The Heroine is My Stepsister, and I'm her Final Boss
Chapter 181 - 182: Tension.

Chapter 181: Chapter 182: Tension.

"I missed you..." Atlas voiced, barely above a whisper.

The words slipped from his mouth like a knife wrapped in silk. They lingered, too soft to be a threat, too sharp to ignore.

Eli didn’t flinch—but she didn’t need to. Her silence was enough. Inside, the words landed like an arrow, fast and uninvited, hitting a place she’d spent years burying under strategy, conquest, and unrelenting command. Her body betrayed no weakness. Her hands didn’t tremble. Her spine didn’t bend.

But something broke. A soundless, private crack behind the fortress of her ribs.

Damn him. Damn him for remembering. Damn her for wanting to say the same.

She should’ve dismissed it. She tried. Oh, God, how she tried. But every waking hour—every night carved by insomnia—he appeared. His voice, that grin, the warmth in a war-torn tent under blood-soaked moons. And now here he was again, daring to be soft when everything around them reeked of smoke and ash.

"I missed you too..." she finally breathed, the words pulling themselves out like splinters. She hated herself for how easy they came. Hated how she meant them.

The aircraft loomed before them, its balloon still cloaked by the Empire’s adaptive camouflage. Cold metal kissed by the dying light of dusk. Eli stepped in first. Regal. Composed. Unreadable.

Atlas followed a heartbeat later—silent, but not unaffected.

He scanned the ship as the door sealed behind them. The tech had evolved. Sharper designs. Quieter hums. The consoles glowed with ghost-blue light, manned by faceless crew dressed in shadowy uniforms who were going down, leaving them be. Empire standards had risen. She’d made sure of that.

But the ship wasn’t what captured him. It was her.

The Empress. His Empress.

Her scent was still the same—something like jasmine layered over steel. Her movements were different, sharper, but he saw the muscle memory under the formality. He remembered every inch of her skin. Every scar she let him kiss. Every night she curled into him after a kill, trembling, pretending she wasn’t.

They reached the briefing chamber. She sat first, spine straight, legs crossed, chin raised. A sovereign poised for blood and negotiation. He took the seat directly across. Leaning back. Watching.

"So... how’ve you been lately?" Atlas asked, voice casual, but his eyes were not. They watched her like a man starved, pretending he wasn’t.

"Busy killing your people," she replied without blinking.

Cold. Efficient.

But her eyes—those goddamn eyes—burned with something else. Expectation. Regret. A hunger she’d outlawed in herself but hadn’t extinguished.

Atlas gave a smile that never reached his teeth. "Touché."

She didn’t return it.

A long silence pooled between them. The ship’s low engine thrum filled the space where other words used to live. Where once there was laughter, breathless confessions, a shared tent in the dark... now there was this. Steel and silence.

"So, let’s cut to the chase," she finally said, voice like flint. "We want half of Berkimhum. And the lanes to the Dark Continent. Uninterrupted. Permanently.

Atlas let out a soft scoff, brushing phantom dust from his pant leg. Blood still darkened the hem—his or someone else’s, who could say? He leaned forward slightly. Then, without warning, he patted his lap.

Once.

Twice.

"Let’s talk peace more efficiently if you just sit here," he said, nodding to the space on his legs with a half-mocking grin.

Eli’s eyes twitched. Just a fraction.

She almost stood. Instinct. Reflex. A cursed memory.

How many times in the Dark Continent had she done just that? After nightmares. After battles. After betrayals. She would find him. He would pat his lap. She would sit, arms crossed, pretending she didn’t need it—then fall asleep with her face buried in his shoulder. A soldier needing no comfort but melting for his.

She stared at him.

"Be professional, Atlas. We’re monarchs now. Not—"

Pat. Pat.

He was relentless.

"I told you," she snapped, heat rising. "I’m not here to—"

Pat. Pat.

He didn’t even speak this time. He just watched her. Waited.

And something in her moved.

She didn’t know when it happened—only that it did. Her body acted before her mind gave it permission. She placed her sensor aside. Didn’t check for weapons. Didn’t scan him with her Seeker Eye. Her long, high-slit gown parted as she walked, every step deliberate, the scar at her left thigh visible now beneath the folds.

And then—she sat.

Slowly. Quietly. As though any sudden motion might break whatever spell this was.

Her breath caught as she felt him beneath her. His warmth. His arms immediately snaking around her waist—not possessive, but certain. Remembering her. Memorizing her again.

She didn’t speak.

Neither did he.

The cabin was cold. But where their skin touched, there was fire.

"...Comfortable?" he asked after a beat, his voice low enough to touch the base of her spine.

"...Yes," she whispered.

A breath. A tremble.

"Was I this easy in the Dark Continent too?" she asked, hating herself for the edge of vulnerability in the question.

Atlas chuckled. A sound that once meant safety.

"No. Much, much easier," he teased.

She smiled before she could stop it. The rare, almost mythical Empress’s smile. Unseen in public for years.

But it faded. Quickly.

The silence that followed wasn’t empty—it was tense, magnetic. Their bodies remembered each other. Their hearts did too. But their nations? Their people? Their titles?

None of it fit in this small ship cabin.

"Let’s forget for a moment," Atlas said softly, forehead pressing against hers. "Forget that we’re monarchs. Forget war. Forget death. Just two survivors. Two people who knew each other. Who..." His voice caught. Then steadied. "Who loved each other."

And with those final words. He felt it. Her final defense breaking as she relaxed on his chest. Laying her head on his shoulder. Her silver hair gleamed, like a waterfall, sprawling on his back.

"....okay..." she finally voiced. Weak but comfortable. "...just for this moment..."

*****

Reader Goals:

50 Golden Tickets = 1 Extra Chapter

150 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter

1 Magic Castle = 2 Extra Chapters

Join discord!!!!!