CHAPTER 96: STOP TRYING TO BE THE HERO

Elyndra laughed, the sound echoing too loudly in every corner of the room, sharp and ugly in a place that should have been quiet.

"Oh, I guess I was right again," she said, pressing a hand to her mouth in mock delight, eyes glinting with cruel amusement. "But why, hmm? Instead of falling for Celeste, you fall for this one?" She tilted her head and tapped Seraphina’s cheek lightly with a finger. "How fascinating."

Auren didn’t answer.

Not because he had nothing to say, but because there was nothing here worth indulging.

Elyndra circled him slowly, her footsteps unhurried, reading and enjoying the silence he gave her more than if he had shouted back.

"So tell me," she continued lightly, "what is it about her? This fragile little phoenix, lost and confused, who doesn’t even know the world she belong in." Her smile sharpened, curling with malicious curiosity. "Is it her fire? Her face? Nah..." She paused deliberately, then gave a careless shrug. "Or is it the little thrill it gives you... knowing she belongs to your best friend?"

Auren didn’t react the way she wanted. If anything, his calm deepened.

"You can twist your words all you want," he said quietly, his voice steady and even. "It won’t make them true."

Elyndra clicked her tongue, she didn’t buy his denial.

Instead of backing off, she stepped closer again, her eyes gleaming with something darker than amusement now.

"You like her," she said, lips curling upward as if saying it aloud pleased her. "You can deny it all you want, Auren, but you’re terrible at hiding that kind of thing."

She let out a mocking little laugh and tilted her head.

"Tell me why," she went on lightly, though her voice had sharpened around the edges. "Celeste—I—was the one who met you first. I was the one who stayed close to you before she ever appeared." Her fingers twitched, almost like she wanted to grab something invisible in front of her. "I even made sure you noticed me. I positioned myself where you’d have no choice but to."

Auren’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

Elyndra’s smile grew brittle.

"I planned it," she admitted proudly. "I wanted you to fall for me. Because you’re one of the closest to Lucian. I thought... if I had you, I could reach him too." Her gaze narrowed, voice lowering. "So tell me... why didn’t it work?"

She stopped right in front of him.

"Why," she repeated softly, "did just two meetings with that no-cry little phoenix ruin my plans?" Her expression twisted into something ugly and incredulous. "Two short moments and she owns what I spent years trying to take."

She laughed again but this time, there was no humor in it.

"You looked at her like I always wanted you to look at me."

Her voice dropped.

"So go on. Say it," she whispered. "Tell me what she has... that I don’t."

Auren didn’t answer her.

Not because he didn’t hear her.

Not because he didn’t understand what she was trying to provoke.

He simply stood there, silent and immovable, letting the quiet stretch between them.

Elyndra mistook it for hesitation, confusion or maybe guilt.

She scoffed when he still said nothing. "What’s wrong?" she taunted lightly. "Did I finally hit the right nerve?"

Auren’s gaze remained steady, but inside, his focus was elsewhere entirely.

He let her speak. He let her spill whatever bitterness she had been holding back for centuries.

Because every second Elyndra wasted on him was another second he spent searching.

Beneath his calm expression, Auren was reaching inward again, following the quiet echo left by the vanished feather, tracing the faintest disturbance buried under Elyndra’s magic. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t obvious. It was like trying to detect a heartbeat through layers of iron, but he could feel something shifting the longer she talked.

"If you won’t speak," she murmured, "then maybe I’ll make you."

She stepped closer until there was no space left between them, her hands lifting without hesitation to slide around the back of his neck. Seraphina’s arms rested there casually.

"You know what, I noticed you used to stand like this when you didn’t know what to say," she whispered softly, leaning in just enough that her breath warmed his skin. "Quiet... patient... monitoring and pretending not to care."

Auren’s body stiffened, but his face gave her nothing.

Elyndra smiled wider.

"Oh, don’t look at me like that," she continued, tightening her arms slightly as if testing how much he would tolerate. "It’s not wrong when it’s just you and me in here, is it?"

Her fingers laced loosely at the nape of his neck, her forehead almost brushing his shoulder as she tilted her face upward.

"You don’t have to answer me with words," she whispered. "I already know."

Auren inhaled slowly, carefully, as if one wrong breath would undo him.

"Say something," she snapped quietly. "Anything."

Auren finally spoke. His voice was low and even. "Let go."

The words landed softly, but they carried no hesitation.

"Even though you wear her body," Auren added quietly, "you are still you."

Elyndra’s smile vanished.

Annoyance bled through her features as she stepped back, clicking her tongue once as if she had grown bored of pretending.

"Of course..." She turned away suddenly, humming a light, unfamiliar tune as she walked toward the bathroom as if nothing had happened at all.

Auren frowned.

"Where are you going?" he asked, unease threading into his voice. The shift in her behavior was too abrupt, too deliberate to be meaningless.

She didn’t answer.

The bathroom door shut behind her.

He moved toward the door and pushed it open and saw her standing in front of the sink, her body angled just enough for him to notice the thin shard of mirror clutched in her hand.

His chest tightened instantly.

Elyndra lifted the shard loosely between her fingers, watching his reflection in the mirror instead of him directly, as if she were merely admiring it.

"Auren," she said lightly, almost lazily, "should I just kill her?"

His breath caught and at that moment, he couldn’t think of anything and even forgot the fact that the seal was still bound to protect the body.

He took a step toward her instantly, his voice lowering with warning rather than panic. "Don’t."

She smiled at the mirror instead of him, turning the shard slightly so the light slid along its sharp edge.

"Why?" she asked as if discussing the weather. "It would end everything so quickly." Her lips curled with quiet malice. "Isn’t it perfect? If you didn’t get her... then Lucian shouldn’t either."

The words struck harder than the blade she held.

Auren stepped closer, his senses flaring, every nerve tuned to the smallest movement of her hand. "That’s not your choice to make."

Elyndra finally shifted her gaze toward him, tilting her head with amused curiosity.

"But it will be," she murmured. "Once you stop trying to be the hero."

Her wrist lifted by a fraction, the shard angling closer to Seraphina’s abdomen, just enough to be unmistakable.

Not a threat anymore.

Auren was close enough now to see the faint tremor in her fingers, not fear, but excitement.

He lifted his hand, ready to stop her.

And Elyndra was already waiting for that.

Because the moment he touched her wrist, when he tried to end it... he would become the one hurting Seraphina.

Not her.

And that... was exactly what she wanted.