Beatrice POV
I left out adjectives.
I left out speculation.
I left out emotion.
I wrote as a witness.
And witnesses don't get to choose what happens after.
As I reached the final section, the pressure returned - sharper now. A warning flare, not from the system, but from something older. Deeper.
Blood magic responding to proximity.
Not activated yet.
Poised.
Waiting for trigger conditions to be met.
I could stop.
Even now.
I could save someone I had never met. Someone whose name would never enter a report. Someone who would never know they had been spared because a woman they'd never heard of chose silence.
That was the cruelty of it.
Silence always feels merciful in the moment.
I thought of the runner pinned between zones.
Of Marcus standing over clean logs and irreversible damage.
Of Aurora being cited everywhere and obeyed nowhere.
Of Stefano becoming unbelievable without ever being wrong.
