And for the first time, Vittoria looks…uncertain.
I swallow hard, chest heaving, trying to catch my breath, but all I can feel is the storm inside me. Kayla…alive. A vampire. And all this time, Lucianknew. Hehad to know. My stomach twists into a sick, furious knot.
He steps forward slightly, trying to block my view, trying to calm the chaos, and my blood boils hotter. “I…didn’t?—”
I don’t let him finish. “Don’t lie to me!” I shout, voice raw, echoing off the walls. “All this time, you let her be turned, let me search for her, make me think she was dead!”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t respond and his silence says everything I need to know.
My pulse hammers in my ears. I glance at Vittoria, who is grinning with fangs out, and it only enrages me more.
“I’m tired of this, Lucian. I amnotyour Nell! I refuse to be manipulated and controlled. I amme! I will never be her!”
Lucian freezes, confusion and horror flashing across his face. “Monty, I?—”
“No! You don’t get to say anything! You’ve done this before. You did it with Nell. You molded her to your will. You made her everything you wanted her to be. And I…I see it now. You used Kayla to keep me tied to you. I see exactly what you are, what you’ve done, and what youdo. And I won’t be a part of it.”
I step back, my legs shaking. He looks at me, and the confirmation in his eyes makes me sick. He knows I know. He knows…
Hooking a finger under the collar, I rip it off with one swift tug and chuck it at his feet. “I’m done, Lucy—Lucian,” I whisper. “Master or not, I’m done with whateverthisis.”
When I turn away, he doesn’t follow. Kayla doesn’t move either, and both facts sting sharper than the healing cuts Vittoria left across my face.
It’s time for me to face the bitter truth that Santiago was right.
None of this with Lucian was real.
None of it.
Chapter
Fourteen
Lucian
Istand frozen in front of Vittoria’s living quarters long after Elliot’s retreating footsteps echo down the corridor, with the choker necklace I gave her broken at my feet.
Her words…her anger…they hit harder than anything I could have imagined.
I’ve hurt her. She thinks I’ve betrayed her.
The thought claws at me. Picking up the collar, it feels heavy in my palm, like it now holds all my sadness.
I want to run after her, to pull her back into my arms, to explain, to fix, but I can’t. Not yet. Not like this. Not when she needs space to breathe, to process what I have done…or what she thinks I’ve done.
My attention snaps to Vittoria. She’s leaning casually against the wall where Elliot had landed, the hole in the plaster big, her expression neutral like she hasn’t just detonated my world. I feel a sudden, icy pulse of anger.
“You,” I growl. “What did you do?”
She just stares at her nails, picking blood out from underneath them—Elliot’s blood—unbothered. “What do you mean?”
I step forward, my eyes narrowing. “Don’t act stupid with me. Her friend, Kayla. You turned her. Without telling me. Youhid it.”
“I did.” Vittoria shrugs, as if this were an afterthought. “So what?”
Her disobedience scrapes against my control.
“If she doesn’t matter to you, then I’ll kill her and whatever inconvenient attachment you’ve developed along with her.”
