calm. And somehow... that steadied her. She trusted Kael more than this man.

Edric stopped a few steps away, his presence filling the space without effort. He was a man others feared instinctively.

Aveline simply looked at him.

"And you stopped me," he said, his voice quieter now, but sharper. His eyes locked onto hers. "Without knowing how."

Aveline swallowed.

"Or..." he continued, watching her closely, "you did know."

A pause.

"Perhaps not before," he added, softer, more precise. "But in that moment."

Aveline’s breath hitched. It felt like being seen. Not fully, but enough to make something inside her tighten.

Caught, not by accusation, but by truth she didn’t yet understand.

But then Aveline drew in a slow breath and squared her shoulders.

Fear... she could deal with. She always had. But not when it came to him. Not when he had raised a blade against Hamilton.

"...I told you not to touch him."

Her voice dipped to something quieter and steadier, and the uncertainty that had lingered on her face melted away. What remained was something far simpler.

Resolve.

Edric noticed it instantly. That shift. Subtle... but undeniable shift in her demeanor. "And you expected me to stop?" he asked.

Aveline’s lips curved, just slightly, to a smirk.

"You did."

The words landed heavily between then, as silence. A beat passed.

Then... Edric spoke.

"I did," Edric admitted.

A faint smile followed, almost amused, as something in his stance eased. Not entirely, but enough. The silent defenses he had raised against her shifted, no longer braced to strike, but to observe.

She was honest. Bluntly, almost inconveniently honest. And she wasn’t wrong. She had stopped him. Which meant one thing he could not ignore: She was stronger than him, untrained and unshaped.

That realization didn’t unsettle him. It sharpened him. Because strength alone was not what made someone dangerous.

It was purpose.

And hers... was still unformed.

Edric studied her quietly, his gaze thoughtful now, no longer probing for weakness, but for understanding.

She wanted to protect. That much was clear. It was instinctive in her. Immediate. Unquestioning. But she did not yet understand what protection demanded.

What it cost.

And that... That was the most dangerous kind of power.

How far would she go for the ones she chose?

And more importantly...

What would she do to the ones she didn’t deem worthy of protection?

His eyes darkened, just slightly. Because a person who could draw that line without hesitation...

Could become salvation... Or ruin.

Edric let that thought settle. Then, he clapped once.

A servant stepped out from the shadows as if he had always been there, bowing deeply. "Milord."

"Prepare a room for Lady Ava in the West Wing," Edric said.

The servant bowed again and disappeared without a sound.

Kael stepped between his father and Aveline, protectively.

"Why the West Wing?" Kael asked immediately, his brows drawing together. "Why not the East?"

The East Wing was safer. Separate. Controlled. Kael didn’t like that. Not one bit. Because the West Wing wasn’t for guests.

It was for things Edric did not trust out of his sight.

The West Wing... was where Edric himself resided. Kael didn’t like that. Not one bit.

Edric did not answer him. He didn’t even look at him. His attention remained fixed on Aveline, studying her.

"This one..." he said, lifting a hand and pointing, not rudely, but precisely, at Hamilton, who still sat comfortably on Aveline’s arm, entirely unbothered by the tension in the room.

"...is not a garden lizard, is it?"

Aveline instinctively drew Hamilton closer to her chest, her fingers curling protectively around him.

Hamilton peeked over her hand, blinking once at Edric... and then, as if deciding he did not like the man at all...

He let out a tiny, offended huff.

A thin wisp of smoke slipped from his nostrils.

Aveline stiffened. She knew she couldn’t explain Hamilton to this man. And even if she did, she knew what these people thought about these creatures.

Edric stepped closer, and Aveline tilted her head.

"I’ve never seen a lizard that lets out smoke from its nostrils," he said.

Aveline pressed her lips.