Page 26 of Kiss Me Like I Didn't Kill You

He moves so fast I barely register it, in a second a blade is at my throat.

I merely smirk. “How does it feel, being on the other side of the coin?” I ask, provoking.

Before he can answer, Hunter is between us, forcing us apart. “Enough,” he snaps in that clipped, teacherly tone that carries no real weight here.

Milo keeps staring, I hold his gaze. We do not look away for several long, silent moments.

Isaak finally looks up from his phone. “If you’re finished playing at violence, gentlemen,” he says coolly, “the Thirteenth Circle host a gathering tonight. As representatives of the Ferrum Syndicate, we are required to attend.”

Isaak’s family runs the Syndicate, that has been the case for generations. The Thirteenth Circle are our antagonists, an alliance is unheard of. Yet Isaak has convinced not only his father but the rest of our parents that a truce will profit us. I call it horseshit, but it suits me. I was already meant to be here, his manoeuvring only made my task easier.

“What time?” I ask.

“Be there at nine. And don’t forget the masks,” Isaak says, already back to his phone.

I linger a little longer. At some point Hunter was gone, and it was only the three of us. When I check my watch there are five minutes to the end of class, so I push up from the bench and turn my back on them without a word.

I do not know why I walk toward the building, why my steps draw me toherclassroom.

I was not born a stalker, those instincts lay buried until she awakened them. This need to chart her movements, to have eyes on her at every hour, borders on madness.

I despise how little control I have.

I convince myself it’s only to make sure she’s safe.

Why?

If anyone is to hurt Ophelia, that someone will be me, nobody else gets that right.

Chapter 9

Arlo

I do not show myself to her for the rest of the day. That does not mean I stop tracking her.

She feels it, I know by the way she kept glancing over her shoulder. After class she went straight to her dorm and has not left since.

I’ve got the front door camera of her building linked to my phone. Every time someone steps in or out, it pings me. Fortunately, only four of them live there, which means the alerts don’t come through every few seconds. It makes keeping track of her almost effortless.

It’s past seven now. Night presses over the island, the sky dimming into that washed out grey before full dark.

From my window I can see straight into the living space of her suite, the curtains remain undrawn.

No light, no movement, nothing. She’s missed dinner, and with her diabetes she shouldn’t. If her blood sugar has dropped… if she hasn’t checked it—

I push the thought away and grit my teeth, forcing myself for the hundredth time today to believe I do not care.

I sound like a broken record, it’s that bad if even I can see it.

In a short while I’m expected to meet the others for the Thirteenth Circle party, but this need to know she’s unharmed is eating at me.

She’s required to be there too. These sorts of events are not her style, but her father’s name sits among the academy’s founding families and the Circle’s allies, the sisters’ attendance will be compulsory.

Time drags on. The camera pings each time one of the other girls leaves the dorm, one by one they slip off screen.

Still nothing, no movement from Ophelia. My thumb hovers over the feed. Perhaps she slipped out. The thought barely forms before I dismiss it. Impossible. Not without me seeing.

My phone shudders with a flood of notifications from the group chat, I was meant to meet the others long ago, but I could not care less.