They told him she had betrayed him.

The proof arrived neatly packaged—folders stamped with clearance seals, signed testimonies, security footage that cut away just before the truth.

Clean.

Convincing.

Efficient.

Erik did not hesitate.

One order was all it took.

Steel walls sealed her cell, locking her away from the world—and from him.

Months passed.

Her absence became a wound he refused to examine. He called it justice. Told himself she had chosen her side, that traitors deserved nothing more than iron bars and silence.

And yet—

When the truth finally surfaced, it came jagged and undeniable.

A lie.

Every piece of it.

It shattered something in him far more violently than her supposed betrayal ever had.

He unlocked the cell himself.

The door slid open with a low metallic groan.

She didn’t look at him.

Didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Erik stood there for a moment longer than he meant to, the metal frame of the door twisting slightly beneath his grip.

Steel bent easily for him—curling and warping under the weight of his anger.

He could command iron.

Bend entire arsenals.

Pull weapons from the sky.

But there was no force in the world powerful enough to undo the thing he had already done.

And as the silence between them stretched thin—

Erik realized something far more frightening than betrayal.

He didn’t know if she would ever let him try.