Page 98 of Infamous

Lucian Cross.

My fiancé.

The man I love more than life itself.

The man the world calls Ghost.

Terror slams into me, cold and suffocating. I thrash against the straps, panic ripping through me like fire. “No - no, it can’t be you, it can’t -”

But underneath the terror, something else coils, hot and vicious. Fury. At him. At myself. At the universe for putting his face back in front of me.

“You,” I spit, my voice breaking. “You destroyed everything. Our future. My life. You-”

The words collapse. My throat burns. My vision blurs.

Because attraction pulses beneath the fury, treacherous and undeniable. My body remembers what my heart tries to bury - the way his hands once worshiped me, the way his voice once soothed every wound, the way his love consumed me until there was nothing left.

I hate him. I want him. I’m terrified of him.

All at once.

Ghost steps closer, mask dangling from his hand. His voice cuts the air, softer now, but it slices me open all the same.

“You always were mine, Nadia.”

The monster wears the face of the man I loved. And God help me, my heart still aches for him.

Lucian.

Ghost.

My love.

My nightmare.

The room spins. My chest feels like it’s caving in, ribs grinding against each other as I struggle to breathe. He’s right here, so close I can taste the memoryof his mouth on mine, and yet he’s miles away.A stranger wearing the face of the man that once promised me forever.

“Lucian…” The name cracks out of me, raw, unsteady. It sounds foreign now, like I’ve stolen it from another woman’s lips.

His eyes - God, those eyes. They flicker, just for a heartbeat, with something that looks like pain. Then it’s gone, buried under the steel that makes him who he is.

“Don’t say my name like that,” he murmurs. Low. Dangerous. Almost reverent.

“I shouldn’t have to say it at all,” I spit back, my voice trembling as much as my hands strapped to the chair. “You were supposed to be gone. I mourned you. I hated you. I-” My voice breaks. “Ilovedyou.”

The confession rips me open, every nerve exposed.

He steps closer, the floor groaning under his weight. I recoil as far as the straps allow, my body torn between terror and the aching betrayal of desire.

“You destroyed me,” I whisper. My throat burns, my vision hot with tears. “Do you know what it’s been like? My whole life… my whole goddamn life has been ruined because of you.”

He flinches, but still his voice stays steady, a blade against my skin. “Better ruined than dead, Nadia.”

The fury boils over. “Don’t you dare act like this was to protect me. Don’t you dare stand there and pretend you didn’t choose to become a monster.” My eyes rake over him, over the man who was my safe place. “You didn’t just kill them, Lucian. You killed me, too. And you’ve been killing me every day since.”

Kellerman’s laugh snaps me out of my feverish dream. It’s a soft, poisonous sound that slides over my skin like oil. “How ironic,” he drawls, adjusting the syringe still glinting in his hand. “That even as you lay here dying, all you can think and dream about is that monster you shared your life with. The tragic story of two lovers divided by death. Now you’ll finally be reunited in the darkness.”

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