Chapter 27: Psychopath

The red hair girl shifted forward, knees settling on either side of Rael’s hips until she was sitting fully on his lap. Rael could feel her thighs on his hips near his genital. She never took her finger from his cheek. Fresh blood welled around the nail and ran in a thin line down his jaw.

"Do you know how long I’ve wanted to touch you like this?" she asked. Her voice was soft, almost dreamy.

Rael tried to turn his head away. She caught his chin with her free hand and held it still, forcing him to look straight into her red bloody eyes.

"At least tell me who you are," he said.

"Aurelia Crimsonvale." The name left her mouth like a caress. "How could you forget me?"

For a second the name meant nothing. Then the pieces clicked. Crimsonvale—one of the other Sovereign family, equal in power to the Blackthorn’s. No sovereign family member should be here that’s what he thought before. Every Sovereign families children awakened in the capital. It was like an unwritten rule. Yet here she was, deep in the First Realm, after he had transferred from Bloomingdale. It should have been impossible.

"Why don’t you remember me, Rael?" she continued. "We used to eat together. Stay together. All the time at university. I’ve even seen you naked more times than I can count. Do you know how much I wanted you?"

Rael’s mind raced. He thought what the fuck he had never seen her in his entire life. He had never shared a meal with her. He had never stayed anywhere with her. The only memory that surfaced was a quiet, overweight girl with the signature Crimsonvale red hair who used to trail behind him in the corridors, always a few steps too close. He had never paid her real attention. She had been background noise. A stalker he had simply chosen not to see.

Her hand slid from his cheek to his throat and began to squeeze.

"Why don’t you remember me?" she shouted. The pressure increased. Air became thin and sharp.

All his life he had focused on learning about knowledge and training, but that had never meant he ignored the people around him. How had this girl stayed invisible until now? The red hair. The way she used to watch him. The heir of Crimsonvale—yes. The quiet, heavy girl who followed him between classes.

His voice came out in broken gasps. "I... I rem... remember..."

The pressure eased at once. A bright, almost childlike smile returned to her blood-stained face.

"You remember? You said you remember."

"Yes," he managed, throat raw. "The heir of the Crimsonvale family. Aurelia Crimsonvale."

Her smile widened until he could see the red between her teeth. He understood then, fully: she was a psychopath and a stalker, the worst possible combination. Awakening had reshaped her body into something beautiful and dangerous, even though half her face was still hidden under drying blood. The soft, awkward girl was gone. What remained was unpredictable and hungry demon.

"You know how sad I was when I heard you didn’t get a class?" she said, settling more comfortably on his lap. "I thought I would never see you inside the Dream Realm." She spoke as if they had been closest friends, her tone shifting without warning from wounded to excited. "After the month of training I asked Papa to let me have my first awakening in Bloomingdale. I wanted to see you again. I never imagined I would find you inside the realm itself. I was so happy when I first saw you."

The smile faded as quickly as it had come.

"Then you ran off with that brown-haired girl." Lila. The name hung unspoken between them. "I wanted you with me. That’s why I brought the Frost Wolf."

There was a twisted loyalty in her words, a horrifying kind of devotion. When his own family had turned their backs, she had crossed realms to reach him. Rael forced himself to stay calm. One wrong word and she would kill him without hesitation. He needed to play this carefully.

"Thank you, Aurelia," he said. "Thank you for coming to see me."

Her eyes widened. "You’re happy to see me?"

"Yes. You’re the only one who remembered me after the awakening."

The change was instant and manic. She began bouncing lightly on his lap, laughter spilling out of her.

"You’re happy to see me! Happy to see me!"

Her emotions swung like a blade. One moment she was deadly serious; the next she was almost dancing with joy. She moved her lips near his and leaned down and kissed him hard while holding his hair, bloody mouth against his. The taste of iron and something thicker filled his senses. He remembered Nathia’s open skull and nearly gagged, but he held it down. She pulled back only far enough to rest her forehead against his, grinding her hips once in slow, absent movement. Tears welled in her eyes.

"I’m so glad I came to see you."

Rael kept his voice gentle. "Then untie me. So I can hold you too."

The words hung in the air for a single heartbeat.

Her entire body went still. The tears stopped. The smile vanished. When she spoke again her voice was flat and cold.

"You’re lying to me."

She stared down at him, red eyes empty of every trace of the joy that had filled them seconds before.

"You only said that because you want to get away."

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Special thanks -

[Bjarne_H thanks for the golden ticket]

[killuaslayer & ftraj thanks for the power stones]