The way her voice broke just slightly on the last word. Like it cost her something. Like hating me wasn’t as easy as she wanted it to be.
I stepped in one final time, close enough for her to feel the heat rolling off me, close enough to make her breath stutter just once.
“No, sweetheart,” I murmured, voice dark and full of promise, “you hate what I make you feel.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came. Not at first.
“You think you know everything,” she hissed, backing toward the door like I was fire she didn’t want to touch—but couldn’t stop staring at.
“I know you,” I said softly. “And I know that hate… is just passion misdirected. Burn it long enough, and it turns into something else.”
“I’d rather burn alive than fall for a monster like you.”
I laughed once, low and dangerous. “That’s the problem, Persephone. You’re already burning.”
She didn’t respond. Couldn’t. Her hand found the doorknob, white-knuckled, like she needed the cold metal to anchor herself.
Still, she hesitated.
Still, she looked back.
Like some part of her knew she wasn’t walking away from me—not really. Just pretending she could.
“Run, little goddess,” I said quietly, folding my hands behind my back. “I won’t stop you.”
She didn’t answer.
Just yanked the door open and disappeared down the hall, heels striking the floor in a rhythm that sounded too much like a war drum.
And I let her go.
Because she needed the illusion of freedom.
Because she needed to think she was still in control.
But she’d be back.
They always came back when the flames didn’t go out.
And with her?
I never planned on putting the fire out at all.
Chapter 19
Seph
I stepped out of the locker room; the door slamming shut behind me like a warning. The sound echoed down the hall, sharp and final, but it didn’t drown out the pounding in my chest.
God, I couldn’t breathe.
I leaned against the cold wall, fingers digging into the brick like it could ground me—like it could pull me out of the storm he left in his wake.
Hades.
Those eyes. That voice. That impossible heat.
He’d looked at me like he knew. Like he could see straight through the anger I wore like armor and into the chaos underneath.
