Seeing Isolde's unshaken confidence, Roanna laughed softly and descended from her throne. "Very well. I will play with you for a while."
"Before that, tell me where Seamus is," Madeline interrupted, her tone cutting through their rising tension.
She found the standoff between the two women amusing, but unlike Isolde, she knew her priorities.
Roanna smirked. "Hah. Defeat me, and Seamus is yours. You can't claim a trophy before winning the race, can you?"
Madeline rolled her eyes, unimpressed. She stepped back toward the corner, surrounding herself with a shimmering barrier—both psychic and physical—just in case the fight turned catastrophic.
Secretly, she hoped Isolde would lose. It would make things simpler while she searched for Seamus through the lingering threads of illusion and realm within the manor.
But she already knew how this would end.
"Then let's begin," Isolde said, her voice calm yet charged. "The battle that will end everything."
