Page 137 of Vicious Knight

Ivy

I walk across the stone path leading to the auditorium, feeling like a shell of my former self.

The moon is clear and high in the sky, beaming down on the arched rooftops of the buildings around me. The clouds gather around like warships hungry for the taste of blood.

Everything feels like it’s on edge. Just like me.

I remember when I first started here at Raventhorn and met Thorne.

I was so freaked out by him, but that was also because he mesmerized me, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

We’ve been on this roller coaster of a relationship with all sorts of things thrown at us, and now that he’s out of the picture I feel lost.

Lost like I was before I got here and met him.

This has been such a difficult week.

Of course, Tiffany broadcasted the news of her upcoming engagement to Thorne. The whole campus knew from day one and everywhere I went people were looking at me. Some were laughing, some gave me looks of sympathy, some just stared at me.

I’ve had to sit through various social gatherings with Tiffany and her minions sniggering behind my back.

I guess that was the price I paid for being foolish and dropping evidence of who I was in the tunnel for him to find.

But more than anything, my accident was the price I paid for falling for Thorne Ivanov.

I never knew that when my mother told me to avoid anyone with the surname Ivanov, I was going to fall for one.

Surprisingly, although it feels like the world knows about Thorne and me, Mom and Levgen are none the wiser. The only times when I had to hide my relationship from them was when they were physically here, and the few times when Mom called and Thorne was with me.

I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.

The only thing I should be worried about now is the whole situation with the scar-faced man. When it comes to that, I have nothing. Just Thorne. And I haven’t seen him since I walked out of his apartment on Monday morning.

It’s not something I can leave alone, but it’s going to be hurtful to see him and not have him touch me or kiss me.

It’s going to be hurtful knowing he’s not mine anymore.

Pushing aside my sorrow, I enter the auditorium using the side entrance. The dim automatic lights are already on in the main section, so I assume the janitor must be here.

Oftentimes when I come by at this hour, it’s just me. The place is usually silent and dark until I start playing my music.

I walk down the little hallway when, suddenly, the melodious music of my composition comes to life, playing all around me.

Someone is playing my music on the piano.

My actual composition.

I rush down the hall and into the main section of the auditorium where the grand piano sits on the elaborate stage. Behind it is Thorne, playing my music as if he composed it himself.

I stop short, staring in shock as he plays each note with elegance, grace and confidence. As if he’s played my song every minute of every hour of the day.

The shock consumes me, warming my heart.

He told me it was over ten years ago that he last played and that he found it hard because it reminded him of his losses.

Hearing him play now for me lifts my soul.

Thorne looks across and stares at me with a deep fervency that makes me feel alive again.

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