Chapter Nine – Testing Limits
428 Words
I avoided Lucien for three days.
Not because I wanted to—but because I needed to remind myself that I still existed outside of him. I stayed in my wing, refused meals once, pretended to sleep when I heard his footsteps pass my door.
He let me.
That alone should have terrified me.
On the fourth day, the illusion shattered.
I was in the sitting room when the doors opened without warning. Lucien walked in, jacket draped over his shoulder, eyes sharp and unreadable. He looked like a man who had reached the end of his patience.
“You’re testing me,” he said calmly.
I stood. “I’m breathing.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
He closed the door behind him. Locked it.
My heart began to pound, but I forced myself not to step back.
“You think distance is resistance,” Lucien continued, setting his jacket aside. “You think silence is safety.”
I lifted my chin. “And you think fear is control.”
For a split second, something dangerous flickered in his eyes.
Then he smiled.
“Yes,” he said. “Exactly.”
He moved toward me, slow and deliberate. Each step tightened the air in the room.
“You’ve been wondering how far you can go before I stop you,” he said. “Before I punish you.”
I swallowed. “I won’t beg.”
“Good,” Lucien replied softly. “I don’t want begging.”
He stopped inches away from me, towering, his presence overwhelming.
“I want understanding.”
His hand came up—not to touch me—but to rest against the wall beside my head, trapping me.
“You belong to me,” he said. “And everything you do—every limit you test—only makes me more certain of that.”
I met his gaze, my hands clenched at my sides. “You can control where I go. What I do. But you don’t own my mind.”
His eyes darkened.
“That,” he said quietly, “is what you’re about to lose.”
He stepped back suddenly, creating space so abruptly it felt like whiplash.
“Get dressed,” Lucien ordered. “You’re coming with me.”
“Where?” I asked.
“To remind you,” he said, already opening the door, “how small your world really is.”
As he walked out, fear wrapped itself around my spine.
I had tested the limits.
And now Lucien Blackwood was about to redraw them.
- Writer
