Page 76 of Of Shadow and Moon

Because the truth is simple.

Everything I do from this point forward, every choice I make, every risk I take, it will all be for her.

And one way or another, the world will know what I already do.

Selestina ismine.

Chapter 44

Tomas

She’s in my head.

It’s pathetic, really, how thoroughly she’s infected me, plaguing my every thought, sinking into my bones like a sickness I can’t shake. It started the moment she walked through the doors of Obsidian Academy, head held high, fire in her eyes, radiating defiance as if she was daring the gods themselves to strike her down. She looked like she’d walked through hell and it didn’t even phase her.

I was doomed from that moment.

I tried to fight it at first, tried to drown her out the way I always have, fae wine burning down my throat, smoking as much dahlia root as I could, bodies pressed against mine in the dimly lit corners of whatever back alley den I found myself in. Just enough to scratch the itch. Just enough to forget.

But I can’t forget her, and I don’t even know her. I don’t know who she truly is and it’s fucking driving me insane.

The moment I even think about touching someone else, absolute disgust rises in me instantly. The second someonepresses too close, whispers some meaningless invitation in my ear, all I see is her, images of her face playing on repeat.

I can’t escape her.

I close my eyes, and I see her lips parting when she’s caught off guard, her fingers twitching when she’s pretending not to care, the way her throat bobs when she swallows too hard, as if holding back her urge to spit fire at anyone and everyone, just like her new friend, Nasarea.

I see the way Selestina stands her ground against me and Rhyker, and hell even the other prick princes, like she’s caught between predators and refuses to be prey.

She’s my fucking obsession. And apparently Rhyker and Matheus’ too. I see the way Kaelion and Nazriel look at her too.

And it’s infuriating.

I don’t know how to talk to her. Not really. I don’t know how to make her see me, not as the arrogant vampire prince, not as the flirt with the sharp tongue and sharper fangs, but as something more. Something real.

So I fall back on what I know.

Flirting is easy. It’s effortless. It’s what I was raised to do, charm, seduce, manipulate. My father made sure of that. Words are just another weapon, and I’ve wielded them well, used them to get what I want, to secure power, to close deals that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him. My body was never really my own, not when it could be bartered, leveraged, used to make alliances stronger, to put debts in our favor.

It never mattered.

Until now.

Because now, I want something I can’t seem to have.

Selestina isn’t someone I can charm into my bed, a fleeting conquest to be forgotten by morning. Shethinks I’m just some fuckboy who fucks anything with a pulse. But she’s not wrong.

And the worst part?

She has no fucking idea.

I lean in closer, just enough for my breath to graze the delicate curve of her ear.

“What are you studying for, princess?” My voice is a low murmur.

She exhales sharply, her fingers tightening around the spine of a book she’s clearly not reading. The one she had been reading before is still clutched in Rhyker’s hand, though she makes no attempt to retrieve it. “Um, for finals,” she says, clearing her throat, though the slight waver in her voice betrays her composure. “Like the two of you should be doing.”

At that, she reaches across the table and snatches the book back from Rhyker with a defiant flick of her wrist, her knuckles brushing against mine in the process. I catch the way she stiffens at the contact, the way her body goes still for half a second too long.

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