“I have something for you,” he says, his red eyes raking over me slowly like he’s ready to eat me alive.
“Something?” I ask, fiddling with the necklace around my neck, trying to steady myself.
He pauses, his gaze glinting for just a moment before he blinks his thoughts away. Without another word, he strides toward the control panel and slaps down on a button, hard.
The room behind the tinted glass lights up in a sickly red glow, buzzing to life, but my stomach sinks the moment I spot what’s in the center of the room, a cold horror spreading through me.
Tears threaten to spill over, but before they can, a rage surges through me. I move fast, bolting for the door, desperate to get out. But the moment my hand touches the handle, his arm wraps around my waist from behind, yanking me back against his chest.
“Get the fuck off me!” I yell, ripping myself out of his arms.
He finally lets go, and I spin around to face him, seething. My glare could shatter glass, but all I feel is the tightness in my chest as my breath gets caught. The room feels like it’s closing in on me, and I can’t tear my eyes away from the window.
They’re gagged and strapped in metal chairs,, the kind that look like something straight out of a medieval torture chamber. My heart plummets, the reality of them being here when I weren’t ready, hits like a physical blow.
“Can they hear us?” I ask, keeping my focus locked on my two foster brothers, Lake and Elias.
“No,” he responds flatly.
“Good.” The word falls from my lips, bitter and shaky.
“You had no right...” I whisper, the words breaking as they leave me, and I look at him.
“Little corpse…”
“No,” I interrupt, voice rising. “If I wanted your help, I would’ve come to you, Wrath. But you took it upon yourself to dig into my past, a past I would have told you about when I was ready, and take everything away from me? My choices. My fucking control. My right to do this myself. Do you even understand that?”
I lean in closer with a fire in my veins. “I was supposed to do this alone. I needed it more than you can ever know. To make sureIwas the one to take them down. Not you. Not anyone else. Just me. It was the only way I could make things right.”
The tears threaten to spill as I continue.
“I wanted tofeelthat power. Just once. I wanted to know that I was the one who was capable of deciding how it ended. But you... you didn’t give me that choice. You took it from me without asking.”
I pause, my breath shallow, the words heavy with hurt. “You think I’m weak, is that it? That I can’t handle my past? That I neededyouto fix it for me? You think I’m fucking grateful? That you can just step into my life like some big, hunky, horrifying villain and make everything fucking better? That’s not how this works. You can’t repair what’s been done to me. OnlyIcan.”
He blinks at me, that twisted, unreadable look flickering in his eyes, like he's trying to dissect my words, strip them apart more than I said aloud. His hands tremble at his sides, fists clenched before he steps forward, slowly, and I lower my head, whipping my tears with the backs of my hands.
When he’s in front of me, dominating the space between us, he lowers onto his knees in front of me, and my eyes drag down to his. His trembling hands gently land on the otter area of my thighs, moving up and over my tutu, tracing my curves like he worships me, until they settle on my corset strapped waist.
“You’re not weak, Aurelia…I fucking am.” His voice is hushed, edged of something dangerous.
I stare into the red spirals in his eyes, churning like a tornado and it’s not rage I see. It’s something terrifyingly beautiful. Respect. Madness. Obsession.
“I’m fucking weak enough to fall to my knees for you… I’m weak enough to drag your past here in chains because I thought... I thought maybe if you saw them suffer quicker, it would loosen the noose around your neck.”
His voice grows hoarser, lower, unravelling thread by thread.
“You don’t get it, do you?” he breathes, staring up at me and I just blink, another tear rolling down my cheek. “You think this was about my control. But it wasn’t…. It was aboutyou… I don’t want to fucking fix you, Aurelia… I… I want tobreakbeside you.”
My breath catches, but I just stay silent, listening intently.
“I’m an evil fucking monster, little corpse... I’ve done… terrible things. There’s no denying that. But I… I’d tear this world the fuck apart for you, piece by piece, if it meant building you a… a place where you didn’t feel like you have to be one all the time too.”
He reaches up, wiping a tear gently away from my cheek with his thumb.
“…You wanted to be strong on your own, but you don’t have to carry it the fuck alone… not with me here. Not when I’d gut hell itself just to watch all that pain crawl out of your eyes…. I won’t take your vengeance, Allure. I’ll just hold your past still while you slice it’s fucking throat open.”
My heart throbs at his deep, meaningful words, a pang of emotion sinking in. Again, he’s making me feel safe. Wanted. Even if my rage and confusion.