“Amir,” he said, his voice carrying an ominous weight that filled the threshold, suffocating in intensity.
I was utterly unprepared for this ghost from my past to appear at such a moment.
Before I could react, Balthazar shoved past me, his hulking form moving into the dimly lit foyer with the confidence of a man who feared nothing—not consequences, not me.
His sneer was a familiar poison, twisting his lips into something cruel, something vile.
“Well, well, well,” he taunted, his voice thick with mockery, his eyes gleaming with something far more dangerous than amusement.“Is it possible you’ve stumbled upon love at last?”
My jaw clenched.
“That woman who just fled your home… she’s alluring in a way that stirs a craving for mischief.”He smirked, his words slithering like a serpent coiling around my throat.“She resembles an apple, ripe for the picking.Tempting me to take a bite as well.”
The disgust that filled me was instant, raw, and all-consuming.My fists curled, rage thrumming through my veins like an untamed beast ready to strike.
“Stay away from Elizabeth.Leave her alone!”
The words roared from my throat, bouncing off the high ceilings and shaking the house’s very walls.
Balthazar only laughed, a jagged, grating sound that clawed at the edges of my sanity.
But then, as quickly as it had come, his mirth vanished, his gaze locking onto mine with a cold, devastating intensity.
“I should kill the bitch the same way you took the school from me,” he sneered, his voice laced with venom.
I felt something snap inside me.
“I had intricate intentions for that school—dreams etched into every stone, every corridor!”His voice rose, filled with a force just as dangerous as rage—obsession.“You were well aware of my vision!And yet, you burned it to the ground with flames of betrayal.I found not even a whisper in the ashes of what was once mine.My aspirations, my legacy, reduced to cinders!”
The fury in his voice was absolute, a force that vibrated through the air.
I stepped closer, the heat of my rage matching his, threatening to consume me whole.
“Balthazar shut the fuck up!”I snarled, my breath coming in ragged bursts.“How could you want that school?”
My control was fraying, the beast inside me rattling its cage.
“Mathias was despicable,” I spat, my hands trembling as I fought to hold myself back.“Transforming his school to suit your purposes wouldn’t have given you the satisfaction you wanted.”
His smirk twisted into a snarl, lips curling back to reveal too-white teeth, sharp with malice.His eyes simmered with something feral, something sick.
“Oh, but it would have!”he hissed, each word dripping venom.“You took that from me.You think you won, don’t you?But guess what?”
He leaned in, his breath hot with cruelty.
“I found Mathias’ daughter, Alina.”
A slow, deliberate pause.
“And I didn’t just fuck her once.”
My stomach turned, but he wasn’t finished.
“I took her over and over again until she was nothing but a mindless shell.”
The sickening glee in his voice sent ice through my veins.He relished it, drank in his own horror, and made like a man starving for wickedness.
A hollow, humorless laugh tore from my throat, dripping with bitter disbelief.
