Page 75 of Dance of Deception

“No.”

Such a liar.

“What you saw that night doesn’t bother you? Or…” She gasps as my fingers tighten a little more on her, my breath hot against her neck. “Or that it wasmedoing those things?”

Lyra pauses a moment, then shakes her head again.

“I—I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Well,Ido.”

She squirms again, shivering as I lean closer, my lips inches from her earlobe.

“Surely someone like you hasthoughtsabout what you saw.”

Her eyes snap to mine furtively, trying to see into the darkness lurking there before she decides that’s a bad idea and averts them again.

“I…”

“Surely a pre-med student with aims of practicing psychiatry has thoughts about what you saw that night.”

She freezes again, her shoulders locking.

I chuckle mockingly. “What’s wrong, little dancer? Thought I didn’t know?”

She forces a neutral expression. “What I’m studying in school is hardly a state secret.”

No—but she didn’t expect me to know.

I tilt my head, watching her squirm. “You’ve been studying people like me, haven’t you?”

She doesn’t answer. Doesn’t need to.

I tap my fingers against her waist, slowly, rhythmically.

“Go on then,” I say smoothly. “Diagnose me.”

She blinks up at me, eyes darting toward the others.

But no one is paying attention.

No one’s going to rescue her from this.

“You think I’m a monster.”

She swallows, her pulse thumping under my fingers. “I—no.”

“Liar.”

I smile when she trembles a little.

“If it helps with your diagnosis, that man deserved what he got.”

“Says who?”

The second she blurts the words, her lips snap shut again, her eyes widening like she’s horrified that they spilled out.

I grin. “Says me. Says theBlack Court.”

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