Darius's jaw flexed slightly, but he said nothing. Not yet.
"I thought," Cassandra continued, her voice nearly trembling now, "that if I got close to you, if I charmed you, seduced you, whatever...I thought it would hurt him. I thought it would break him. And it did."
She looked down, wringing her fingers in her lap, ashamed but unwilling to stop.
"But the funny thing is... once it worked, once I saw the anger in his eyes, I didn't feel anything. Not satisfaction. Not joy. Not even relief. Just... emptiness."
A long pause followed. She finally looked back at Darius, half-expecting to see a storm brewing in his expression.
But he was still.
Calm.
Stoic.
Too calm.
And yet... beneath that stillness, Cassandra felt it. Felt him. Felt the ache he didn't show, the tension threaded throu
