Chapter 68 - 67: I Accept[GTG]
My jaw clenched tight as I muttered, "Let’s hear it." My eyes met hers with a challenge, icy and unwavering. After all this time, after everything, it was finally happening—the confrontation I’d been dreading, the one I couldn’t avoid forever.
But instead of matching my stare, Scarlet’s gaze flickered nervously around the dark alley, her earlier outstretched hand now hovering at her side, her knuckles white with suppressed tension. When she finally forced her eyes back to mine, the weight of her hesitation was unmistakable.
"This isn’t safe," she blurted out, her voice higher than usual, cracking on the last word. "We need to find somewhere... discreet."
A slow smirk tugged at my lips. Discreet? That was rich. This whole situation felt like a trap, carefully crafted, with me as the unsuspecting prey. "You’re right," I allowed, sarcasm dripping from my words. Each syllable hung thick in the air, stinging.
She misread my tone entirely. A flicker of relief passed over her features, chasing the worry from her eyes for a moment. "Then grab on," she said quickly, her hand shooting out again. But this time, her palm remained open, an invitation without the promise of contact.
With a sigh, more suspicion than resignation, I stepped closer. The air crackled with something unspoken between us as my fingers brushed against hers. It wasn’t the usual shock of mana. No, this was something different—something real. A jolt of electricity shot up my arm, but it wasn’t the magic that left me reeling. Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson, blooming from her neck to her hairline.
Was she blushing? Or was there something darker in the flicker of her purple eyes as they darted away from mine? Before I could analyze it, the world around us dissolved in a whirl of motion.
The cobblestones beneath our feet turned to liquid. The ground began to twist and warp, the stone morphing into a churning whirlpool of water that rose fast, encasing us in a watery prison. Reflex kicked in—my hand shot out, grasping for something solid, anything.
I found her. Her waist. It wasn’t intentional, just instinct to avoid being swallowed by the rising current. Her body tensed, a tremor running through her, but she didn’t pull away. In that split second, I noticed how her crimson hair billowed around her like a fiery halo in the distorted moonlight filtering through the water.