Page 12 of Wicked Enemy

“I don’t care. It’s my fault that you’re even here in the first place, so I should face the consequences for that.”

He said nothing. Only cocked his head and studied me with eyes that burned into my very soul. I once more tried to pull my wrists and ankles free of my restraints, but Levi had reshaped the ceiling and floor before letting them harden again so there was no escaping this unless he allowed it.

“Do they know?” he asked eventually.

He didn’t need to specify what he meant. I already knew what he was asking. Did my colleagues know that I had willingly let Levi escape back in that warehouse?

“No,” I admitted.

“What would happen if they found out?”

“Most likely? I would be court-martialed and then executed for high treason.”

He scoffed. I couldn’t tell if he was amused or if he just found it ridiculous.

In my chest, my heart felt like it was being torn to shreds. Part of me wanted to ask Levi if he was okay. We had gotten reports that another House had attacked his Court, but we didn’t know more than that. But the other part of me wanted to scream at him in frustration. Scream at him and curse him for making me fall for him. For making me weak. For making me listen to my feelings and help him instead of doing what I knew was right.

But I could do neither of those, so instead I snapped, “What are you waiting for? You won! Kill me already and be done with it.”

He raised his sword again. My heart slammed against my ribs as he drew the point of the blade down my throat and then positioned it right at the base of it again. All it would take was one push, and he would sever my windpipe.

Then he raised his other hand.

My stomach lurched as the metal bands around my limbs abruptly vanished. I was not at all prepared for it, and I didn’t have time to brace my weight again, so I just crashed to my knees on the floor.

“Get up,” Levi ordered.

Shock clanged inside my skull like giant bells, but I managed to scramble back to my feet. With confusion whirling through my chest, I looked back at the King of Metal uncertainly while he sheathed his sword across his back again. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“You let me walk back in that warehouse. Even though you were responsible for the ambush too, you did save me. And I always pay my debts. So, a life for a life.”

My mouth dropped open.

“We’re even now.” His eyes betrayed no emotion as he held my gaze. “You know how to swim, right?”

“What?”

“Answer the question.”

“Yes, I know how to swim.”

“Good. You and I are done now, Eve. From this moment on, you’re nothing to me. The next time I see you, you will try to capture me because I’m a dark mage and I will try to kill you because you’re a white boot. You can tell them that you jumped.”

Every word he spoke felt like a stab through the chest with a rusty blade. After everything we had been through, we were now supposed to just be done? Be nothing to each other? Just like that? For me, it felt as if my soul was being cut apart all the time by my conflicting feelings for him and for myself and for my duty to the constables and the city. But he could just rip my entire existence out of his life like that? Without any problem at all?

Then his last sentence trickled through my mind.

Frowning, I pressed out, “Wait, what? What do you mean, you can tell them that you jumped?”

Before I could so much as raise my hands, Levi shoved me out the window.

My stomach lurched, and wind rushed in my ears as I plummeted through the air and towards the river below, but I swore I could hear him speak two more words.

“Goodbye, spitfire.”

Then I hit the surface with a splash and disappeared into the cold dark water.

Chapter7

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