Heirs And Hunters

Chapter 12

W I N T E R

To have your worst dream come true is one thing. And for it to happen in the form of an Arcane is borderline cruel. But what's more unfair is in place of fury and embarrassment from the betrayal, I am distractedly fixated at the playful smile on his face as the waves of breeze ruffle through his dark hair, scattering it into a perfect touseled mess. A dimple cuts through his right contours like highlighting the promise of trouble that shone in his grey eyes.

I did not know he had dimples.

I haven't seen him smile until now. and I wish I didn't have today either. It's mesmerizing. It's devilish. It's everything that one needs to stay away from.

I hate him.

I hate him. I keep hating him till I forget why I even began to hate him. Then I remember and hate him some more. But dare do I let the bitterness skitter on my face. Neither do I coward away from him. It is too late for that now. Not after I had told him that he wasn't a nice person or admitted that I eradicate him in my imagination or that I deliberately sold him the worst form of coffee known to mankind. And so much more. Oh, so much more was said and exchanged in those chats that my head is dizzy mere from the surface reminders of it.

"Are you alright?" he asks taking the helmet off my hands. If they were uselessly trembling before- they have now gone cold and dead.

"No" I clip. The humor in his eyes only swells. He wasn't this deviant when I behaved under the chords of my disguise. of course, this is why he kept studying me after the accident since I had disclosed the complete lack of my supposed character on a freaking road rage. I fucked up so badly. Then I kept fucking up until I heard his voice instruct me to hold him tight.

Hold him tight?

I wanted to choke the daylights out of him at that instance.

"It's fine. take your time killing me inside that head of yours. But make sure I look like a pretty Babygirl that I am when I die"

He challenges me, his previous larkiness fades to darkened regard. Like he was daring me to shirk out of the layered traps he had nailed around me. But the thing was, I didn't even try to lurch for a way out. I don't have the energy for that.

Ivans antics and my stupidity has drained me.

"I am hungry," I tell skimming through the restaurant signboard with a melancholic longing "We can talk after I resume thinking from the head and not from the stomach"

His gaze runs over my face gingerly, then it flicks to the building beside which the restaurant stood and the corner of his lips curls into a smirk.

"Is that for me?" he asks as the siren of the cop's car wails across the precinct. I had to select a diner near a police station as a precautionary measure.

"Back up in case something went wrong" I admit.

"You could've bought a friend" he says with a faint tightness in his voice.

"Or you could have just told me who you were"

"And then what would you have done? Repress? Avoid? Make terrible coffees till I stopped visiting your little cafe?" his words are coldly accurate and he knows it. It settles on me like a mist and I exhale slowly to calm my thundering heart. I walk away from him and enter the vintage restaurant that has tons of legit ratings and reviews on the internet. The drone of noises and chatter from the diners is thick in the air. So is the delicious waft of dishes that's being served around. This place had the most diverse chart of vegetarian menus I have seen in my life. I can try it all. I will try it all. I wish I could drain Ivan Arcane of his wealth- I probably would need to be reborn a hundred times over to achieve the goal. But I would love to see that go down.