Chapter Text
“My Alina,” he sighs, one hand pinning her roughly against the table, the other caressing her jaw, “why must you be so stubborn?”
She struggles in his grasp, succeeding only in bashing her hip against the sharp table edge.
It’s not real, she reminds herself, just the tether.
It feels real enough, though, when he leans down, scraping his teeth up the sensitive skin of her neck.
“Get out of my head,” she hisses.
His mouth curves into a mocking smile, “I can only come when I am invited. You think of me as often as I think of you.”
“Liar,” she whispers, because that can’t be true.
“Go back to your tracker and your prince,” he murmurs, “sooner or later you will realise that they simply want to make you small. When you remember there are no others like us, that we only truly have each other, then you know where to find me.”
When she comes back to herself, her neck still tingles.
In the morning, there are bruises on her hip and wrist.
“It’s not real,” she repeats quietly to herself.
If only she could make herself believe that.