Page 99 of Wicked Enemy

She trailed off, her eyes now flooded with emotions.

I swallowed while trying to block out the pain pulsing from my shattering heart. It had been a fool’s hope, I knew that. Trying to convince Eve to give up everything for me had been selfish and cruel, but I had to ask. Had to know. If there was ever a chance for us.

And now I knew.

There wasn’t.

From across the room, Eve watched me with brown eyes brimming with emotions. Since I had nothing left to say, I just stood there looking back at her.

“I won’t participate in the efforts to capture you,” she said. Then she paused and swallowed before continuing. “But I can’t leave the constables. I still believe in the justice system, Levi. I still believe that the constables are a force of good. Someone who helps people.”

“I understand,” I managed to answer.

Because I did. Ididunderstand. But it still felt like I was being crushed underneath a massive weight.

“We’re from two different worlds, Levi.” Her voice cracked again, and a small sob escaped her lips. Then she cleared her throat. “We can’t… We can’t be together.”

“I understand,” I said again. Forcing a smile onto my face, I added in what was supposed to have been a light tone, “Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”

Tears lined her eyes as she strode across the floor towards me. Grabbing the collar of my shirt, she yanked my face down to hers and pressed her lips to mine in a heartbreakingly desperate kiss.

Still holding my shirt, she squeezed her eyes shut and rested her forehead against mine for a second. “I love you. Goodbye.”

Then she abruptly released my shirt and spun around.

I just stood there, shock and pain clanging through my soul, and watched as she strode across the floor and grabbed her sword from my desk. The sword that I had made for her all those weeks ago. And below her shirt and that awful white leather armor, I knew that she still wore that gold and ruby necklace I had given her.

But it didn’t matter.

Because she still walked out the door and took my bleeding heart with her.

Chapter42

Only about half of our department was back by the time I returned to our headquarters, so no one questioned where I had been. They all just assumed that I had been out searching for Levi, like everyone else had done too. No one even suspected that I had just come from his Court, where I had fucked him and then told him that I loved him.

Pain sliced through my heart, sharp and hot, at the mere thought of that final goodbye. Walking away from Levi was one of the hardest things I had ever done. He made me feel free, alive, seen, in a way that no one ever had. And there had been a terrifyingly large part of me that had wanted to stay. To switch sides. To join him. To become a dark mage. But I couldn’t. After everything that had happened with my father and with Ulric, I just… couldn’t.

My heart bled with every step farther into our office.

By the Current, sometimes I really hated being one of the good guys. Hated that I had to sacrifice my own happiness for the greater good. But I had to honor my father’s memory and Ulric’s sacrifice, and that meant doing the right thing instead of doing what I really wanted.

“Sterling!”

I snapped my head up and turned to find Captain Wright leaning out into the corridor and locking stern blue eyes on me.

“My office,” he snapped.

Heaving a deep sigh, I tied my hair back while starting towards his door. My colleagues, or at least the ones who had returned so far, all watched me as I walked past. But yet again, no one said anything.

Dread curled around my spine.

Did he know? He couldn’t possibly know.

Shaking my head, I pulled confidence around me like a shield. No, Captain Wright didn’t know that I had just come from Levi’s Court. But he was angry aboutsomething, which meant that I would need to play this carefully.

With my heart pattering in my chest, I stepped into his immaculate office and closed the door behind me. It looked exactly like it did every day. Tidy shelves and neat stacks. Not a single pen out of place.

As I swept my gaze over the room, I realized that Wright had walked back to his desk and sat down behind it while I made my way down the hall. I wanted to roll my eyes at the way he was sitting, with his elbows braced on the clean wooden desk and his fingers pressed together in front of him, but I suppressed the impulse. He expected respect, and right now, I was in no position to challenge that.

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