Chapter 7 – Tangled Threads
960 Words
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Lily
The world hadn’t stopped spinning, but it sure felt like it.
Lily sat curled up in the corner of her room, legs drawn to her chest, the dim lamplight casting warm gold across the paintings lining her wall. But none of them offered comfort. Her thoughts were still stuck on Xavier—on the way he had looked at her as if he already owned her soul. On the way he had touched her like he was anchoring something inside her that had always been untethered.
It wasn’t normal. Nothing about this was normal.
She should be afraid. She was afraid.
But buried beneath that fear was something else, something darker. Curiosity. Longing. A connection she couldn't explain.
And that terrified her more than anything.
Her brush hovered above a blank canvas. Midnight blue bled into black as her hand moved in frantic strokes. She didn’t think—she just painted. Painted the heat in Xavier’s gaze. Painted the fog in her mind. Painted the hands that had held her, not with violence, but with a possessiveness that seeped into her veins like wildfire.
The painting was chaotic, raw, messy. Just like her.
A knock on her door broke the silence.
She jumped, nearly smearing the wet paint with her wrist. “Come in,” she called out, half-expecting to see her brother or maybe her mother.
But it wasn’t them.
It was him.
Xavier.
His presence filled the room before he even crossed the threshold. He didn’t speak right away. Just stood there, eyes dark and heavy, like he could see everything—even the things she didn’t want to admit.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.
“I had to see you.”
Her pulse fluttered. “You shouldn’t be able to get in.”
He gave a faint, amused smile. “That’s the least of your worries.”
She stared at him, breath catching. “What are you?”
The air between them pulsed with tension, but Xavier took his time answering.
“I’m not what you think I am,” he said slowly. “But I’m also not here to hurt you.”
Lily stood, brushing her hands on her jeans. “Then why are you here?”
He took a step forward. “Because I can’t stay away from you. I’ve tried. I’ve told myself to let you go. But this thing between us—it won’t let me.”
She backed up a little. “There’s no ‘thing’ between us.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. “Then why do you look at me like that?”
She hated that he was right. Hated that her body betrayed her every time he was near.
“I don’t want this,” she said, her voice trembling.
“But you feel it,” he replied. “Same as I do.”
The silence stretched. The only sound was her heartbeat hammering against her ribcage.
Finally, she asked the question that had been clawing at her insides since the night in the alley.
“What are you hiding from me?”
He didn’t flinch. “Everything.”
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Xavier
She was unraveling. He could see it in the way she held herself, like she was trying to keep her soul from slipping through her fingers.
He hadn’t meant to come here tonight, but something inside him had snapped. He needed to see her. Needed to hear her voice. Needed her.
Even if he didn’t deserve her.
“I’m not good for you,” he said, voice low. “You should stay away from me.”
“Then why are you here?”
Because he couldn’t breathe when he wasn’t.
He moved closer, his fingers twitching with the need to touch her again. Just to be sure she was real.
“There’s something about you,” he murmured. “You wake something up in me.”
Lily’s eyes were wide. “Something... dangerous?”
He nodded. “Yes. And something I can’t control.”
She took a step back. “Then leave. Walk away.”
“I can’t.”
Her lips parted as if she wanted to scream at him. To tell him to go. But she didn’t.
Because she couldn’t either.
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Alessio
From the rooftop across the street, Alessio watched the scene unfold through the cracked curtain of Lily’s room.
“She doesn’t know yet,” he said into the phone.
The voice on the other end crackled. “Is she stable?”
“Too soon to tell. But Xavier’s already too attached.”
A sigh. “Then it’s time. Start the preparations. We don’t have much longer.”
Alessio pocketed the phone and narrowed his eyes. “Let’s hope she’s worth the mess.”
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Lily
“Tell me the truth,” she demanded.
Xavier’s jaw tensed. “You’re not ready.”
“Try me.”
He hesitated.
“You’re not entirely human,” he said at last. “And neither am I.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You’re special, Lily. You have a bloodline that’s been hidden, suppressed. But it’s awakening. That’s why you’re feeling things. Seeing things. That’s why I found you.”
Her knees nearly buckled.
“I’m not crazy?” she whispered.
“No,” he said. “But soon, everything in your world will change.”
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Xavier
He watched the fear flicker across her face. He hated it.
“I’ll protect you,” he said, voice rough. “No matter what comes.”
She looked up at him, those bright eyes clouded with a hundred emotions.
“I don’t trust you,” she said.
“You don’t have to,” he replied. “You just have to stay alive.”
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- Writer
