The mark on Sofia's neck was still dark and angry, indicating it was a fresh bruise.
Tatiana hadn't spoken a single word for three days.
What about Lila?
Like a true captain surveying her grounds, Lila strutted through the mansion and corridors, blood caked under her fingernails, a deep-seated challenge to any fool willing enough to clash gazes with her.
Viktor surreptitiously observed the whole scene unfold, bearing witness to the consuming wildfire that had ignited in silence.
He kept his mouth shut when Sofia chose not to step into the dining hall.
He kept his mouth shut when Tatiana quivered the moment she noticed Lila's presence.
The silent treatment, as he chose, seemed fundamentally wrong; wronger in fact, than anything he could serve up in words.
Because Lila's first scar and her last word that night, something in between had less of a rotation and more of a magnitude. It was quite apparent she wasn't simply existing any longer.
Feels a pinch stronger, doesn't it? She was in command.
She was ruling!
_____________________________________________________________________________
Elsewhere... In the North!
"Distancing yourself from Lila? Those tend to result in broken limbs."
Sergei Petrov, lips pursed, set fire to a cigar as if it were a body in a mosaic of parts—a creation of absolute unfeeling elegance. He took a long drag after it ignited as if his entire life depended on the kiss it left behind, chugging on bitter smoke laced with fumes far darker than the will of fire itself.
"Inside source of Viktor's house mentions something along the lines of…" the man spoke, prompting a sigh in Sergei, "disturbance."
Sergei raised an eyebrow. "Tatiana?"
"Choked unconscious."
"Sofia?"
"Bruised. Quiet. Scared."
Sergei exhaled a puff of smoke. "By Viktor?"
The man shook his head. "By her."
"Her?"
The source hesitated. "The girl. Lila."
That caught Sergei's attention.
He leaned forward, expression unreadable.
"Viktor's pet?" he asked.
"Not anymore."
The man cleared his throat. "They say she stood against both wives alone. Took them down. That she left blood on the crystal and a blade on the table."
Sergei smiled.
Not soft. Not kind.
Interested.
"Tell me, do they still call her his queen?"
The man hesitated. "No, sir. They call her something else now."
"What?"
The man swallowed. "His replacement."
_________________________________________________________________
The Slow Fall of a Kingdom
Back at the mansion, Viktor sat in his office with the door locked and a glass full of something older than his regrets. He stared at the message that had just come through on his private line—anonymous, encrypted, unsigned.
"You taught her too well.
She's no longer yours.
She's ours now.
— S"
He didn't answer.
He didn't smash the glass.
He just closed his eyes.
And standing in the shadows behind them, Lila emerged – not the girl he saved, but the woman who now walked chainless, grinning with blossoms on her scars and blood on her smile.
He engineered her to endure.
But her thriving was unexpected.
Now…
Now, she was no longer his asset, but a force in her own right.
______________________________________________________________
The Beginning of an Invisible Conflict
"Sergei" He heard his name echo through his mind and jolted back into reality as if someone was calling for me. Longing for rest, I found solace at the edge of his domain; There, the city lay before him, a ticking bomb awaiting to go off soon.
"She's rising," Sergei thought, "And Viktor? Ha, he's already lost her"
"Should we move?" One of his followers suggested.
With a smile, he took another drag from his cigar.
"No," he whispered, "We wait, Allow the fractures to widen. The queen will bring her paws down, shattering the king to pieces all by herself.''