Page 30 of Whispers of Ruin

“She played you like a goddamn instrument, boy,” he says, his voice thick with derision. “You think you’ve tamed her? That you’ve marked her?” His grin stretches, turning cruel. “No. She’s marking you—and your dick makes you too fucking blind to see it.”

I can feel the fury boiling inside me like an explosive volcano, but I hold it in check, focusing on breathing, on staying calm. Lucian leans forward now, elbows resting on the desk with a thud.

“If she can do this to you, imagine what she could do to me.”

His eyes flicker for a split second—something dark and unreadable crosses his expression. But it’s gone just as quickly as it appeared. He leans back, watching me closely. I know that look. He is enjoying this—enjoying seeing me unravel just a little.

“Tell me, son,” he asks, tilting his head, “I heard she kept her eyes locked on yours the whole time she was blowing your dicklike the little slut she is, never flinching. I wonder, Xan. Do you really think you’re special, or is that just some cute trick she plays with the hundreds of men she gets on the floor for?”

I move before I can stop myself, the chair scraping across the floor, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. My pulse pounds in my throat, my body taut with rage. I don’t even know what to say, but my I’m already reacting, every fiber of me screaming to lash out.

Lucian remains still. He just watches me, eyes wide with enjoyment. If anything, he looks fucking pleased—he’s got me exactly where he wanted. A chuckle escapes his mask, low and mocking, rolling from his chest like it is the sweetest fucking music to his ears.

“You have been watching her, haven’t you?” Lucian says, dripping with sarcasm. “Following her every move, trying to figure out what she knows about the man who died. The one she witnessed getting slaughtered. You have been wondering if she could remember, haven’t you? What she might know about that night…”

I stay silent. He’s right. I have been digging, following her every step. She has been the key to understanding that event. To understanding what I was a part of, what happened when I was just a fucking kid. The night I watched a man die at the age of 9. The moment Lucian taught me everything I needed to know about the Order, about betrayal.

“Too bad you never stopped to ask the right question,” he says slowly, his eyes gleaming with that same cold pleasure that always made me want to break his face. “The question you should have been asking Xan is… who exactly was the man Mira accidently watched die?”

I blink, my thoughts momentarily derailing as something inside me shifts, that gnawing suspicion clawing at the back of my mind. I stare at him, barely able to keep my thoughts together.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Lucian takes a step closer, his voice lowering to a quiet hiss.

“You never bothered to dig into her past. You were so focused on what she remembered, on what secrets she could uncover, on getting her mouth around your cock, that you did not bother asking the one question that would have changed everything.”

My heart is pounding now, my stomach twisting with a familiar anxiety, a sense of dread creeping up my spine.

“Because you were there, Xan. You were there when her father died,” Lucian continues, and for the first time in this entire fucked-up conversation, his tone turns sharp, almost cruel. “You saw it with your own eyes, and yet you never connected the dots. You never realized who that man really was, did you?”

I feel like the ground has been pulled out from beneath my feet. My legs almost give way, trying to hold myself steady, clenching my fists at my sides.

“No… That’s not possible.”

His eyes are a flicker of triumph as he watches me spiral.

“Oh, it is possible alright, you just didn’t know it at the time. You were too young, too naïve to see it for what it was. But now? Now, you are piecing it together, aren’t you? The man youthought was a stranger, the one you saw perish in that cold, bloody night… was Edmund Vale, your sweet little fox’s daddy.”

I take a step back, my breath catching in my throat. My hands are shaking now, the reality of it crashing over me, the truth sinking in.

Iwasthere.

I watched Edmund Vale die.

The man who should have been her protector. The man who… was her father. I stare at Lucian, my chest tightening.

“Youkilled him, not me!”

The words come out like a growl, the accusation hanging in the air. Lucian’s smile widens, satisfaction radiating from him like a fucking aura.

“Yes, I killed him. While you, Xan… you watched it happen and did nothing. You were a part of it. We both were and still are.”

I try to swallow the lump in my throat, the bitterness of the truth almost choking me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know who he was to her. My mind is spinning. I cannot process it all at once.

“But why the fuck would you…”

I was just a kid, a witness, nothing more. Another tool in Lucian’s hands. Damn, I feel sick.

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