Valmont Series - Inheritance Code

Chapter 8.1 - He Knew Before The System

She was too far inside herself.

Too full.

The Mirror Garden didn't announce arrivals.

It absorbed them.

It let presence enter like water—

Unseen until it was already around you.

And that was how he appeared.

Not as interruption.

But as the kind of stillness that shifts your center of gravity

Sharper. Quieter.

Laced with a pressure that didn't demand attention—only made it impossible to look away.

Then—behind her, calm and exact—

A voice. Low. Certain.

The kind of voice that didn't echo because it didn't need to.

"You chose the right place to fall apart."

Aria turned—slowly. The sting of tears still clung to her lashes, but she didn't bother to hide it. Not here. Not anymore.

He was already watching her.

Cassian Dantes

He stood a few paces away, half-veiled in the reflections of the garden's living chrome. His posture was deliberate—shoulders easy, hands at his sides. Not hiding. Not advancing. Just... there.

He didn't smile. He didn't offer comfort.

His eyes—dark, observant, too calm for his age—held her in place with the weight of someone who understood collapse not as failure... but as function.

"You found the glitch," he said.

"Didn't mean to," Aria murmured.

Cassian's gaze flicked over the room.

"That's usually how it works."

A breath passed.

Not awkward. Just alive.

He stepped forward, slow enough to be read, but not questioned.

"The system doesn't track us in here. Syntax can't hear. AVNX is not watching."

"And you are?" Aria asked.

"I'm not watching," he said. Then, after a pause—

"Because I don't care to."

Not cruel. Just honest.

Uninterested in weakness, uninterested in masks.

She hadn't noticed how close he stood

—until she breathed in.

It didn't hit like Luc's—sharp, oceanic, engineered to leave a mark.

Cassian's was different.

Not made. Not worn.

Just there.

Subtle. Unplaceable.

Like frost caught in stone, or a memory left out in the cold too long to name.

Calm without being soft.

Not meant to be noticed...

But familiar enough to soothe the parts of you that didn't know they were breaking.

It bypassed thought entirely, quieting everything she'd been holding.

She didn't realize she'd stepped closer.

Not a full step. Just enough.

Enough for the edge of his presence to settle around her like a cloak she didn't ask for—

but didn't push away.

Cassian didn't speak. Just stood there—calm, immutable.

And for the first time in hours, Aria felt no threat in silence.

Not because he was warm.

He wasn't.

But there was no edge to his stillness.

No demand hiding in the silence.

Just presence—measured, unwavering.

She should've felt cornered.

She didn't.

And she couldn't explain why.

Only that her pulse slowed, not from control...

but something quieter.

Like her nervous system had already decided:

This one won't hurt you.

Not now.

Maybe not ever.

Next: The Unranked Sovereign — He had no rank. And yet, he stood at the top of the ladder.