I might not be able to defeat Caius outright within his own domain—the advantage there clearly leaned toward him—but that didn't mean I had to keep playing by his rules.
If his control came from imposing his will over the space, then all I had to do was introduce mine and break that control apart from within.
Make him feel it.
What he had been forcing onto me this entire time.
"Tell me this, Caius...What do you think happens when your target summons his own domain?"
The words landed, and I saw it in the way his expression shifted, the meaning settling in as he processed what I had just implied. The calm he had been holding onto twisted, something darker pushing through as the realization took hold.
"What do you mean by that?"
His voice had changed.
There was caution in it now.
And something else.
Disbelief.
But it didn't stay there for long. I watched it shift, watched the doubt creep in, the tension building as he began to understand that I wasn't speaking hypothetically.
