Seraphine

forty

Seraphine 

The tension she'd noticed dissipated earlier suddenly comes back full force after she calls them out, and Seraphine almost laughs. 

"Well--" Enzo starts, just as Damien sighs, Nico cringes, and Luca pushes himself off of the island with a grunt. 

"You don't have to tell us right now, darling, we just--" 

"I was raped." Seraphine says, almost spits, and all of her professors freeze. 

"Seraphine," Luca starts, but she shakes her head, needing to get it out. 

At this point, she doesn't care if they are the Kings of Chicago, running a huge mafia behind her back; she wants him dead. 

If they kill him, so fucking be it. 

"I was raped, multiple times, by Der--by my ex," she amends, and then her gaze flicks up to Damien and she cringes. 

Fuck, I have to tell them there were more. 

As if sensing what she's struggling with, Damien--the only one who knows the truth--reaches across the island and holds his hand out, palm up, waiting for her to put her hand in his. 

She does, and he squeezes it, and she smiles sadly as she immediately squeezes back. 

"And...three of his friends." Seraphine has a death grip on Damien's hand when she says this, and for good reason: 

"What?!" Is the collective response from Luca, Enzo, and Nico, and Seraphine winces at their volume and varying levels of concern, confusion, and rage. 

"Hey," Damien barks as he squeezes Seraphine's hand, who squeezes back twice as hard. "Volume," he says, his voice softer, once he has the attention of his partners. 

Seraphine smiles up at him gratefully, as she now has a pounding headache. It had been creeping up on her for the past couple of hours, but now it was the most distracting thing in the room. 

Which is saying something, because she is always distracted by her professors. 

"Who?" Luca demands, and Seraphine turns her head but can't bring herself to look into his eyes. 

She wonders too much about what she'll find there. Rage, malice, disgust. 

"I don't really know. Their names were Richard, Dave, and John. I...I didn't get to focus too much on their appearances." She whispers the last part and hangs her head, trying to block out the memories that flood the forefront of her mind. 

"Oh, angel," Enzo starts, and she hears him step closer to her, but she squeezes Damien's hand and he stops Enzo from coming any closer. 

"I'm--" 

"Don't."  If it were any other situation, Seraphine probably would've laughed at the fact that all four of them said the same thing, with the same amount of fire behind their voices, but now she just shrinks in on herself. 

"Seraphine--" Luca goes to say something, but Seraphine shakes her head, clears her throat, and lets go of Damien's hand, straightening in the stool. She brushes her hands together, pushes the bowl further away from her, her stomach churning, and hops down. 

"I would like to go to bed now, please. Where am I sleeping?" She asks the floor, waiting for one of them to step up and guide her to her room. 

Her room. 

This whole situation still feels surreal to Seraphine, but that--the fact that she has her own room in the estate owned by her professors, takes the fucking cake. 

"I'll show you." Luca's voice comes from behind her, and Seraphine almost cringes. 

Luca was the one she didn't want to show her. For some reason, she didn't want to be alone with him. He seemed like the one who could see deepest into her soul, and in the blink of an eye, too. 

"Okay. Thank you for dinner. I'll see you all tomorrow." She says, again, to the floor, and then waits for Luca to round her and lead her to the stairs. 

The remaining professors call out variations of 'goodnight', each with a different name tagged on the end. That makes Seraphine smile, just a bit. 

Luca steps in front of her and starts towards the stairs, only pausing once to check over his shoulder and make sure she's following him. 

She is. 

Seraphine lets him go first up the stairs, and is surprised when he ignores the second floor, where all of their rooms are, and continues up the giant (and, frankly, unnecessarily gorgeous) staircase to the third floor. 

Seraphine gapes at the walls, which are decorated with a cream colored wallpaper that's adorned with gold paisleys. The wall lights are all rounded, and when Luca flips a switch at the beginning of the hallway, they light up a soft yellow. 

He goes down the hallway completely, and Seraphine notices there's only one door on the entire floor. Luca pauses in front of it, at the end of the hallway, and Seraphine finally lifts her gaze to look him in the eye.

He blinks, as if not realizing it at first, and then his gray eyes soften and he steps closer to her, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. 

She doesn't jump back or push him away, so he slides his hand back through her damp hair to cup the nape of her neck and pull her to him gently. Luca tilts her head back so she's staring up at him, and Seraphine feels his hand tighten ever so slightly on the back of her neck. 

Her heart race increases. 

"I meant it when I said you were home, Seraphine." He starts, his voice low, and Seraphine is completely enthralled by him. He could've been leading her to her doom, and she would've gladly followed him if it meant he kept looking at her like that. 

"You are home. Here, with me. With us. This, my princess," his grip tightens on her neck and he lowers his lips to her forehead with such a feather-like touch Seraphine's knees buckle as her eyelids flutter shut. 

Luca hums against her skin as he feels it for the first time against his lips, and Seraphine's body quivers when he finishes his sentence, "is exactly where you belong."