Lex Talionis

Chapter 15

I advanced, retreated, pirouetted, my arms waving from side to side, above my head. Pirouette after pirouette, jeté after jeté, again, and again, and again, until I was sweating blood.

I thought that the audio player was my only audience but as I turned, my eyes caught Diego standing in the doorway, him less adept at hiding in the shadows than me.

He was still wearing his tuxedo but the mask was off. He dropped his eyes for a second or two before looking back, his head tilted to one side and a small hopeful smile played on his lips.

I felt naked. I felt like he just took something important from me by watching me without my permission. I haven't danced in front of anyone in years. He had no right to watch me. How did he even know where to find me?

I walked over to the audio player. Wiping tears from my cheeks, I turned the music off before completely turning to face him.

"How dare you spy on me?" I gritted out, irritated with him.

And what was he doing here anyway. He was supposed to be with his father, celebrating this stupid engagement.

"I was looking for you." He spoke up casually and his expressionless mask was back on. "I never thought I'd see you cry. Didn't think you can, to be honest."

For a second I was taken aback as I touched my cheeks, checking if they were still wet. They weren't. But then I thought my eyes must have looked all puffy and red. So I needed to shield myself.

Clucking my tongue in annoyance, I spoke up. "Yes, I can, but right now I'm practicing for your early funeral!" I retorted dryly.

Nevertheless, he ignored my anger towards him and asked: "Where did you learn to dance like this?"

"Not that it's any of your damn business but I attended some group classes."

Was I lying? Absolutely. Did I give a damn about it? Absolutely not.

"You know—" His eyebrows sloped downwards and lips were drawn into a hard line across his face. "—I was wondering this whole time, but I just couldn't come up with the answer. What were you doing in the Ghost town? And why were you looking for Blade?"

He walked slowly towards me while the adrenaline flew over my veins like a carp through the river, but I couldn't move a single muscle, not even to blink.

Did he already know and now was just testing me? But how could he? From where? No, there was no way he knew.

Diego didn't stop, instead he walked slowly around me in circles, like he was analyzing his prey. My mouth was almost too dry to speak as I stood there, hands by my sides, too afraid to move.

Finally, he stopped in front of me and ran his eyes up and down my body.

"I just can't stop thinking about it. What's yo-" He trailed off when his eyes landed on my neck.

Well, my necklace to be exact. His dark eyebrows sloped downwards in serious expression. Raising his hand to my neck, he touched the necklace, taking it between his two fingers.

It was just a simple thin golden circle-locked-pedant necklace with engraved two small identical flames attached to each other in the middle of a triangle. Under the triangle laid the infinity sign.

The twin flame pendant reflected and harnessed the power of the twin flame union. It was a beautiful and powerful symbol of love and unity.

It wasn't a usual necklace you could see every day and it was one very important necklace to me, since it was the last thing my brother gave to me before he left.