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“Just one.”
Her head cocks. “Oh?”
“Will you teach me how to do it, too?”
Her brows rise. “You want me to teach you how to be as toxic as I am?”
“I want to weave myself as deeply into your blood as you’ve woven yourself into mine. I’d like your every inhale and exhale to come with thoughts of me. I want to convince you that I am different and special, or—if nothing else—pretty enough to keep around.”
Laughter bubbles out of her as she clamps her free hand to her mouth. “That’s a very specific end goal, and it kind of turns me on, which means it’s definitely time to go.” She twists toward the door, and I follow her out into the hall while calculations flicker through her eyes. By the time we make it to the top of the staircase, she says, “All right. Sure. It could be fun. It’ll take some of the guilt off if you’re willing to come down to my level.”
“Down?”
“It’s not pretty to actively weaponize abuse, pet, so I wouldn’t exactly claim knowing how to elevates anyone.”
Yet, she’s never made anything she’s done feel quite like abuse. “What’s the first step?”
“Make yourself my entire reason for living. Make me believe I’m unreliable. You need to convince me I’m worthless without you. You must become more precious to me than life itself, and then you must make me out to be inferior to everyone else, so I’m constantly using every last bit of my energy vying for your attention. It’s a delicate game because you absolutely cannot let anyone else know you’re playing it. They could rally against you and open my eyes to the truth.”
I swear, because doesn’t that just hit a little too close to home?
She shrugs. “Welcome to my awful world.”
“This seems like the exact opposite of what you’ve done with me. You make me feel…stable. Worthy. Good enough, no matter what.”
Beaming, she casts a look back at me. “Because you are, Rowan. And because I use my powers for good. But you aren’t interested in attaining these powers so you can use them for good. You want to keep me trapped and submissive. Reliant on you to such an extent I can’t survive on my own and you never have to fear I’ll leave you behind. To achieve your wicked goals, you’ve gotta do things the bad way, not the morally gray way.” Twirling at the bottom of the steps, she glitters. “To be fair, I work my magic on more than just one person, though, so I’m sure in the end everything will math out to make us the same exact kind of terrible.”
Catching up to her, I cup her chin and swipe my thumb along her bottom lip. “You sound much too eager.”
“It’s ever so lonely at the top.”
I chuckle, kiss her forehead. “Teach me everything, princess. I want to live in your awful world for the rest of my life.”
Ecstatic, she bites her lip. “You mean that?”
“Yes.”
Her head shakes as she smiles. “It sounds too much like a marriage proposal. I think you’re addicted to them.”
I don’t pull back. “We’re already engaged, Briar. You’re obsessed with me, so you begged me to marry you. I figured you were cute enough, at least while you were begging, so I agreed.”
Shivering, she swears. “Holy—” She swears again. “Are you a natural or something? I’m just about convinced. That was a stellar example of undermining my worth and rewriting our history in your favor.”
I find the strength to separate us. “Let’s just say I’ve had some experience studying cruel professionals.”
Her smile falters.
“My parents,” I clarify.
She nods. “No. I know. I…I’m sorry.”
Drawing her hand to my lips, I kiss before taking the lead and marching us toward the exit. “I’m over it. For the first time in my life, I can see past tomorrow. It’s sunny. And it smells like cake.”
Chapter 22
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This here’s what we call “unhealthy obsession.”
