Page 22 of Heart of the Villain

She’d never tried, but she didn’t mind using this man as a test dummy.

Marlena wasn’t leaving this building without speaking to Lucius Dimico.

“Now, let’s try this again.” Marlena motioned to the door one more time. “Open the door for me. Or should I mention to the commander that his soldiers defy orders from the future Curia leader of Aeris and Amora? Please don’t make me hold a grudge until it’s my turn to rule.”

The woman didn’t hesitate this time, turning to grab her side of the double door. The man did though. He stared Marlena down, not budging an inch.

Marlena smiled slowly, letting it reach the corner of her eyes. “I’m an impeccable grudge holder.” The soft smile her parents had taught her to have wasn’t the one she donned now. The one that took its place was calculated, sinister. A promise.

Marlena stepped around the man, never glancing back as she stepped through the open door.

Commander Dimico sat at his desk, focused on whatever paperwork was on it. His blond hair was slicked away from his smoky-blue eyes, and his cape hung over the back of his chair. The commander looked only a little ruffled from a long day’s work.

“Marlena,” he quipped as a half-assed hello. “Is there a reason you’re here giving my guards a hard time and interrupting me unannounced?”

She stopped at the end of his desk, and the door to the office clicked shut from a small gust of her wind.

“Put a sound shield up.” Marlena didn’t ask.

Lucius’s head snapped up, his pen falling from his fingers. “Excuse me?”

The commander obviously wasn’t used to being bossed around, but that was okay… Marlena could work with that. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I stuttered. Let me try again. Put a sound shield up.” She didn’t break eye contact. “Better?” A plan was beginning to form in her head, and a new sense of confidence had washed over her like a tide.

Lucius stood from his chair, and the grating sound from the legs scraping across the floor made Marlena twitch. She blinked away the fuzz inside her brain and crossed her arms over her chest lazily.

She waited, showing Lucius she wouldn’t shy away from him. Marlena would no longer flinch when anyone approached her. I am done being afraid. I’ve lived through worse.

The sound shield fell into place as Lucius gripped the side of his desk, leaning forward to get within a few inches of Marlena. “Watch how you talk to me, little girl.”

His warning should have frightened her, but it didn’t—it settled something inside Marlena instead.

He wouldn’t be rattled if he thought I wasn’t a threat.

Her lip ticked up on the side. She enjoyed the reaction she’d gotten from Lucius. “I could give you the same warning, but I won’t because I have something you want.”

He laughed in her face, but only after he’d hesitated for a second too long. Just long enough for Marlena to catch it. Lucius pushed himself back, away from Marlena as he pushed the chair in and walked around to come face to face again without anything in his way. “Is that so?” His head cocked to the side, and Marlena saw the twinkle of amusement in his eye.

“Of course. You want power. It’s why you sided with me on the day my parents tried to take mine away. Choosing my parents' side would take from you, wouldn’t it?” Marlena was the one to cock her head now, imitating him. Mocking him. “They want to pretend there isn’t a resistance, that the evil of this realm can be kept at bay if they give them just another crumb—throw them just one more bone, and they’ll be happy.”

Lucius was listening, the muscles in his body tightening as Marlena hit every nail on the head.

“They want the power to themselves. They think they’re better than the rest of you, more powerful. That by having their daughter hold the seat to two Curia territories, they’ll never fall. A well-placed puppet to keep their hands in the metaphorical cookie jar.”

The commander’s demeanor was calculated, etched from years of practice. His face gave away nothing, but Marlena could see the wheels turning behind his eyes… She could see his interest piquing by the way his sound shield grew stronger. His ability wrapped them in a tighter bubble to ensure they weren’t heard by anyone else. “Is that what you are, Marlena? A well-placed puppet?”

I was.

Catching herself before she let self-pity slip through, Marlena waggled her head left to right, swallowing that nasty rising emotion down. “Not in the way they planned me to be.”

Revenge was best served cold.

“I want to take it all away from them. Every last bit of power, of control they think they have. And if you follow along, I can give you everything you’ve ever craved, everything you deserve.”

Promises. Her world had been forged off promises. The promise of a life no one else had. The promise of power.

And behind everyone’s back, her parents would tell her how much she was allowed to have. They would only give her what they thought necessary while they basked in all they would keep from her.

Marlena was done being the puppet. It was time to become the master—to use what she’d been taught.