Page 21 of Pain Run Rampant

The asshole overstepped massively.

We’re in a giant lecture hall. I can’t remember exactly what class I had in the room. Maybe Intro to Psych 101 or something. Either way, it’s an auditorium-like room with countless rows of chairs.

Invictis walks along the front row of the room, studying it all without saying a word.

That’s fine. He doesn’t have to talk.

I walk down the aisle on the side of the room, step by step until I reach the front of the room, the lowest level, where a whiteboard sits. Totally old-fashioned, but that’s because this is an older building on campus, not redone with new technology everywhere you look.

I snap my fingers and get Invictis’s attention, and once those blue orbs look at me, I point to a seat in the front row and say, “Sit. It’s time for a lesson.”

He is slow in sitting down, and he chooses a seat in the middle. It’s almost funny seeing him in such a small seat; his body hardly fits. That’s what he gets for being so fucking giant.

I give him my back and walk up to the whiteboard. I find a dry-erase marker and uncap it. “Today, we’re going to learn something important. It’s something all people need to know, something stupid people often get wrong.” As I say that, I write something on the whiteboard in big, bold letters.

Once it’s done, I step aside and let him view it, and I point at it with my marker as I say, “How to tell if something is none of your business. Number one.” I draw a one on the board and write it as I say it: “Does it involve you?” Once I finish writing the question mark, I move away from the whiteboard like I’m a professor teaching an actual lesson.

“This is an easy one,” I tell him. “If something doesn’t involve you in any way, it’s none of your business. If you’re not around when something is happening and it affects you in no way whatsoever, it’s none of your business.”

I go back to the board and write a two. “Does it involve someone you hate?” Turning away from the board, I point the marker at Invictis. “Trick question. Even if it’s someone you hate, if it doesn’t involve you, it’s still none of your business.”

Invictis’s expression is one of boredom, although that boredom is laced with the slightest hints of irritation. Still, he doesn’t say anything. All he does is watch me and grind his jaw.

“Three,” I continue my lesson, hurriedly scribbling on the board, “does the outcome of the action affect you in any way? If it doesn’t, then it’s none of your business.” I underline the heading of the numbers,How to tell if something is none of your business,for emphasis.

I cap the marker as I turn away from the board, and then I toss the marker absentmindedly behind me, done with the lesson. “Any questions?” I pretend like I’m surveying the entire auditorium as I step closer to my audience of one.

Invictis doesn’t have a question. Not a question, but the asshole does have something to say: “You’re wrong.”

His words make me stop pretending I’m an actual professor, and I glare at him. “Care to elaborate how I’m wrong?” When he doesn’t say another word, I move to stand before his chosen seat with my arms folded over my chest. “Oh, come on. Share your thoughts with the class.”

“First, let me say I don’t hate the mortal. I find him as irritating as I do every other mortal. Second, it did involve me.”

“How did the kiss involve you? Pretty sure there were only two participants, and neither of them was you.”

“Anything that involves you therefore involves me,” he speaks so plainly, like it should be obvious. “We are bound together, you and I, whether you can use your magic or not. I was simply stopping you from making a mistake.”

Okay, I know I shouldn’t let anything he says get under my skin, but that last part pisses me the fuck off.

My arms drop to my sides and I step closer to him. Even though he’s sitting, he’s still fucking tall; I can barely lean over him, but I manage to as I whisper, “A mistake?”

Even though, for once, I’m in the superior position, Invictis doesn’t act like it bothers him. “Yes, a mistake. Assuming you miraculously keep your sanity, as the years go by, you will remain as you are, while Frederick will age as all mortals do. Why do you think it was so… out of the ordinary for an empress to have children of their own? Sooner or later, Rey, you will see him die.”

Out of everything he could’ve said, that’s the last thing I expect to hear, and it’s why it takes me a few moments to ask, “And why does that matter to you? If I want to be with him as he grows old and eventually dies, isn’t that my decision?”

He tilts his head up and locks gazes with me. “It will hurt you.”

Neither of us say anything after that. His thoughts are his own, but I can tell you that I’m shocked once again. Assuming what he did and how he acted wasn’t about jealousy… could it be he was only trying to protect me, in his own weird way?

No, that doesn’t make any sense.

“Come on,” I say. “You’re telling me you did all that to protect me? I’m not stupid. You and me, we may not be at each other’sthroats right now, but we’re enemies. You hate me and I hate you. We want to destroy each other, not protect each other from possible future pain.”

The corners of his mouth curl into a devilish smirk, and he scoots forward on his seat, stopping only when his face is inches from mine. His gaze travels along my face, taking in my mouth first before sluggishly rising to lock gazes with me. I’m in the superior position still, but it feels like he’s pinning me in place somehow, drawing all of the air out of my lungs with the intensity rolling off him in waves.

“Perhaps,” he whispers out the word as he lifts a single hand. “I was also a bit…” That hand brushes against my cheek, lightly running down my jaw in a way that’s more teasing than tender. “Envious.”

I don’t say a word. It takes all of my willpower to remain standing where I am, so close to him, and not to either take a few steps back or crawl on the motherfucker’s lap. God, I hate him. I hate him so much—and at the same time I don’t, and I hate myself for feeling that way.

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