And then?—
“I heard shouting.”
His voice cut through the room like a blade.
I turned.
Nikolai stood in the doorway.
Shadowed by the harsh fluorescent lights behind him, he looked unreal. Calm. Composed. But something dark simmered just beneath the surface—coiled like smoke in a bottle, waiting to be uncorked.
My stomach twisted.
He didn’t look at Mikel. He didn’t look at the dented water bottle or the tension dripping from the walls like sweat. He looked at me.
“Let’s go,” he said, voice low. Simple. Steady.
My heart stopped. Just for a second.
He said it like he wasn’t offering. Like it was just a fact of nature. The sun rises. Water falls. Mina goes with Nikolai.
Mikel stiffened beside me, fists curling again.
“What are you doing here?” he spat, his voice cracking on the edge of fury. “You following her now?”
Nikolai didn’t even blink.
He kept his eyes on me. Quiet. Waiting. Like I was the only one who existed in the room.
“Freckles,” he said again. Soft, but firm. A thread of control wrapped in steel.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe.
My brain screamed don’t make this worse. But my soul whispered get out.
Mikel stepped forward, puffed up like a wolf baring its teeth. “She’s not going with you.”
Nikolai moved, just a shift in his weight—but it sent a ripple through the room. Something cold and feral flashed in his eyes. He still looked relaxed. But it was the kind of relaxed that came right before violence.
“Not yet,” he said.
My breath hitched.
The words dropped into the silence like stones in still water, sending everything rippling outward.
I didn’t even look at Mikel. I didn’t want to see his face contorting into whatever toxic cocktail he was about to unleash next.
I looked at Nikolai. Really looked at him.
His lip was still split. Bruising bloomed across his jaw like violets under skin. He hadn’t come here to gloat. He’d come here because he heard me yelling and walked in anyway.
Into this.
“What do you want?” I asked him. My voice was too steady. Too calm for the war raging inside me.
His gaze didn’t waver.
“You.”
