The applause still echoed in Lyra's ears as she stepped backstage.
Her pulse hadn't settled yet. Not from fear.
From adrenaline.
From the strange, electric feeling of knowing she had just taken something back that Elias had been feeding on for weeks.
Aurelian met her near the corridor exit.
He didn't speak at first.
He just looked at her like he was confirming she was still real.
"You were extraordinary," he said quietly.
Lyra shook her head. "No. I was stubborn."
"That too."
For a moment, they stood there in a silence that wasn't tense. Just shared.
Then her phone vibrated.
Both of them looked at it.
Neither of them wanted to.
Lyra opened the message.
You looked for me.
Her throat tightened.
She hadn't realized she had.
She typed back before she could second-guess herself.
I didn't have to. You wanted to be seen.
This time, the reply came slower.
Perhaps.
Aurelian frowned slightly. "He's uncertain."
Lyra looked at him. "He's curious."
"That's worse," Aurelian said.
---
They reentered the gala floor.
The atmosphere had changed.
People approached Lyra now with admiration, compliments, invitations. Industry figures who had only known her name from rumors were suddenly offering opportunities.
She smiled politely, nodded, spoke when required.
But part of her attention was elsewhere.
Scanning.
Searching.
Not out of fear.
Out of awareness.
She wanted to see him.
Because the invisible presence was starting to feel more dangerous than a visible one.
---
Near the far end of the hall, by a marble column, she finally saw him.
Gray suit. Hands in pockets. Watching the crowd, not her.
Like a man who had come to observe human behavior, not participate in it.
Lyra stopped walking.
Aurelian noticed immediately. "You see him."
"Yes."
"Don't approach."
But she already was.
---
Elias didn't move as she walked toward him.
Didn't look surprised.
Didn't look nervous.
Just… interested.
Up close, he looked ordinary.
That unsettled her more than anything.
"You came," he said calmly.
"So did you," Lyra replied.
Aurelian stayed a few steps behind, close enough to intervene, far enough not to escalate.
Elias's eyes flicked briefly toward him. "You brought your guardian."
"I brought a witness," Lyra said.
A faint smile touched his lips. "You're different in person."
"So are you," she replied. "Less impressive."
He laughed softly. Not offended. Amused.
"I wondered when you'd stop playing through screens," Elias said.
Lyra crossed her arms. "You wanted me here."
"Yes."
"Why?"
He tilted his head slightly. "Because I wanted to see if you were real."
She frowned. "Real?"
"Not afraid. Not pretending. Not shaped by him."
Lyra glanced back at Aurelian briefly. "I'm shaped by myself."
Elias studied her like she was proving a theory.
"Good," he said quietly.
---
Aurelian stepped forward then.
"This ends tonight," he said calmly.
Elias looked at him without hostility.
"No," he replied. "It begins tonight."
Lyra felt the air shift between them.
She understood something in that moment.
Elias wasn't interested in ruining her.
He was interested in what she would become under pressure.
And that realization made her skin crawl.
"I'm not your experiment," she said.
Elias nodded slightly. "Not anymore."
That word hit harder than anything else.
Anymore.
---
He stepped back.
"I think I've learned what I needed," he said.
Lyra's voice was sharp. "Which is?"
Elias looked at her one last time.
"That you're the only variable he can't control."
Then he turned and walked away into the crowd.
No rush.
No drama.
Just disappearance.
And somehow—
That felt like the most dangerous move yet.