Adriana's P.O.V
The memories flash in my head, sharp as knives, not ceasing in the same relentless way the heartbeat inside my chest is without stoppage. Even now I can feel Xavier's grip, his fingers like bands of iron around my neck, cutting off my air, cutting off everything. At that point in time, he was ready to take everything away from me: my breath, my heartbeat, my life.
I look back and shiver with the closeness of how I almost died that night. Dead serious, he was, intent on removing me from this earth. I could feel it, in his eyes, in that steely determination, so unforgiving that my own firmness began to fail. The one thing that spared me, that introduced even a semblance of hesitation into his clutches, was Bruce. The seed of fear I had planted in Xavier's mind about his gra
