Page 63 of Wicked Enemy

It was all pointless.

They had escaped a little past eleven last night, which meant that they were already back on the south side. But of course, I couldn’t tell anyone that. So I spent the entire day combing through the streets in search of the very people I had let walk right out of our building.

Chief Anderson had been summoned before the parliament, and most of our department leaders had spent the day arguing and interrogating people in order to figure out how this could have happened.

Worry had torn at my chest all day. But I had been very careful to make sure that nothing could be traced back to me. And since I hadn’t been arrested yet, I was pretty sure that I had gotten away with it.

But I still couldn’t help feeling as though I was being followed, so I stole a glance over my shoulder as I unlocked my front door. There was no one behind me. After shaking my head at my own paranoia, I pulled open the door and went inside.

My home was a medium-sized one-story building with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom, and one corridor that connected them all. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was clean and warm and located in a quiet neighborhood. I had planned to decorate it, to make it more my own, when I moved in five years ago. But I still hadn’t gotten around to doing that, so all I had were the essentials.

A table with four chairs in the kitchen, all made of pale wood, as was the trend on this side of the river. The living room was similarly furnished. A pale wooden bookshelf containing the romance novels I read whenever I had the time, which admittedly wasn’t often, but they were there, waiting for the time when my life would be a bit less busy. There was also a low table before the white couch. No paintings or plants yet, but I would get to that at some point.

After locking the door behind me, I pulled off my boots and hung up my jacket. Then I drifted down the empty hallway and towards my bedroom.

I swept my gaze over the neatly made bed with white sheets as I moved towards the set of drawers. When I had lived in Levi’s Court, I had remarked on how bare his personal quarters felt. But now as I looked at my own home, really looked at it, I realized that mine wasn’t much better.

Blowing out a breath, I grabbed the hem of my shirt and got ready to pull it over my head when a creaking sound came from out in the corridor.

Alarm flickered through me.

I summoned a bolt of lightning before hurrying back to the hallway. It was empty. With my gaze flicking back and forth, I snuck quietly towards the front door. One quick push of the handle confirmed that it was indeed locked, but I still glanced into the kitchen and living room with my lightning bolt at the ready just in case.

When nothing suspicious appeared, I let the magic fade out. Raking my fingers through my hair, I blew out a deep sigh and walked back to my bedroom.

By the Current, I was becoming jumpy.

I had only made it two steps into the room when the cold edge of a knife was pressed against my throat from behind.

“Don’t scream.”

Shock crackled through me. “Levi?”

The blade disappeared from my throat. I immediately spun around to find Levi Arden standing in my bedroom. The sight of him in here was so unexpected that, for a moment, I didn’t know how to react. I just stood there, staring at him, while he let the knife he had summoned fade into nothingness.

“How did you know where I live?” was what I at last managed to blurt out.

“I didn’t.” There was an unreadable expression on his features as he watched me. “I followed you.”

I glanced towards the door, realizing that he had probably melted the lock and snuck in before reshaping the lock bolt again. Shifting my attention back to the King of Metal, I asked, “Why?”

For a while, he didn’t answer. Instead, he just stood there, a few steps away from my bed, watching me with those penetrating gray eyes of his. Then he blew out a long sigh and shook his head. “What did you do, spitfire?”

I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling defensive. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.”

Since I didn’t know how to answer the question that I knew he was asking, I just kept my mouth shut. Things were too complicated between us now. I had irrevocably fallen for this damn dark mage, but he had made it very clear that he hated me and would never forgive me for betraying him. And I wasn’t pathetic enough to chase after someone who didn’t want me. But I also didn’t want to watch him get killed.

“You freed my people,” Levi pushed. The words seemed to hang in the air between us. “Why?”

I threw my arms out in exasperation. “Because you’re getting slaughtered, Levi!” Heaving a deep sigh, I shook my head at him. “You’d better have a plan. Please tell me you have a plan.”

“I have a plan.”

Silence descended on the room as we just stood there, our eyes locked. The very air around us seemed to crackle with lightning. The longer the silence stretched, the more I could feel the tension press in on me. Just when it was reaching unbearable levels, Levi moved.

My heart skipped a beat as he abruptly took a step forward. Part of me wanted to back away, and the other wanted to lurch forward and meet him, so my confused body didn’t know how to respond and I ended up standing there rooted to the spot as Levi closed the distance between us.

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