It's You

Chapter 21

Zacharias

The chandeliers above the Rebello estate ballroom blazed like captive suns, and yet the place still felt cold to me. Cold, not in temperature, but in weight the kind of chill that seeps into your bones when history and tradition crush down like an iron crown. Every year, the Trust's Anniversary Ball was spectacle and politics blended into a single theatre. Tonight, though, it was more than that it was Estella's declaration that we were unbroken, untouchable, still sovereign in a city that wanted our downfall.

I stood at the threshold, Martius at my side, his hand brushing against the cuff of his suit jacket, a restless tick. Estella had gone ahead, radiant in silver silk that turned her into a blade of moonlight, the very image of a Rebello. She thrived in nights like this—where masks smiled, champagne glittered, and enemies hid beneath diamonds.

And me? I despised it. The music, the gilded walls, the sea of eyes that measured me like I was some living stock. But I walked in anyway. Because that's what the eldest son does he bleeds first, he shields, he stands tall.

Emily clung to my arm, dressed in deep red satin that fit her like sin. She looked stunning, of course. She always did. A part of me remembered the girl I once thought I'd burn the world for. Now, she was an echo walking beside me, fragile and ornamental, clashing against me in every damn step. She was fire but it was fire that no longer warmed me, only burned my patience.

And then... Chaitra.

She was across the room, speaking to Estella's acquaintances, unaware of how the entire ballroom seemed to bend around her presence. Midnight blue. That was her choice. The gown wrapped around her like it was made of shadows and storms, curling at her waist, spilling in waves. No jewels—none were needed. Her skin was her shimmer, her eyes the snare.

Red and Blue. Fire and Night. Emily and Chaitra.

My chest tightened, my jaw locking as I forced myself not to look too long. But every damn second, I was comparing. Red—the past, the weight, the obligation I couldn't cast off without consequence. Blue—the disruption, the temptation, the storm that dared me to surrender control.

Martius leaned closer to me, smirking under his breath. "Careful, brother. You're staring too hard. The wolves in this room notice hunger faster than blood."

I didn't reply. My eyes stayed on Chaitra, though she never once turned my way. She kept her chin high, lips curved in polite defiance, deliberately distant. The last week of her stay—she didn't know I knew. She thought she was leaving quietly, vanishing like she'd only brushed past my world.

But she underestimated me. No one walks out of my orbit without consequence.

Estella's laughter carried across the hall as she guided a tall man into the center of the crowd. Alexus. Her classmate. An heir in his own right, cut from silk and arrogance, dressed in ivory with a careless ease that made people forgive his sharpness. And he, of course, had his eyes fixed on Chaitra.

Estella's plan was clear. She didn't have to spell it out.

Emily tightened her grip on my arm, leaning in. "She looks... charming tonight, doesn't she?"

Her voice dripped with a sweetness I knew too well—the kind meant to slice.

Charming. No, Chaitra looked like a goddamn storm dressed as a woman.

I forced a smirk, slow, deliberate, a weapon. "Charming is too small a word."

Emily's nails dug into my sleeve, but I didn't care. Because across the hall, Alexus was bowing to Chaitra, Estella glowing with victory beside them. And Chaitra my Chaitra gave a smile that was too soft, too dangerous.