Octavia
She sobs harder, her shoulders shaking. “I just… I fell in love with him… and…” Her voice breaks.
Markev’s deep laugh fills the space, but it is empty.
“I had quite forgotten your little threat,” he says, almost amused, “because, damn it, I never imagined you would do something this stupid. But I suppose I underestimated you.”
Disgust twists low in my stomach.
“So let me understand this,” I say slowly.
“You were not merely sneaking around with someone from a rival academy—and rival is putting it mildly, because if the leader of the Thirteenth Circle had discovered this, I don’t even want to imagine what punishment would have followed—but you were actually in a relationship with the enemy. ”
Markev snaps his head towards me, fury flaring in his eyes.
“We didn’t have a fucking relationship,” he growls.
His eyes lock on mine. “The only woman I will ever have a relationship with is you.”
I roll my eyes. “Not the time, Markev.”
He exhales roughly and turns back to Talia.
The expression on his face is too much, and I see how hard he is fighting not to show the depth of his… hurt.
“So what,” I say slowly. “You met? You needed a fake girlfriend and she offered?”
“Something like that,” he grunts.
I narrow my eyes at him.
“I needed a fake girlfriend, yes.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” he says harshly. “She was willing to play the role. I set the ground rules, told her this was all for show… hell, I paid her for it, and we didn’t even see each other unless I needed it, again, only for appearances.”
“And you fell in love,” I say, turning to Talia.
The laugh that leaves me is bitter. “Well, if that is what you call love, I don’t want to know what hate looks like to you. Because when you love someone, you don’t accuse them of something like that.”
“Well,” Markev says darkly, “it was only ever meant to be temporary. I needed the arrangement to end eventually, and once it had served its purpose, I broke it off.”
“And that was all,” he continues flatly. “But no, she had to convince herself she felt something more for me, when I never gave her a reason to believe that.”
Then the mask snaps back into place as he turns to me, a crooked smile tugging at his mouth.
“So,” he says slowly, “that means you no longer despise me, because she lied about me, da?”
The blade is still pressed to Talia’s throat as he speaks to me, and I roll my eyes.
“I still hate you,” I deadpan.
He narrows his eyes. “I knew there was more to that story.”
Talia sobs harder. “Please… just let me go. I’m sorry!”
Markev looks at her, murder in his gaze.
“You think that after accusing me of something like this, you simply get to walk away?” he says coldly. “I should fucking kill you right here and be done with it.”
She sobs harder, shaking where she stands.
She was foolish to do what she did. You can ruin someone’s life with an accusation like that.
But I also know she never truly understood the gravity of it, because she is reckless and spoiled, accustomed to stamping her foot and always getting what she wants, and she thought this time would be no different.
“Let her go,” I say.
Markev narrows his eyes at me. “And why the fuck should I?”
“Because she deserves punishment,” I reply calmly, “but you will not kill her.”
“And who,” he says slowly, “would decide that punishment?”
“I will.”
For a moment, he only stares at me. Then something wild, flickers across his face, and an unhinged smile slowly spreads.
“I knew you would fall for me sooner or later,” he says coolly. “Look at you already defending my honour.”
The blade slips away from Talia’s throat.
He steps back and looks at her.
“Run. Change academies,” he says coldly. “Change countries. Pray I never see you again. Because if I do, I will kill you.” His eyes snap to me. “I am not as forgiving as my girl here.”
For a second she only stares at him, frozen in place.
Then instinct finally wins, and she turns and runs.
He calls after her, his voice carrying through the trees. “And I will take great pleasure in knowing you lie awake every night, wondering if today is the day my girl finds you and delivers your punishment.”
She disappears into the dark, and silence crashes down around us.
Markev turns towards me.
In one step he closes the distance between us. His fingers slide beneath my chin, tilting my face up. His eyes are alive, cold and burning at the same time.
“It really hurts,” he says low, “that you think I could ever do something like that.”
The words land heavy.
“I am a killer,” he continues, his jaw tightening, “but I would never hurt the innocent, or—”
He stops himself.
His icy blue eyes darken until they are almost black, as though whatever soul he has left slips somewhere cold and unreachable.
He finally wrenches it free. “Rape.”
I nod, unable to speak. And yet he looks at me as though begging me to see the truth.
“That goes against everything I fucking stand for.”
I don’t know why, but I believe him. Something in his face, so raw and wounded, makes it impossible not to. And it is strange, almost unsettling, to see him like this.
His touch softens. He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear, and leans in until his nose brushes my cheek.
I am trembling.
Damn it, why am I trembling?
He is not a monster.
Well, not that kind.
He didn’t rape that girl, that much I know now, so he is not one of them.
But he is still a Markev.
I should step back.
I should not let him touch me.
“This changes nothing,” I whisper. “I still hate you.”
His mouth twists. “I know this hatred of yours is not only about Talia’s nonsense,” he says. “And I know you are not ready to speak of it yet. But you are wrong…”
He bites my neck. “This changes everything, gorgeous.”
“No,” I say. “You are a Markev. And for that alone, you deserve to die.”
I step away.
His hand falls from my face.
And I swear he grumbles, almost to himself, “There, you are not wrong.”
I turn, but I don’t even make it a full step before he catches the back of my neck and spins me around, and before I can react his mouth crashes onto mine in a kiss that is brutal, possessive, and devastating.
His tongue sweeps in, and something inside me shatters as tears slip down my face, my body betraying every promise I ever made to myself, my heart stuttering, my breath breaking, goosebumps rippling helplessly over my skin.
This should not be happening.
He deepens the kiss, as though he feels my resistance falter.
I let him kiss me, even as tears fall, even as my mind screams at me for two entirely different reasons.
Tainted.
You are tainted.
Tainted.
He may not have committed that sin.
But he is still a Markev.
And everything tied to that name is dead to me.
Yet my body doesn’t listen.
And the self-hatred that follows is almost more than I am able to withstand.