Page 170 of Villainous Intent

He took a step closer, closing the distance between us. “Then what do I get if you don’t tell me the whole truth?” I felt like he was peeling back layers of my skin with just his gaze, exposing everything I wanted to keep hidden.

“I can sense them,” I repeated, standing my ground even as I was panicking inside. “I can feel when a Super is nearby. I can tell the difference between Trueborn and Serum made.” It wasn’t everything, but it was more than I should have revealed.

“What do I get if you don’t tell the full truth?” Cipher repeated.

I stood frozen, caught between fight and flight. The game had shifted. What had begun as a fucked up mutual exchange of truths had transformed into an interrogation.

“What do you want?” I finally managed.

“Another question.”

I didn’t respond, just clenched my jaw tight. This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t what we’d agreed to. But I’d been the one to suggest this stupid game in the first place, hadn’t I?

“Why did you become Havoc’s ward?” he asked.

“My parents are dead,” I said flatly. Not a lie. Not even close to the whole truth.

Cipher’s eyes narrowed fractionally. He knew I was holding back. Of course he did.

“What happened to⁠—”

“No.” I cut him off. “That’s enough. This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have suggested⁠—“

“I just clarified what happens when you don’t give me the whole truth, Annie. You owe me another question.” He took a step toward me. “How did your parents die?”

Memories flashed behind my eyes. Blood on white tiles, screams. My hands began to tremble, rage and grief twisting together into something toxic.

“They were murdered,” I spat, my voice shaking. “By a rogue Trueborn. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop the trembling that had overtaken my body. I waited for him to press further, to demand more details, to pick apart my pain.

Instead, Cipher raised a single eyebrow. “Your turn.”

I stared at him, momentarily stunned by his response. No follow-up questions. No demands for specifics. Just that maddeningly calm expression and those two simple words. Your turn.

I hated him in that moment. Hated how he stood there so calmly while I was falling apart. Hated how he treated my painful answers like data points to be collected and analyzed. Well, fuck him. I wanted to hurt him back. I wanted to crack that perfect, impenetrable facade and see him bleed, if only a little.

“Why did you send me away? After Baron Ash. After we...”

I couldn’t finish the sentence. The memory rushed back. Being pressed against the wall, the copper scent of Ash’s blood smudged across my skin, the hollow, humiliating ache in my chest when he had dismissed me. I braced myself for the answer.

Cipher let out a harsh breath. He dropped his gaze to his hands. The same hands that had been painted in Ash’s blood.

“Because I was losing my mind, Annie. You saw exactly what I am in that room. I tore a man apart with my bare hands and enjoyed it. I expected you to look at me with disgust. It would have been the smart thing to do. It would have kept things simple.”

He came closer, stopping just short of touching me.

“But you didn’t run like you should have. You accepted the ugliest, most violent part of me.” His voice dropped to a rough whisper. “Do you have any idea what that does to a man who has spent his entire life expecting to be a monster in everyone’s eyes?” He reached out then. His knuckles lightly brushing my jaw. “I would have never let you go back to your safe life,” he said, his thumb trailing my throat. “I would have consumed everything you are.”

He hadn’t been discarding me. He had been holding the door shut from the inside so I wouldn’t get pulled into the abyss with him. I searched his face, looking for any sign that this was another manipulation, another game. But for once, his eyes weren’t cold or calculating.

Cipher cleared his throat.

“May I examine your cuff?”

“What?” I blinked, thrown by the abrupt change of subject.

“That’s my question,” he said, his clinical demeanor returning as if he’d never revealed anything at all. “May I examine your cuff?”