Selene blinked, caught off guard.

"What I’m telling you isn’t about forgiveness." Eira shook her head, eyes gleaming with dark understanding. "It’s about not carrying that weight alone. Because you don’t have to."

The words hung heavy between them, thicker than the shadows cloaking Selene.

"Why do you think Phei challenged Marcus directly?" Eira asked quietly. "Why do you think he’s willing to do anything — cross any line, pay any price — to make that bastard pay?"

"Because he’s—"

"He’ll go to any length for your justice," Eira cut in, voice hardening like tempered steel. "He’ll kill Marcus himself if he has to. So why the hell are you trying to shoulder all the revenge and corruption by yourself? Why risk losing the last pieces of yourself when you have someone who wants to share that darkness with you?"

Selene trembled.

A small shudder rolled through her, making the shadows flicker and dance like dying candle flames in a cruel wind.

Eira reached out and placed a small hand on her shoulder, grounding her with surprising strength.

"Also," she continued, tone shifting to something more practical and ruthless, "you know you still can’t kill a Legacy yet. Because of your connection to Phei, killing Marcus would be the same as him doing it himself.

"And I already warned you what the consequences of that would be."

Selene nodded slowly. The trembling eased slightly beneath Eira’s touch.

"What about the others?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Eira gave a careless shrug, popping the lollipop back into her mouth for a moment before speaking around it.

"They’re just pests. Whether you kill them or not, they don’t carry enough weight or the fate to matter." A small, dangerous smile curved her lips. "Or corrupt you much. Show them no mercy. Consider it training. After you’re done playing with the small fry... come back to my Master’s side like his woman you are."

Selene’s whole body convulsed.

Not a small tremor this time — a full, violent shudder that made the shadows around her scatter wildly before rushing back to reform, again and again, as if something monstrous inside her was clawing to break free.

"I can’t—" Her voice cracked and shattered completely. "I’m... I’m dirty—"

Dark tears — thick, liquid night — streamed down her cheeks, hidden beneath layers of living shadow. Violet eyes that had once been warm and full of light now glistened with something far more broken.

"That bastard touched me and I’m— I can’t let Phei see me like this... I’m filthy—"

It was moments like these that made Eira wish she could drag Marcus Heavenchild into the Eternal Prison herself.

She would subject him to every torture she had endured... and then invent brand new ones just for him. Make him suffer for centuries, except worse — because at least her own tormentors had never pretended to be anything but monsters.

Marcus had worn the smiling face of a prince while committing the worst kind of sins.

Eira sighed softly.

"Selene." Her voice turned gentle now. Patient. Almost kind. "You realize you’re still a complete virgin, right?"

The shadows surrounding Selene went very, very still.

"Marcus tried to rape you. But he failed."

Eira held her gaze steady, crystalline eyes piercing straight through the layers of protective darkness surrounding Selene.

"Only his filthy Angelic power managed to ripple through you — tearing at your insides, clashing violently with your Eternal Shadow Bloodline, messing you up internally before he even pushed in and killed you." She let the brutal truth sink in.

"He still thinks he succeeded. He didn’t. Your bloodline protected your purity from his pathetic, worthless cock. And in return... it left him a broken cripple."

Selene’s breath hitched sharply.

"You’re still intact, Selene. Completely untouched." Eira squeezed her shoulder with surprising strength. "I’ve told you this before. I know trauma doesn’t give a damn about facts — it lives in the body and grips the mind. But the truth is still the truth."

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to something raw and viciously satisfied.

"His Angelic bloodline tried to force itself inside you... and your Shadow bloodline bit back — hard. Now he’ll never know what a real pussy feels like with a cock that can’t even get hard!" A dark, gleeful edge sharpened her words.

"That’s what the bastard gets for trying to force himself on the protected woman of a Cosmic Dragon."

Eira’s tone softened again, almost gentle.

"Every last trace of his disgusting Angelic power — every filthy residual of that power he left inside you — was completely burned away by the Seed during your awakening. Your bloodline purged it. There is nothing of him left in you."

Her voice turned tender, almost maternal.

"So why do you still think you’re dirty?"

Eira smiled from the back seat as Phei drove through the glittering streets toward Amber’s place.

Pieces were slowly sliding into place.

With Selene’s return from the grave, the slow reveal of Legacy secrets, and the growing cracks spiderwebbing through foundations that had stood unchallenged for generations... her Master was inching closer and closer to the final stage.

The moment when every thread he had carefully woven would finally pull tight, and the web would snap shut around everyone who had ever dared wrong him or his women.

This trip was going to bring even more pieces together.

Only a few people remained to wait for now. A few final players who needed to fall into position before he could move as one unstoppable force — a single, inevitable entity with all of them at his side.

One of those pieces still lay frozen in an ice bed, waiting.

The last of two women he didn’t yet know he would see again.

Eira’s smile widened, sharp and knowing.

Hurry up, little Phoenix, she thought with dark affection. Rise from the ashes. Let every wound be reborn flawlessly. And cleanse the filth from his path.

****

She flickered effortlessly from the back seat to the passenger side, materializing beside Phei with the casual grace of a being who never bothered with doors or seatbelts.

"You realize the death of Chief Morrison has shifted quite a few pieces on the board, right?"

Phei nodded, eyes fixed on the road. "Yes."

"And you realize Kyle’s family is only buying time? That arrest was nothing more than a temporary setback for their precious golden boy."

Another calm nod. "That’s exactly what Maya said. I’d be shocked if they let him rot in there for more than two nights after Morrison’s death."

Eira studied his profile — the hard set of his jaw, the dangerous calm in his eyes.

"That means you have to make a decision before they pull him out. No?"

Phei smiled, slow and cold.

"I know." His hands stayed relaxed on the wheel, utterly steady. "But no — I don’t have to make any decision. It was never really a choice. There were never any options to begin with." He glanced at her, eyes gleaming with quiet certainty. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"And even if there were... I’d still choose the same thing."

Eira smirked, satisfaction radiating from her crystalline form like dark starlight.

"That’s the spirit." She leaned back, wings shimmering faintly. "So tonight?"

Phei nodded once, decisive.

"Tonight."

He smiled — a sharp, predatory curve of the lips that promised blood and finality.