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I stand with my back to the fence post, gazing up into his covered features. There’s no telling what he’s thinking or why he’s so fixated on a one-night stand that took place years ago, when there are so many other pressing issues.
So many heinous issues.
The abduction, the arson, the murder of his mother.
Maybe this conversation is a distraction. His way of keeping sane amidst the chaos.
The hand holding my wrist tightens, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Professor Segul? Once I told Odin that I’d been with someone else, he backed off.”
“I should have killed that boy when I had the chance,” he snarls.
My brows pull together. “What’s this about—”
“He took something that was mine.”
Shallow breaths caress the tops of my lungs but no oxygen reaches my bloodstream. I sway on my feet, my heart pounding hard enough to muffle the background noise.
“But you… You went to all that trouble to explain I wasn’t a whore, only to say those cruel words.”
“Had I not ended our association, you would have fallen under the notice of someone dangerous. You would have become another pawn in his sick game.”
“Crius Vanir?” I whisper.
His eyes tighten around the edges, and his features twist into a scowl. It’s an unspoken warning not to mention that name again, but it’s so notorious in the underworld that I can’t let that information slide.
“He’s your father. That’s why you reacted when I mentioned his name.”
Another silence, this one weighing on me so heavily that I can barely breathe.
“My mother was his captive for years until I earned her freedom,” he says.
So Crius Vanir is either his biological father or the only father figure he had when growing up. I don’t dare to push him. Not on the heels of finding the mother he fought so hard for with her throat slit.
“You broke up with me for my protection?” I ask.
Professor Segul cups the side of my face with his warm hand and brushes the pad of his thumb across my cheekbone. Sensation skitters across my skin, and my eyelids flutter shut.
“I’m sorry,” the words slip from my lips. “Sorry for not listening. Sorry for forcing you to decide between me and her.”
His hand drops from my face, and my eyes snap open. He straightens, his body drawing away from mine. A cold wind blows in from the other side of the alleyway, exaggerating our distance.
“You know?” he asks.
“I overheard Thor’s conversation with Odin in the back of the car. If I’d known what you were doing, I would have stayed away.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him why he didn’t trust me with the information but in our world, questions like that are naive.
Look at what happened with Charlotte.
She had been my confidante for years and the moment someone with power like Odin demanded answers, she spilled my secret.
Placing both hands on his chest, I murmur, “I can’t imagine what it’s like to go through something like that—”
“Don’t.” Professor Segul shakes his head. “For the first time, my eyes are wide open. There’s only one person I would kill to protect.”
My pulse picks up speed. He can’t mean me?
