CHAPTER 268: PARANOID PT 2

His words were slow, deliberate. "You think fucking her into a mattress makes you untouchable? That every time she moans your name means she’s yours forever? Maybe it just means she’s addicted to the chaos you bring. But it doesn’t mean she chooses you."

My jaw clenched so hard it clicked. I could hear my blood in my ears.

"And I listen to her," he went on, voice dipping into something smug. "I talk to her. I know how she takes her coffee. I know what she tv shows she likes. I know her laugh when she’s not watching herself. But you? You only know how to make her obedient."

A snarl clawed up my throat and I stepped in, chest nearly brushing his. "You think you’re a fucking savior?" I hissed. "You’re a convenient toy. A pathetic little stand-in she uses to distract herself when I’m not there. You’re nothing, Sylas."

He scoffed. "You hold on to her like she’s the answer to all your demons, but you don’t even try to understand who she is. You just chain her with orgasms and threats and expect her to stay."

My breathing slowed. Dangerously.

I let him talk.

I let him run that mouth, that smug little mouth of his, because I wanted to hear it. I wanted to know just how far he’d push me.

Sylas stood there like he’d finally grown a pair, puffing his chest out like a man who didn’t know what a grave looked like until it was his own he was digging.

"You’re terrified," he continued. "That’s what this is. All of it. You’re scared out of your goddamn mind that she’ll walk away from you."

I didn’t say a word. Just stared at him.

He saw that silence and mistook it for weakness.

"She’s not your possession, Kael. Maybe you touch her like you own her, but she’s still her own person. You don’t know a goddamn thing about her soul, because you never cared to ask. You just take and take like it’s your right."

He took a step closer. I could smell his cologne... some watered-down, department store shit he probably thought made him impressive.

"At least I try to know her. Not control her. Not lock her up and play god with her life like you do."

My jaw ticked. My nails bit into my palm.

But Sylas still wasn’t done.

"You’re pathetic. You know that?" He laughed, bitter and cruel. "The great Kael Roman. Ruler of the underworld. Killer. Fixer. And the one fucking thing you can’t handle is the truth—she doesn’t want you. She never did. And you’re too much of a coward to face it. You think sex will keep her? That fucking her like an animal will somehow earn her love?"

My world blurred into red.

I exhaled through my nose, slowly.

Then I said, "Are you done?"

He barely had time to scoff.

Crack.

My fist met his jaw, full force. The sickening sound of knuckle on bone rang through the space. His head snapped sideways as he stumbled back, nearly hitting the wall.

I advanced.

"No?" I said, voice low, lethal. "Didn’t think so."

He was clutching his face now, eyes wide, stunned and spitting blood.

I crouched in front of him, tilting my head like a man admiring roadkill. "You ever run your fucking mouth about her us or her again, I’ll make sure you speak through a tube for the rest of your miserable life."

He laughed.

A light, choked sound.

"You can mark her body, Kael. Fuck her loud enough for me to hear through walls. You can drag her into your storm and call it love, but you and I know it won’t last."

I turned to walk away. I really wanted to. My jaw was clenched so hard it hurt. My nails dug into my palms. I had already hit him once. I told myself it was enough.

But then his voice came again, low and venomous.

"She’ll leave you. She always will. Because you don’t know how to love or be loved... you only know how to own or destroy."

"Just like your father." The voice brushed my ears. It wasn’t Sylas. But I heard it. And for a moment I was back in that camp. With him. Ivan. Those words he said to me.

I stopped. My chest rose sharply while Sylas hadn’t finished.

"She clings to you because you broke her to pieces and called the ruins yours. That’s all she’s ever been to you, right? A ruin. Something to fuck, something to lock away. But she’s not going to stay locked for long. He spat out, coughing on the taste of iron.

"She’ll leave Kael. Not because she wants me. But because even she knows it’s pathetic to keep crawling back to the man who only knows how to break her."

I turned slowly. My blood was ice and fire.

"And you know what’s funny?" he continued, his smile tilting up, lips stained with the taste of arrogance. "I might not have had her body, but I was there. I saw her. I still do. I see what you’re too much of a coward to admit, Aria doesn’t love you. She never will."

My vision went red.

The next second, I was in front of him, and before the rest of his smug breath could leave his lungs, my fist cracked across his face again.

He staggered but didn’t fall, chuckling even as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "Classic Roman. That all you got? "

It wasn’t.

Not even close.

He barely got a second to grunt before I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall, my knuckles colliding with his face like thunder crashing down from heaven. The sound of bone against flesh, the dull thud of fists pounding into a face that no longer tried to dodge, it all echoed in the corridor like a storm unleashed.

People were whispering now. Some gasped. Someone ran to call security.

But I couldn’t hear a damn thing.

All I saw was his face. His words. Her eyes. Her voice saying someone else’s name. His name.

I didn’t stop.

My knuckles split against his cheekbone, and I still didn’t stop. Blood ran from his nose, his mouth, but all I could think of was her. Him, next to her. Him, near her. His name on her lips.

He smiled through It. That sick, knowing smile like he’d won. That was what really set me off.

I hit him again. And again. I felt his body sag. I felt my own shoulders tense harder with every blow. Somewhere in the distance, I heard gasps. Footsteps. Voices.

None of it mattered.

I kept punching until all I could see was blood. My hand was slick with it. His face was barely there anymore.

I didn’t care.

I would’ve kept going.

But then..

"Kael!"

That voice.

It hit me harder than any punch ever could.

I froze mid-swing. My fist hung in the air, trembling, dripping red.

I turned.

And there she was.

Aria.

Standing at the door of her ward. Her eyes wide and frozen with horror, like I was a monster. Her hospital gown trembled around he, her voice was sharp and scared.

"What are you doing?"

My chest heaved.

I looked down.

Sylas was crumpled, bloodied, his breaths ragged. His shirt was soaked through. My hand... Jesus. I didn’t even recognize it under all that blood.

I didn’t say a word. Couldn’t.

Everything had gone silent except her voice echoing in my skull.

What have I done?

(Go to WEBNOVEL for more ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ)