Page 150 of Damsel in Disguise

Synthetic tissue melts differently from human flesh. The process is too smooth, too fast. Like wax left beneath sunlight.

Ariella swallows hard before asking the worst possible question she could ask me tonight.

“Did she love you?”

The flames roar softly ahead of us.

I stare at them longer than necessary. Then answer quietly, “She was designed to think she did.”

“Is there a difference?”

I steal a glance at her, finding her staring ahead.

Ariella sounds disturbed by that in a way she wasn’t by the corpse itself. I can hear it in the slight tension pulling in her voice.

“Yes.”

“How would you know?”

For the first time in my life, I’m starting to suspect I might.

The realization unsettles me enough that I look away from her entirely.

My watch lights up again. I’m glad it cut through whatever tension was building up between us.

There would be protocols. Meetings. Failures to report. Questions regarding Delilah’s sudden disappearance.

I’d respond only after I’m done with this.

And somewhere beyond all of that, the worst possibility is of the next Synthète they’ll eventually force into my life.

Amidst all the mess, I feel Ariella’s fingers brush lightly against my upper back, right below my nape. Exactly where the Triarch Dominion branded me.

It’s such a barely-there touch, yet my whole body reacts embarrassingly fast—I flinch.

Her thumb drags lightly over the three triangles intersecting and running over one another.

“Is it their…” she trails off.

Those hazel eyes lift toward mine slowly, warm curiosity glowing beneath them in a way that suddenly feels more dangerous than anything else inside this room.

The laboratory abruptly feels too small for the two of us.

Her lips part slightly as those eyes fall on my lips.

I step back before I can process the miscalculation happening inside my head. That alone should concern me far more than anything.

“Ariella,” I murmur, briefly shutting my eyes before forcing myself to look at her again. “You should leave.”

“But—”

Before she can finish, I’m already on her.

My hands slam against the steel table behind her hard enough to rattle the entire thing as I crowd into her space, forcing her back against the metal edge.

A small gasp escapes her lips while I lean over her.

“You destabilize my mind,” I murmur against her mouth, my voice lowering dangerously. “Do you understand how irritating that is?”