Chapter 99 – Collateral
"You did," she said. "You bound all those contracts into yourself. Not just as paper. Not just as legal bindings. You made them yours. You carried them—enforced them. When demons tried to cheat, you didn't call a tribunal. You bled for those terms. You made those pacts sacred. And in doing so, you turned yourself into the center of a living network."
She stepped closer.
"You used yourself as collateral. That speaks more than intention."
Lux looked down, eyes hooded, jaw tight.
She was right. She was annoyingly right.
Though it wasn't… quite as noble as she made it sound.
He hadn't done it for sacrifice.
He hadn't even done it out of some grand, selfless purpose.
He did it for control.
Because Lux Vaelthorn didn't believe in leaving leverage in other people's hands. If he was going to represent contracts, he had to own them. Fully. Irrevocably. Not just on paper. On soul. Every clause etched into the core of his existence.
