“Let me be the judge of that, even if I’m sure you’ll take pleasure in it, which would defeat the whole purpose of punishing you.”
“Lucie wouldn’t have wanted—”
Levi’s palm snapped into the doorframe, his neck angling toward me in a swift motion, his breaths quick and uneven.
“Don’t say her name,” he growled, his brows creasing, strands of his hair swaying before his eyes.
For a moment, the mask he wore, that veneer of control, shattered, revealing a raw torrent of pain lurking beneath the surface. Levi was still hurting. The knot in my heart stopped me from breathing. It was as if snakes were squeezing it until I suffocated.
“What do you want from me?” My voice quivered.
“You’ll find out soon enough, my broken doll.”
“I’m not a doll.”
Levi’s lips curled into a sly smirk as he stepped fully into my dorm, not bothering to seek permission. His sharp eyes roamed over every detail of my space, from the book Yasmine had given me to my violin resting on the desk. A lump formed in my throat as I watched his fingers grazing it, triggering the memories of what happened to the Cigno Nero.
With a low chuckle, he broke the silence. “You shouldn’t get too cozy with Sylas, by the way.”
“And let me guess, I should trust you instead?”
I wasn’t the type to bite out. I was the type to replay an argument in my head and think of all the things I should have said, but never did in the midst of action, but with Levi, somehow, the words flowed easily.
He stalked toward me, moving with the deadly grace of a black swan on the prowl. “You and I both know you shouldn’t. But the question is, who are you, Dalia? You act like a saint, the precious obedient daddy’s doll, but what lies underneath all that charade?”
I took advantage of the moment to slide toward my desk, positioning myself to shield my violin from his view while holding his stare.
“But don’t you worry, I’ll soon find out.” Levi smiled. He smiled the same way he had four years ago. A smile was usually an act of kindness, yet on Levi, it was a weapon. “I’ll dissect your soul.”
“Why do you pretend to be this cruel? I don’t buy it.” Grandma had told me that cruelty came from people suffering deep on the inside; it was a desperate cry for help.
“Because I can.” He stepped forward. “Because I like it.” Another step. “Because it’s who I am.”
I bumped into the desk, but he didn’t close the small gap separating us. “I don’t believe you.”
“Then believe that you connected yourself to my Wi-Fi, remember? By the way, you have terrible taste in passwords—‘IL0V3music,’ really? You should change it.”
I shook my head, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment and irritation. I’d picked that password when I was twelve. “You hacked into my stuff? You really have no shame.”
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Levi’s voice grew darker, his hand resting on the desk, trapping my only way out—unless I crawled to my bed, not like it’d stop him.
I knew what he implied: that I was the one who’d intruded in his house first, and he was returning the favor.
“Yes,” I asserted.
“Good.”
That single word sent shivers down my spine as he petted Yasmine’s cat, who had jumped on the desk to cuddle with him.Traitor.
“I have nothing to hide.” I hated how pathetic my voice sounded—barely audible; weak.
“Be careful, you don’t want to challenge someone like me.” The slightest curl of his lips stalled the breath in my lungs. “Why do you always wear those ribbons in your hair?”
I tore my eyes away, my silly heart responding to him with fear, adrenaline, and something else, probably rage building in the pit of my stomach. “It’s personal.”
“Are you scared of me now?”
I gulped. “You’ll never scare me.”
