Elara did not move away from him, even though every instinct she had developed in the past weeks told her she should.
Instead, she stood her ground, her gaze fixed on Adrian with a steadiness that came less from calm and more from refusal. There was something deeply unsettling about the way he carried himself, something that made retreat feel less like safety and more like surrender.
"You're talking too openly," she said after a moment, her voice controlled, though the tension beneath it was unmistakable. "Why?"
Adrian watched her closely, as if measuring the weight of the question rather than reacting to it. The faint curve of his lips suggested he had expected it.
"Because I don't need to hide anything," he replied.
His tone was smooth, almost casual, yet there was an edge beneath it that made the statement feel less like honesty and more like a declaration of control.
