Page 151 of Villainous Rise

They were looking at a masterpiece and complaining about the frame. They couldn’t see the fire in her. They didn’t know the sounds she made when she surrendered, the way her nails dug into my back, or the absolute, terrifying beauty of her mind. She was mine, and these insignificant, breathing corpses were dirtying her with their words.

The flute in my hand let out a microscopic tink as a hairline fracture formed in the crystal.

If I stayed in this circle for one more second, I was going to slaughter them. I would drop the civilian mask, rip the room apart, and paint the walls with their blood.

But Annie would see it. She would see me turn a charity gala into an abattoir, all because I couldn’t control my own possessive rage.

I forced my jaw to unclench. I carefully set the fractured champagne flute on a passing waiter’s silver tray before the glass could explode in my palm.

“Excuse me,” I muttered, extracting myself from Ms. Whatever-the-fuck’s grip.

I moved to the edge of the room, positioning myself against a pillar where the smart-glass cast shifting blue shadows. Perfect vantage point to watch Annie without being seen.

Annie laughed again at something Valor said. It was mechanical. Her eyes remained dead.

I flexed my fingers, imagining the satisfying resistance of Valor’s windpipe collapsing beneath my grip. The thought brought a momentary flash of pleasure before the self-loathing crashed back in.

My gaze drifted upward to the transparent ceiling. The structural weak points were obvious to me, six primary junctions where the programmable glass connected to the support frame. The Hammer could destabilize those in seconds. The entire ceiling would come down in a crystalline rain, slicing through flesh and bone. Beautiful, really.

How many Heroes were here tonight? Fifteen? Twenty? All of them would come for me. Havoc would hang back, analyzing, before unleashing chaos that would actually challenge me.

Maybe that’s what I needed, twenty Heroes trying to kill me at once. Maybe that fight would be enough to drown out the fucking hatred churning in my chest. Hatred for everyone in this room except for Annie. Hatred for myself.

Because I broke her. I fucking broke her.

“Enjoying the view?”

I didn’t turn.

“Did it feel good?” Havoc asked, his voice deceptively casual as he moved to stand beside me, both of us watching Annie. “Hurting her like that?”

My jaw clenched and still I said nothing.

“Must have been satisfying,” he continued, swirling the liquid in his crystal tumbler. “Making her pay for the audacity of doing what she was ordered to do by people she can’t disobey. People who would strip her of everything if she refused.”

Something hot and vicious clawed up my throat. I forced it back down because I didn’t know what would come out if I opened my mouth.

“You’re quite the strategist,” Havoc continued. “Calculated enough to know exactly where to strike. Tell me, was it worth it? Watching her shatter? Watching an empty shell walk around wearing Annie’s face?”

My fingers twitched. The pillar behind me creaked as my hand unconsciously pressed into it, the material compressing beneath my strength.

“You know what’s fascinating about Annie?” Havoc’s voice dropped lower. “She survived Halcyon. She survived Dread. But you? You she might not survive.”

“You should have stopped this,” I hissed. “Don’t stand there acting concerned when you could have shut this whole fucking charade down with a word.”

Havoc took a slow sip of his drink, unruffled. “Is that so?”

“She can’t tell the Aegis to fuck off. She can’t tell Alliance PR to go to hell.” I turned to face him fully now, my back to the room, letting the truth I’d known from the start spill out. The truth I was too hurt to really accept when Annie had come to me. “But you can. You’re fucking Havoc. One of the most powerful Supers in existence. Don’t pretend you’re powerless here.”

The lights from the ceiling shifted to a cool purple, casting shadows across Havoc’s face.

“The situation escalated before I was aware of the details.” He studied the amber liquid in his glass. “By the time I understood what was happening, the announcement had already gone public.”

“Bullshit.”

“Do you honestly think I’d let Annie endure this if I had any idea this was going to happen?” Havoc asked, his voice maddeningly calm. “I can promise you. It will be taken care of by tomorrow morning.”

I huffed an incredulous laugh. “Tomorrow morning? That’s your solution? While she stands there tonight with his fucking hands all over her?”