"Kill Lucian… if you want your parents to live."
Her heart stopped.
The words hit her like a blade to the chest. The air in the room turned ice-cold, thick with dread. Silence fell sharp and suffocating as if the entire world paused to listen.
Avey stared at Max, her lips trembling, her breath caught halfway through her throat.
"K… ki… kill Lucian?" she stuttered, the words barely forming, stuck somewhere between disbelief and horror.
Her whole body shook, not with fear but something darker. Betrayal.
Her eyes, once pleading and desperate, slowly turned cold dangerously cold. The warmth, the respect, the fragile hope she held for the god-like being in front of her began to vanish.
"Are you out of your mind, Max?" she said, voice suddenly sharp cutting through the silence like a knife. Her tone wasn't pleading anymore. It was flat. Hollow. Cold.
The same girl who just moments ago had looked at him like a savior, now stared at him like he was a monster.
