CHAPTER 267: PARANOID

"You’re talking like you know her inside and out," I said, my voice flat but sharp enough to draw blood. "Like she’s yours to speak for. Don’t get comfortable just because she’s letting you orbit her right now."

His jaw flexed, and I caught the subtle shift in his posture. A tell. He felt that.

"She’s not keeping you close for you," I continued, walking toward him slowly, step by step, eating the distance between us like it was nothing. "You’re a temporary distraction. A dull ache she’s using to forget what it feels like to be completely wrecked by me."

I stopped right in front of him. My breath was steady, my gaze colder than the ice buried in the veins of every man I’ve buried.

"She moans my name when she breaks apart. Takes me like a good girl. Because that’s who she really belongs to. And you? You’re just a warm hand and borrowed time."

He looked away for a second. Just a flick. Just long enough.

Got you.

But he covered it quick, the corner of his mouth twitching like he thought he had something clever to say. He chuckled lightly. That smug little sound irritated something primal in me.

"Then maybe you should be the one watching your back," he said, gaze flicking back to mine. "Because just because you fuck her doesn’t mean you own her. You can mark her all you want—"

That smirk deepened, the bastard.

"—but you’ll never control who she loves."

My eyes narrowed.

He wasn’t done.

"I do know her, Kael. Probably more than you ever bothered to. I know how she sounds when she laughs without holding back. I know what she smells like straight out of the shower, when she’s still humming to herself and wrapped in that fluffy white blanket. I know what her apartment looks like."

The image grated against my skull like rusted wire.

I stared at him, and for a second, I almost laughed.

So that’s why Niko didn’t send the rest of the fucking photos. Because he knew. He fucking knew.

I tilted my head, cracking the tension in my neck that had been building since I stepped off the jet. My hands twitched by my side, not because I was uncertain, no, because every nerve in my body was coiled, screaming for violence I was barely suppressing.

"So that’s where you’ve been," I said quietly, each syllable carved sharp enough to draw blood. "In and out of her apartment like a fucking stray."

Sylas didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. I hated him for that.

I took a step even closer, closing what little distance there was between us. I could see the defiance in his eyes, Aria’s soft influence wrapped around him like armor. He thought she gave him safety. He thought her affection was enough to shield him from me.

"She’s letting you close because she’s bleeding, Sylas," I murmured. "Don’t confuse that for love."

His jaw ticked.

"You walk into her space. Breathe her in. Pretend that makes you significant." I scoffed, low and slow. "I could erase you. And she wouldn’t even know where to look for your body."

He smiled, but it was thinner now. Less cocky. "Is that how you keep her? By threatening anyone she breathes near?"

I didn’t answer that.

Instead, I leaned in just enough for him to feel the weight of what I was about to say.

"Stay the fuck away from her," I whispered, voice laced with the kind of quiet fury that made men start praying. "You think you’re brave, walking in and out of her apartment like you belong there. You think you’re clever for listening to her moan my name through a door you should’ve never been near. But let me tell you something, there’s a difference between watching a storm and surviving one."

His face faltered for half a second.

Got you.

I stepped back just an inch, eyes narrowing. "You don’t know what I’ll become for her. You don’t know what I already am."

Sylas raised a brow, unfazed. "So what exactly are you so scared of? Why are you so goddamn terrified every time she’s near me? Hm?" he taunted, gaze crawling over my expression. "If she’s really yours, mind, body, soul, then what the fuck are you so paranoid about?"

I stilled.

He tilted his head, slow, casual. "You’re Kael Roman. You always get what you want, don’t you?" His lips quirked, that maddening smirk returning. "You own people. You break them. So why does it terrify you so much when she’s with me?"

I said nothing. I couldn’t.

"Shouldn’t you be confident, then?" he pressed, voice lighter, crueler now. "If you really own her... shouldn’t you trust that she wouldn’t leave your side?"

The silence that followed was a punch straight to the ribs.

And he knew it.

His smile deepened just enough. "Maybe that’s the problem, hmm? You don’t. Because deep down, even you know—" he stepped forward, barely a foot between us now, "—you can’t chain someone’s heart, Roman. And she’s slipping away from you. Fast."

My fingers twitched at my sides. I saw red.

But I didn’t lunge. Not yet. Not here.

Instead, I leaned in again, so close our breaths tangled. "Let me remind you of something," I murmured, voice barely audible. " I do not give a fuck about you and your think pieces about my relationship with Aria. You’re just a sad little puppy who managed to gain her attention by acting a fool."

He flinched. Subtle. But I saw it. Felt it.

Still, he didn’t back down. His lips curled cruelly. "And yet... she let me hold her when she cried after. Let me touch her without flinching. Can you say the same?"

Wait... cried?

Aria cried?

She never did with me.

I stared at him, this smug little fuck who thought he knew her. Thought he was some goddamn saint for listening to her breathe between her sobs while I was the monster who made her scream.

He tilted his head, eyes glinting like he hadn’t just poked the beast straight in the chest. "You keep acting like Aria’s some prize you’ve already won. Like you own her. But do you even see her, Kael?"