Not meant to break skin.
But it lands.
His head turns slightly with the force of it. A red mark blooms along his cheek.
The room goes dead silent.
Guards freeze. Someone inhales sharply and doesn’t exhale.
Konstantin doesn’t move at first.
Then—slowly—he turns back to me.
There’s no fury in his eyes. No explosion. Just something infinitely worse: shock, followed by a dangerous stillness, like a predator deciding whether to strike or retreat.
My hand trembles at my side. My heart is pounding so hard it feels like it might crack my ribs.
“I am not your possession,” I say, voice shaking but loud in the quiet. “You don’t get to decide whether I exist.”
For a long moment, he says nothing.
Then he steps closer—not threatening, not gentle—just there, towering, presence swallowing the space between us. His jaw tightens. His voice drops low enough that only I can hear.
“You should never hit a man like me,” he says softly. “Because men like me don’t forget.”
My stomach drops.
I lift my hands, instinctively pushing at his chest, trying to reclaim space that suddenly feels stolen. He catches my wrist.
Not rough.
Not painful.
But firm enough that heat shoots straight up my arm and settles somewhere dangerous in my chest.
His fingers close around me like a warning.
He leans in, breath heavy, eyes dark—too dark—his voice vibrating through bone instead of air.
“Never run from me,” he murmurs. “Never hide from me.”
A pause. Deliberate. Final.
“I will always find you.”
Something in me snaps. Not fear, exactly. Refusal.
I yank my arm free, my pulse roaring in my ears. I won’t give him tears. I won’t give him that.
I turn and walk away before he can say another word.
The balcony doors are cold under my palms as I shove them open. Rain-slick air rushes over me, sharp and clean, cutting through the suffocating weight of the room behind me. I step outside, gripping the railing, breathing hard, staring out at the gray sky and the grounds below.
I need space.
I need distance.
Behind me, I feel it before I hear it—the shift in the room, the restrained violence of a man forcing himself to stay still.