“I don’t waste my time talking, Lily,” he hissed. “Whatever I give, I can take it back anytime.”
I ignored my hammering heart and my hair standing on end. “What does that mean?”
“It means I have the power to destroy anyone if I wish. And I don’t offer reminders.” His sinister tone froze my blood.
“You just want to be portrayed as a villain,” I quipped back. “I don’t believe you aren’t capable of feeling anything. Everyone has a heart, Radcliff. Even the Devil.”
By playing all those years the role of the monstrous Devil of Ravencliff Manor, he had lost the identity of who he was behind the mask.
He snorted like I was ridiculous. A blaze of fire burned inside of me, and a dull pain inside my heart was growing. I took my courage, inching closer to him, enough for our scents to collide. Floral met dark. Sweet met musky. I was ready to step in and nestle in his darkness.
“There is good in people if you bother to see the bright side of the world. I mean, love does—”
“Love,” he articulated robotically, “is the biggest lie. It’s a disillusionment of desire. A sin in disguise. A weakness.”
“What happened to you, Radcliff?” I reached out to caress his scar with my fingertips. The muscles on his face tightened, but he didn’t push me away. “How did you get that scar?”
“Stop what you’re doing.”
“Did someone do this to you?” I plunged my eyes to his. “At the church, you mentioned your father. Is that—”
He grabbed my wrist with a tight grip and pushed my hand away. “Lily.”
“I need to know why you don’t believe. I need to know who you truly are. I need to—”Save you.
“My father carved my fucking face. Is that what you wanted to hear, Lily?” he roared.
My heart shattered into pieces. The pulse in my neck thundered harder, and I stumbled backward. The sun slipped away to let the darkness take its place, Radcliff’s face darkening to become one with it.
“I had no idea. I—” A single tear was forming, but I wouldn’t let it fall. “Why would a father do that to his own son? It’s cruel.”
Radcliff leaned in, threatening and dangerous. “What if his son was a monster?”
His breath, so close to my neck, sent a frozen chill down my spine. It was like a plague, murdering each sign of life. The whisper of all unspecified evils released into the world.
I swallowed, bleeding the salt of my soul that poured from my eyes. “You’re not.”
His eyes glinted with something that terrorized me. “You’re not ready for my tale, little witch.”
“I am.” Despite my trembling chin, I held up to his hellish stare. “I’ll give you everything you want in exchange to know what happened to you.”
“I already own your soul, Lily.”
A thunderclap hit the sky, and the dead leaves suddenly flew to collide with me. I clamped my fingers inside my flesh, holding in the hot torrents of tears begging to be unleashed.
“And your secret is owning you,” I deadpanned. “You’re afraid. You can’t face the shadows of your past. It’s haunting you more than you think, Radcliff.”
A dark smile spread over his face. “Despite all my father’s lame attempts at owning me, he never succeeded.”
“Which attempts?”
Radcliff turned his back to me, shifting his head so his icy gaze with his grisly scar raked over me. “You want the horror, Lily?”
He walked away without a word toward the dark woods. A plethora of nocturnal ghosts welcomed him, and only a few seconds later, he disappeared into the gray, shadowed night. It was still one of his games. I had two choices—follow him and get my answer or stay in the blur.
I gulped at the air and let myself sweep into the dying nature. The moon shone in a silvery claw through a lattice of leaves as I smelled the rotting leaves and toasted marshmallow. I pushed aside overhanging limbs across the path, cracking the undergrowth with each step.
Radcliff stopped in the penumbra like he was born inside of it, cloaking the night royally. “Congratulations, Lily. You won the story.”
