Villain's Last Chance
Chapter 31: The Weight of Power

Chapter 31: The Weight of Power

Here’s Chapter 31, fully expanded to ensure it’s over 1000 words without any extra explanations.

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Chapter 31: The Weight of Power

The city gates loomed before us, bathed in the flickering glow of the lanterns lining the entrance. It should have felt like coming home. It didn’t.

I sat in silence, hands clasped tightly together as the carriage rolled to a stop. The Codex’s power still thrummed inside me, a persistent echo of something I didn’t yet understand. The others felt it too. They had to. Even Marek, usually the first to crack a joke, had been uncharacteristically silent the entire ride back.

The temple had fallen, but the war was just beginning.

Cairon stepped out first, his broad frame casting a shadow over the cobbled path as he moved with his usual, calculated grace. The guards stationed at the gate stiffened at his presence. It wasn’t just out of respect for his name—there was something else.

They sensed it.

The change in the air.

The shift in me.

I followed him, keeping my chin high as I stepped into the dim torchlight. Marek trailed behind, muttering something under his breath about "dramatic entrances."

The guards barely glanced at him.

Their eyes were locked on me.

I didn’t like the way they hesitated.

One of them, a younger man with the High Order’s crest embroidered on his sleeve, stepped forward. His gaze flickered to Cairon, as if waiting for him to speak. When Cairon said nothing, the guard hesitated before finally addressing me.

"You’ve been marked."

The words were quiet, but they hit harder than any blow.

Marked.

I clenched my jaw. "I don’t know what you mean."

The guard frowned. "Your eyes—"

"Stand down." Cairon’s voice was sharp, cutting through the night like a blade. His golden gaze flicked over the guards, daring them to challenge his authority.

No one did.

The hesitation lingered for a breath longer before the guard finally stepped aside. "Proceed."

Marek let out a dramatic sigh as we moved past them. "Well, that wasn’t unsettling at all."

I said nothing.

Because he was right.

Something had changed.

And the worst part? I didn’t know what.

---

A Whisper in the Dark

The estate was quiet when we arrived. Too quiet.

Servants usually flitted about at this hour, tending to the halls and preparing for the night’s end. But tonight, the corridors felt empty. Hollow.

Cairon strode ahead without a word, disappearing down the west hall toward his private chambers. He didn’t ask if I was alright.

He didn’t have to.

I climbed the grand staircase slowly, each step heavier than the last. My body ached, exhaustion settling into my bones, but rest felt like an impossible thing. The Codex’s mark hadn’t faded. It lingered in me, thrumming beneath my skin, pressing against my ribs like it was trying to escape.

I reached my chambers and shut the door behind me.

The silence inside was almost deafening.

I walked to the vanity, fingers ghosting over the cool glass of the mirror. My reflection stared back at me, unchanged—yet undeniably different.

A trick of the dim lighting.

Or maybe not.

The candle beside me flickered. A small thing. Barely noticeable.

But then—a whisper.

"You’re not ready."

I went still.

The voice hadn’t come from inside the room.

It had come from inside me.

The candlelight flickered again, the flame stretching unnaturally before snapping back into place. I turned slowly, scanning the room for something—someone—that I already knew wasn’t there.

And yet, I wasn’t alone.

"You think you control it?"

The voice was soft. Velvet-smooth. Too close.

I took a step back. My heart slammed against my ribs.

"It controls you."

A cold wind swept through the chamber. The candle extinguished.

Darkness swallowed the room whole.

And then—nothing.

The presence was gone.

But it had left something behind.

A message.

A warning.

I wasn’t in control.

Not yet.

---

The Weight of Truth

I didn’t sleep that night.

By the time dawn’s first light stretched across the horizon, I was still sitting at my desk, hands folded tightly beneath my chin. My thoughts were a tangled mess.

I needed answers.

And I needed them now.

I found Cairon in the west hall, dressed and ready for the day as if the events of last night hadn’t happened at all.

He didn’t look surprised to see me.

"You should’ve rested," he said simply.

I ignored that. "You knew, didn’t you?"

Cairon’s golden eyes locked onto mine. "Knew what?"

"That the Codex wouldn’t let me go so easily."

A muscle ticked in his jaw. He didn’t answer right away, and that told me everything I needed to know.

"You did," I accused.

Cairon exhaled slowly. "It’s not about what I knew. It’s about what you were willing to risk."

Anger coiled in my chest. "I didn’t have a choice."

"There’s always a choice."

His voice was calm, but his eyes burned.

And for the first time, I realized something I hadn’t before.

Cairon was afraid.

Not for himself.

For me.

I opened my mouth to argue, but the words never came. A sharp knock at the door interrupted whatever I had been about to say.

Marek strode in without waiting for permission, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

"We have a problem," he announced.

Cairon’s attention snapped to him. "What is it?"

Marek ran a hand through his hair. "A messenger just arrived."

"From who?" I asked.

Marek met my gaze.

And then, for the first time in all the years I’d known him, he looked genuinely uneasy.

"From the High Order."

Silence fell.

I barely breathed.

The High Order did not send messengers lightly.

This wasn’t just a problem.

This was a summon.

And it wasn’t hard to guess why.

The temple’s collapse. The Codex. The power that still pulsed inside me like a second heartbeat.

The High Order wanted answers.

And if I wasn’t careful...

They’d take them by force.

And I really wasn’t ready for that to happen to me.