Page 89 of Black Ledger

I was ruining this. So horribly ruining this.

I was awful, and he’d never, ever want to kiss me again.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

Get yourself together, Xeniya.

But I didn’t, and he pulled away. I had no idea what he saw in my eyes, but he took a step back as if slapped, and then another, and I still didn’t say a word.

Shit. Shit.

What did I do?

He shook his head. “And you’ll never want me back, will you?”

What?

The question knocked every thought from my head.

What?

I trembled.

What did he just say? But before I could ask or do anything, he turned on his heel and walked away, disappearing into the night.

Moments or hours later, I heard the telltale roar of his motorcycle engine, confirming his full retreat.

How was his bike even so near? Or was I imagining the sound?

I held my hand out to the phantom body now gone. “Wait,” I croaked. “Come back.”

But I was far, far too late.

“Severin, wait…”

I blinked several times and slid down the tree, my ass hitting the roots. I pulled my knees to my chest and my cell phone out of my bra.

I opened to our message thread and wrote two simple words:

Come back.

Then I waited and waited for him to read it and respond, watching for the text bubble to appear. But it didn’t, and he didn’t text. And he didn’t come back. He simply read it.

Ten minutes later, I wrote again:

Please, Sev.

But nothing. He left me on read.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Xeniya Morozova

Age 20