Page 105 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

My heart stopped. Completely seized, refused to beat.

It was Seb’s tone—all ice-cold authority. It had only been three hours since we’d tortured Wren, and I still hadn’t recovered from the stress of that. And now, Seb was using that voice. Sharp, unforgiving. I’d heard him use that voice on criminals. Never on me.

My trembling hands saved my work and locked the screens. The familiar hum of my servers felt distant, like I was underwater. Everything moved too slowly and too fast at once.

Priya sat on one of the basement’s sofas, her eyes immediately finding mine. She took one look at my face and set down her mug.

“Seb randomly wants to see me,” I whispered. “In his office. He sounds cross.”

She studied me for a long moment, her expression shifting from curiosity to confusion. Then something else flickered across her features—pity.

“I’ll come with you.”

I nodded, pathetically grateful. I felt like a kid being dragged to the headmaster’s office, needing my mum to hold my hand. But I wanted her. Whatever was waiting upstairs, I couldn’t face it alone.

We climbed up the staircases in silence, with me forcing myself to take regular deep breaths.

Seb’s office door stood ajar. He sat behind his mahogany desk, his laptop positioned directly in front of him. He didn’t look up when we entered.

“Why is Priya here?” Same lethal calm.

“In case I’m helpful to the situation,” Priya said, settling into a chair opposite. I lowered myself slowly into the one beside her.

“Very well.” Seb’s fingers hovered over the laptop keyboard. My chest tightened painfully. What on earth was going on? Had I missed something? Was I about to get fired?

He turned the laptop around.

What I saw made my heart stop.

Our own security feed from the basement, the timestamp clearly visible in the corner. I recognised the angle immediately—the wide shot from the camera mounted near the bookcase.

And I recognised the day too.

There we were on screen: Kit and me on the sofa, that grand feast spread across the coffee table between us. Video-me was laughing at something Video-Kit had said, our legs clearly pressed together with deliberate intent.

I couldn’t look away as Video-Kit suddenly stood, his hand finding Video-me’s back, pushing me urgently towards my lair. The intimate gesture, the obvious intention—it was all there, captured in crystal clarity.

My throat closed completely. Thank the heavens I’d wiped the security footage of what happened inside my cupboard.

So, this could be explainable. Right? Well, not the fact that the wiped footage was miss—

Seb leaned forward and pressed another key.

A different feed filled the screen. The ballroom camera.

Kit pinning me down on the training mat, his mouth trailing up my neck while my eyes closed in absolute bliss.

I hung my head, dying, my heart beating so fast I thought it might explode. I hated seeing pictures or videos of myself at the best of times. This was torture. I would never recover from this.

“Some excellent self-defence training going on right there,” Seb said, his sarcasm so sharp it could draw blood. “I’m so glad I suggested that plan.”

Liquid-quick, Priya’s arm shot out and slammed the laptop shut.

“Enough. If the point of this is to humiliate Felix, it’s working.”

Seb’s dark eyes stayed fixed on me, completely ignoring her. “Did you think I was so technologically inept I wouldn’t bother to go through footage myself, after we found that listening bug?”

I mumbled something pathetic about how, well, yes, sort of, because it was my job to do that.