"Why would I need her to survive?" Lucian laughed, thin and cold. "This marriage existed for a reason… to make sure your clan didn't die out. I could kill her right now if I wanted."
The words hung in the room like a thrown knife.
Darian's face went still. For the first time since he'd entered the manor, the phoenix's composure cracked. "My lord—" he began, voice low, but Lucian cut him off with a look that froze the air between them.
"You don't understand what 'extinct' means to me," Lucian said quietly, the mockery gone. The grin faded into something harder, older. "I could snuff out every last phoenix. One precise change in temperature, one command, and those flames never rise again." He let the thought sit there, tasting it like a threat.
Darian swallowed. "You wouldn't—"
"I wouldn't?" Lucian's jaw tightened, "Ah—because of those stupid ancestor blood vows?" His voice snapped like ice.
