Page 92

But he doesn’t burn.

“I knew who you were before I ever saw you,” Ruin says quietly. “Before I saw your face. Before I ever heard your voice. Your name was already carved into my fucking head.”

That stills me.

He continues.

“I was young. A teenager. Too young to be feeling what I felt for someone I hadn’t even laid eyes on. But it didn’t matter. Because the second I knew you existed, it was already over for me.”

My stomach twists.

“I watched everything,” he says, softer now. “Every move. Every breath you gave to the world. And it wasn’t enough. It wasneverenough. I needed more. I’ve always needed more.”

He tilts his head again, and for the first time, there’s something fraying around the edges of his calm. Something dangerous.

“It got worse with time. My obsession grew deeper, sicker. I stopped pretending it was anything else. I stopped fighting it. And when Rule finally saw you too?” He gives a slow exhale. “Weknewwe were in this obsession together.Because no one else would ever fucking understand what you are.”

I swallow hard, something thick rising in my chest that Irefuseto call emotion.

“I would kill for you, Seanna,” Ruin says, voice low and lethal now. “I have. I will again if I have to.”

My breath stalls.

“I’d burn down cities if it meant keeping you out of someone else’s hands. I’d flood streets in blood and sleep like a baby next to you. There is no world where I let you go. No version of me that ever fucking stops.”

My heart is thundering now. Not from fear. Not exactly.

From the terrifying pull of hearing someone say the thing you didn’t even realize you’ve always craved.

“I’d burn down the goddamn world for you,” he finishes, voice a gravel-sharp whisper behind the mask. “And I wouldn’t feel a single fucking ounce of guilt.”

Silence pulses between us.

I hate him. I want to touch him. I want to run. I want tostay.

My jaw clenches, hands curled into fists. “You’re insane.”

His head dips. “I know.”

“You’re unhinged.”

“Yes.”

“I’m still not yours.”

He laughs quietly—low, dark, reverent. “That’s the funniest lie you’ve ever told.”

And then he does the thing Idon’texpect.

He turns.

He walks toward the door like he didn’t just tear himself open at my feet. Like he didn’t just admit something that would make most people scream.

But before he leaves, he pauses, hand on the knob.

“You’ll know everything soon. And when you do? You’ll understand why this was never going to end any other way.”

The door clicks shut behind him.