Page 68 of Bloom in Darkness

I turn back toward Sabine. "Seriously?"

Sabine holds out her hand. “Phone.”

“No.”

She keeps her palm there. “You came here demanding a conversation. We’re going to finish it without Bryn King ripping another door off its hinges.”

“He’s never ripped your door off its hinges.”

Her expression doesn’t change. “Not for lack of wanting to.”

The Beta moves closer. My pulse jumps, but my head is clear. I don't fight him when he takes the phone because I'm still sore enough from the Bloom crash to know exactly how stupid that would be. I stare at Sabine until she sighs.

Sabine nods toward the chair in front of her desk. “Sit down.”

“I prefer standing.”

“Of course you do.” She leaves me there and crosses toward the garment rack instead.

She crosses to the garment bag hanging from the end of a rolling rack and unzips it, revealing a dark formal suit in my size. Of course it is. Sabine decided how this conversation would end before I ever walked through the door.

"You are attending the Night of Scarlet," Sabine says. "You are going to walk into a room full of people who can erase that debt in a single signature, and you are going to stop pretending two men with a rescue complex have changed the math."

"They're not paying it."

"Good. Then you understand why this matters."

"That's not what I meant."

Sabine steps closer. "You have spent years telling me you wanted out. This is out. Choose a Valla who can settle the account, return his rose, and by the end of the night the balance is gone. You can keep dancing if you want. You can stop. I won't care because the debt will be paid."

For one ugly second, I want it. I want the number gone. I want to stop opening statements and finding charges I don't remember agreeing to. I want to buy shoes without wondering whether Sabine will find a way to bill me for those too.

Rourke's message comes back to me: The Kings cannot keep buying me out of every obligation. Sabine's version only changes who pays the balance.

“What if I choose someone who isn’t on your list?”

Sabine’s brows lift. “Why would you?”

“Because it’s my choice.”

“Choice does not erase debt.”

“I know.” I look at the suit instead of letting her drag me back toward the number again. “That doesn’t make the choice yours.”

She tries the balance again, then the years I've worked, then the cost of walking away. Every argument circles back to the Night of Scarlet. Sabine doesn’t need me to promise her anything tonight; she only needs me in that room with the debt hanging over my head.

“Fine. I’ll go to the Night of Scarlet.”

Sabine pauses like she doesn’t trust the answer yet. “That’s all?”

“That’s all I’m agreeing to.”

Sabine nods once. "Good."

I step closer to the desk and put both hands on the papers between us. “I’ll show up, follow the event rules, and take whatever roses I want to take. At the end of the night, I decide which ones go back.”

“Astra.”