Chapter 24
Micah
I’m not supposed to be here, but I don’t trust Vale at all. So, I used some of the more susceptible residents to cause a distraction, allowing me uninterrupted time to watch Katana’s session with him.
I watch through the thin slit of the cracked blinds as his pen hovers, his questions circling closer to her. Friends—that’s the word that floats through the door. He says it like a snare, waiting for her to stumble into it.
Her face stays careful, but I see the tensing of her shoulders and the stiffening of her spine. The flush of her skin on the back of her neck. I know exactly who she’s thinking of. Me.
My fists clench at my sides, hidden in the dark. Vale’s eyes narrow, his mouth curving into that thin, knowing smile. He smells blood.
Unease prickles sharply under my skin. If he presses too hard, if he dares to say my name, I’ll rip the door from its hinges and show him what real breaking looks like. But that would put her in more danger.
So I force myself to remain still. To be my usual cold, calculating self. If Vale suspects anything, I’ll starve his suspicions. I’ll disappear from her sight, let him believe there’s nothing between us but silence.
It takes everything in me not to stalk her down the hallway after her session, even though I’m desperate to claim her where everyone can see. But I don’t. I wait. I let the unease coil into a plan.
Vale wants her secrets, but he can’t have them.
He wants me exposed. He’ll get nothing.
I’ll devise something better. Something that makes Vale chase shadows while I sew Katana tighter to me, stitch by stitch.
For now, though, I remain hidden in the shadows.