Semua Bab LOVE AND DEATH : Bab 1 - Bab 10

LUCIANThe picture in in my mind hadn’t faded, one bit. Even in ten years, across two continents, through a dozen boarding schools and three university campuses where I’d left pieces of myself scattered, like loosed thread. I could still see the boy my father had brought home that night, the so called trophy from his bloody hunt, trembling by the corner of the house.I was eight years old then. Old enough to understand that something terrible had happened, but too young to grasp why my father had returned with someone else’s son. The memory was still too sharp. I remembered how the boy had stood there in the marble entryway, his clothes too big for his frame, while he just stare at the space his body shaking uncontrollably. He didn’t speak for three days. Not even a single word. The housekeeper thought he was mute until she heard him crying in the bathroom at two in the morning.I’d pressed my ear to my bedroom door that night and listened. But not out of sympathy. I was eight, an

LUCIAN "I'll put them in water."The voice cut through the air right after I took a step back, ready to walk off and aura farm somewhere else where no one could get on my nerves.He talked back?He actually talked back at me!?The words hit me wrong. My whole body went still for half a second before my foot came back down and I turned on him. I didn’t even realize I had taken that step back until I was already doing it, just to see his face again. And there it was. That same ocean calmness. That infuriating stillness, like nothing I said could ever touch him. My fingers flew up into my hair and I dragged them through it, hard. Agony crawled up my spine. I wanted to grab the front of his shirt and shake him until his teeth rattled, until that calm cracked and something real came out."What the fuck did you just say?" I asked, and I tried to keep my voice even. I really did. But the way his lips twitched up into that short, little grin ruined it. It was everything that triggered me.

LUCIAN The smirk left my lips just before I could stop it, because really? I thought it was beginning to get interesting in a way that made the air in the room feel heavier than before. “Change?” I asked, adjusting my hip against the sofa and leaning forward a little so I could see him better. “Can you elaborate on what you actually meant by change, if you don’t mind?” I pressed harder, searching his eyes for any flicker of hesitation or amusement that might give me an opening. He chuckled and set the glass down on the table with a soft clink. “Be precise too. What exactly did you want to know?” He folded his arms across his chest and settled back, watching me the way he always did when he already knew the answer but wanted me to dig for it myself. “Stop beating around the bush, boy. You can ask me everything you want to know.” I adjusted again, shifting my weight and letting my fingers curl against the arm of the sofa. “What is Ceal’s job in this building? He tried to stop me from

The door slammed shut with a force that rattled the frame, and I stood there in the corridor, the wind of his exit brushing past my face heavily . This guy. This unbelievable, ridiculous, overgrown child wrapped in a tailored suit and drowning in his own sense of entitlement. One minute I'd been preparing for the evening, bracing myself for the return of a man I'd spent ten years learning to hate, and the next minute I was standing here, my hand still tingling from where I'd grabbed him, ready to punch a hole in his face. Unbelievable. And kinda stupid, if I'm being honest with myself.I'd expected someone with the same calculated stillness as Adrian. Someone who walked into a room and measured every word before it left his mouth, who understood that power wasn't about volume but about precision. I'd prepared for a worthy adversary, a man who'd spent a decade in European boarding schools and emerged sharp as a blade, ready to take his place at the head of the table.What I'd gotten

“You know what?” My voice came out hoarsed. “You don’t actually look bad like this.”The words left my mouth before I could stop them, hanging in the air between us like smoke. I slapped the back of his head—not hard, just enough to break the spell—and pushed myself up from the floor, my muscles protesting the sudden movement after being coiled so tight for so long.My shirt had come untucked during the struggle. I tugged at the hem, smoothing the fabric back into place, my fingers working the buttons I hadn’t realized had popped open. The whole time, I could feel his eyes on me. Not the fury from before. Something else. He scrambled up too, quick and For some moment, he just stood there, his chest heaving, that dark hair still fallen across his forehead, and he looked at me with those venom eyes of his. The same eyes that had tried to murder me five minutes ago.And I couldn’t stop the wonder. Why my heart had actually skipped when our gazes locked. Foolish. Foolish of him to let