Chapter 153

Alaria

The door opened again, slow this time, as if he enjoyed the sound of his own entrance. I was sitting in the living room, the first room that I’d entered since the bedroom that I’ve been staying in.

I didn’t look up at first. The sight of him had already carved itself deep enough into my mind. But when his footsteps stopped a few feet away, I lifted my gaze. My eyes as cold as ice, and my gaze as hard as steel as I kept looking at him.

Darius stood there, composed as ever, hands clasped behind his back, his black shirt open at the throat, that same calm arrogance in every line of him. His eyes studied me, sharp and deliberate, like a predator waiting for movement.

“I assume you’ve already called him,” I said, my voice flat. I didn’t even have it in me to keep fighting him at this point.

He smiled faintly. “You assume correctly.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Only the truth,” he said with mock sincerity. “That you’re safe. That you’r