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“Don’t be afraid, Randa. I have no intention of hurting you. I’m not a monster.”

“Ben might disagree.” She got out shakily.

He scoffed like she was being ridiculous. “I only did what I had to do. It’s not like anyone will miss the boy. He was only a human.”

Mid-tone blue eyes watched her from an aristocratic face that wasn’t too handsome or too plain. His body wasn’t too fat or too thin; too tall or too short. His brown hair was neither wavy nor straight. It was carefully cut into a hairstyle that was appropriate on anyone for any occasion. His voice was even and calm. Every aspect of his appearance was crafted to be non-threatening. Exactly ordinary.

And yet it was somehow still too perfect.

Something oily and false leaked through the aggressively normal façade. She’d felt it when she was talking to “Ben” at the bar, and she felt it even stronger now. There was no “actual” Yuan. He was just a reflection of other people, with no substance of his own.

“Do you even remember what you were born looking like?” She asked, because it felt important somehow. “Or have you forgotten it?”

One brow arched, as if he hadn’t expected her to say that. “I’ve lost my real face.” He admitted after a moment. “Most Reflection Phases do, over the years. We’re like caterpillars, who shed our initial form for something better. Something flawless.”

“Only you’re not happy with flawless.”

Frustration flashed. “Because it’s not natural beauty. Not like you possess.” He took a step closer to her, a not-quite-sane look in his eyes.

Randa took a step back. “What do you want?”

“To Bind with you. To redo our troubled past and win you over this time through. To study your imperfections and how they make you perfect. To admire you flitting around your enclosure with the rest of my butterflies.”

“None of that is going to happen. I’ll never stay in an ‘enclosure.’ I don’t want to redo our past. And I already have a Match.”

“You had one before, too.” Yuan shrugged off Randa’s emphatic tone. “Back then, I reluctantly accepted defeat. I knew Job would stop me, if I tried to take you from Hekktor. Now, I’m strong enough to get what I want. I don’t have to compromise.”

“I’ll fight you, if you try to touch me. Just like I did last time.”

“Hence the manacle.” He gestured to her ankle. “Being frozen solid is most unpleasant, so I have no desire to repeat it. Although, the effect of it really didn’t last long.” He gave her a pitying look. “You’ve always had an aura of power about you. It’s a shame you can’t do much with it. Beautiful, but useless. It’s often the way of nature.”

Useless? How did he not realize she was the one who freed the Light Phases from the purple cages? Everyone had felt her do it. Vandal even told him it was her. Was he just in denial? Or did he simply not care, because it didn’t fit into his sexist narrative? Either way, he’d underestimated her.

Randa’s energy wasn’t wrong. It never had been.

“This is all a waste of time, Yuan. I will never be with you. Ever.”

Yuan seemed genuinely confused by her refusal. “But I can make you my queen.”

“That is exactly what you said before!” Anger began to overtake fear. “You sound insane. Maybe you are insane. I don’t want to be your queen, and I told you that. Your palace is nothing but a cage.”

“You would honestly choose that cave-dweller over me?”

“I would choose Kahn over anyone.”

Frustration flickered across Yuan’s bland face, before he quickly smoothed it away. “You’re being pointlessly stubborn. I can give you so much more than the Light Phase. You’ll see that in time.”

“There is no ‘time.’ Not for you. Let me go now and the Council might be lenient. It’ll be much less painful than what the Light Phases will inflict, when they track you down.”

“No one is going to find us here.” Yuan laughed. “Even if somebody eventually figures out I was the one who took you, they can’t prove it. I have you safely hidden away.”

“We’re in your greenhouse!” She waved a hand around. “It will only take about ten minutes of searching for them to…”

Yuan cut her off. “Do you honestly think this is my real butterfly garden?”

The image of the beautiful greenhouse shifted, and something much darker was revealed in its place. Beady-eyed bats instead of butterflies. Grasping, thorn-covered vines instead of orchids. Oozing cracks in the glass, like wounds infecting the structure.

Randa jolted. Yuan controlled what the space looked like. He could make it idyllic or terrifying. None of this was real.