"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚐𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕."
♛
Maddison Lockhart was a depressed introvert, addicted to books and television along wit...
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***
"You have managed to locate him?" A deep voice pulls me from my inquiring thoughts. The man in question standing in the middle of the room with his signature look—hands pressed in the pockets of his dress pants, a calm air of dominance soldering his stance.
"I have. He'll be here in two days." I answer shortly, my finger pointing to the moving drop of blood on the map. Kai no doubt having sensed us enter the prison world. That, along with the note I sent his way.
Leaning over my shoulder to get a better look, he lets out a quiet hum, his chest vibrating through the low tone against my back.
Biting my lip, I swiftly turn around placing my hand on his chest to push him back a few steps, observing him through narrowed eyes. "You want something."
He doesn't disagree. Just simply stares for the longest time—for what? I don't know. But I refuse to shift under his unnerving calculative stare. Eventually though, he does shake his head stepping back, allowing for my hand to drop back to my side.
"No. I want nothing from you." He disagrees, his voice soft but indifferent, strategic.
"Want, need, they're all the same." I bait him.
Looking into my eyes yet again, something akin to disappointment flash across his momentarily before he averts his gaze to the window at his left. The tapping of a tree branch knocking against the glass offering a brief distraction in the midsts of his thoughts.
"What are you thinking?" I find myself asking before I could stop myself.
Sighing, he lowers his chin to his chest looking as though he has the weight of the world on his shoulders in that moment. "I am thinking... how I would do absolutely anything you asked of me. Anything. Regardless of whether you carry your emotions with you or not. I am thinking of Finn," he admits softly, recognising the heated warning in my eyes. Despite that, he keeps going. "I am remembering his last moments. How he wished to become the older brother I'd never had and fix our relationship, even in the face of what Klaus did to him—what we all did to him."
"That's enough. Forget I asked." I interrupt before he could continue, making a move for the door. However, he suddenly stands before me with his own warning gleaming in the golden brown of his eyes while managing to keep his voice soft for my ears.
"I remember promising him that we would all be a family. That family including you, Elskan. And when he died—" he seems unfazed as I wrap my hands around his neck and push him up against the wall, a fury burning in the cave of my chest. Yet he remains resilient, maintaining eye contact through my weak threat. We both know I couldn't hurt him. "When he died, I was reminded of everything our family has ever been through... everything we have done. The evil, the selfish, the good—all of it. And then you died a brief nine seconds after. And I swear, everything that made me, me through my very long life died too within that last beat of your heart. And I wretchedly replay those agonising seconds before in my mind, just to see you again in your last moments. That vision of you laying deathly still next to Finn's flaming body will forever haunt me."
