EIRA'S POV
I was halfway down the corridor, so thoroughly consumed by my thoughts that the world around me had practically ceased to exist.
How was I supposed to tell Tessy the truth?
How could I make her see the monster hiding behind Peter's charming smile without shattering the heart that trusted him so completely?
Every time I imagined her looking at me with those bright, unsuspecting eyes, my chest tightened painfully.
She loved him. She trusted him.
And he was deceiving her with every breath he took.
I dragged a hand over my face and exhaled miserably.
"God, I genuinely don't understand what I'm supposed to do. How do I expose Peter's real identity to Tessy without destroying her? Please, just... show me a way. I'm begging you."
Unfortunately, divine intervention appeared to be running late.
Because I was too busy conducting an increasingly desperate conversation with God to notice the obstacle directly in front of me.
Until I collided with it.
Hard.
A startled gasp escaped me as my foot slipped, my books jolted against my chest, and the floor tilted beneath my feet.
Oh, wonderful.
Apparently, this was how I was going to die.
Tripping over absolutely nothing in the middle of a perfectly ordinary hallway.
Except I never hit the ground.
A strong arm circled my waist, catching me before gravity could claim its victory. The sudden momentum sent me stumbling forward, my palms landing against a solid chest as I struggled to regain my balance.
For one suspended second, I hung between falling and standing, my fingers instinctively clutching the fabric of his shirt.
Then I looked up.
And immediately wished gravity had been allowed to finish what it started.
Of course.
Of all the people in this entire college, why did it have to be him?
Adrian Blake.
Or, as I preferred to call him in the privacy of my increasingly troubled mind—
Arrogant Blake.
His dark eyes swept over my face, his expression hardening with familiar disdain. His arm remained around my waist, holding me upright with the air of a man who had just been burdened with an exceptionally irritating chore.
"Impressive," he muttered. "Even walking in a straight line is apparently beyond you."
I stared at him.
Excuse me?
I had nearly broken my neck, and this was what came out of his mouth?
"Put me down, you arrogant jerk!"
"By all means."
He released me immediately.
I stumbled half a step before catching my balance, earning another look of contempt from the man who had apparently decided that even my near-death experience was an opportunity to insult me.
"You could at least pretend to have some manners!" I snapped.
"And you could try not making a spectacle of yourself. We all have our disappointments."
My jaw dropped.
The absolute audacity.
"I didn't throw myself at you!"
"Then stop making such a convincing impression."
I glared at him.
He adjusted his cuff, as though rescuing me had been a minor inconvenience he already regretted.
"Next time, find someone else to fall on. I have better things to do than serve as your personal safety net."
I snatched my books against my chest.
"Next time, I'll make sure it's someone with an actual personality."
His gaze returned to mine, cold and dismissive.
"Then I suggest you look elsewhere. Your judgment is clearly unreliable."
I gasped.
He simply walked past me.
No apology. No second glance. Not even the decency to look remotely guilty.
I stood in the corridor, watching him disappear into the crowd.
I hated his arrogance, his insufferable face, and his remarkable ability to make me reconsider every civilized principle I had ever possessed.
And why, exactly, did his arm have to be so annoyingly strong?
I banished the thought immediately.
Absolutely not.
My brain had suffered enough for one morning.
Later, I was backstage, helping Tessy organize the props for our English drama performance while the other students rehearsed their scenes.
Across the room, Victoria and Adrian were practicing their lines.
Well.
Victoria was practicing.
Adrian looked as though he had been sentenced to participate in a public execution and was patiently waiting for someone to put him out of his misery.
He barely glanced at the script in his hand, delivering his lines with the enthusiasm of someone reading the nutritional information on a cereal box.
Victoria, on the other hand, seemed perfectly content to compensate for his complete lack of enthusiasm.
Typical Adrian.
If arrogance were an academic subject, he would have graduated with honors centuries ago.
I was arranging a collection of props when I noticed Tessy staring at her phone.
Her fingers hovered over the screen, but she wasn't typing anything. The disappointment on her face made my smile fade.
"What happened?" I asked gently.
She hesitated before letting out a small sigh.
"Peter is going to a party at a club with his friends tonight. He said he won't be able to meet me."
Her voice dipped at the end.
For a moment, I couldn't bring myself to look at her.
She was disappointed because she wanted to spend time with him. Meanwhile, I was standing beside her, carrying a truth that could shatter everything she believed about the man she loved.
I forced a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry. It's just one evening. You'll see him another day."
She nodded, though the disappointment lingered in her eyes.
And then—
A thought struck me.
A club.
Peter.
His friends.
His secret life.
My hands stilled over the props.
What if he wasn't going to be alone?
What if the girl he'd been hiding from Tessy was going to be there?
My pulse quickened.
If Peter was foolish enough to bring his secret girlfriend to the same place where he was supposedly spending an evening with his friends, I might finally catch him.
Not a suspicion. Not another fragment of an incomplete puzzle.
Proof.
Something undeniable. Something Tessy couldn't dismiss as a misunderstanding or an unfortunate coincidence.
I just needed to find out where he was going.
"Which club?" I asked, keeping my voice casual.
"Melody Club."
My heart gave a sharp, anticipatory thud.
Melody Club.
Excellent.
"Why don't we go there and surprise him?"
Tessy turned toward me so quickly that I nearly laughed.
"Eira! No. I can't just go to a club. My brother is going to a party tonight, and we can't go there alone."
I nodded thoughtfully.
"Right. Of course."
She seemed relieved that I hadn't argued.
Unfortunately, my agreement was entirely superficial.
I wasn't abandoning this plan. Not when I might finally have a chance to protect my best friend from a man who was making a fool of her.
If I had to go alone, I would.
I'd figure out the details later.
Preferably before Adrian Blake developed another inexplicable interest in interfering with my life.
Because the last thing I needed was that arrogant menace complicating my plans.
We were walking down the hallway when I spotted Andy.
I stopped so abruptly that Tessy nearly walked into my back.
"Andy!"
Relief swept through me as I hurried toward her.
For days, her disappearance had hung over us like a dark cloud. Seeing her standing there, looking perfectly composed, felt almost surreal.
I reached her and immediately began bombarding her with questions.
"How are you? Where have you been? Are you all right? What happened to you?"
Andy laughed, raising both hands in surrender.
"One question at a time, Eira!"
I exhaled, finally allowing myself to relax.
For the first time in days, she looked genuinely happy.
"I'm fine," she assured me.
Then, as casually as if she were telling me she'd forgotten her homework, she added, "I got abducted."
I stopped breathing.
"You what?"
"Abducted."
"Andy!"
"What?"
"Who kidnapped you?"
She shrugged.
"I don't remember anything."
I stared at her, utterly bewildered.
How could someone talk about being abducted as though it were an inconvenient afternoon errand?
Before I could demand a more coherent explanation, another thought pushed its way to the forefront of my mind.
Melody Club.
I hesitated, then asked, "Do you know where Melody Club is?"
The change in her expression was immediate.
The amusement vanished. Her eyes sharpened, and for one unsettling moment, she looked like an entirely different person.
"Why?"
The single word sent a prickling sensation down the back of my neck.
I forced a laugh.
"No reason. I was just curious."
Andy studied me—not casually, not with ordinary curiosity. Her gaze searched my face as though she were looking for the lie beneath my words.
"Don't tell me you're planning to go there."
My stomach dropped.
Was I really that transparent?
"Of course not!" I protested, attempting a convincing smile. "Why would I go there? I just asked."
Her expression remained unreadable.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then she sighed.
"Fine. I'll see you later."
She walked away before I could ask anything else.
I watched her disappear around the corner, uneasiness settling beneath my ribs.
What was that about?
Why had the mere mention of Melody Club changed her expression so drastically?
And why did I suddenly have the uncomfortable feeling that there was something about that place I wasn't supposed to discover?
I shook my head.
One mystery at a time.
I already had Peter to deal with, and I wasn't about to abandon Tessy because Andy had decided to become cryptic.
I was going.
I had to.
For Tessy.
Whatever happened.
I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't notice the footsteps approaching behind me.
I certainly didn't expect a hand to close around my arm.
"Hey—!"
Before I could finish, I was pulled sideways through an open doorway.
My books slipped against my chest. I stumbled, catching myself against a desk as the door slammed shut behind us.
For one startled second, all I could hear was my own heartbeat.
Then I turned.
Adrian.
Of course.
Because apparently, the universe had decided that my life wasn't sufficiently complicated without his constant, unwelcome participation.
He stood beside the closed door, his expression stripped of every trace of mockery.
No smirk. No teasing. No lazy amusement.
Just those dark eyes fixed on me with an unnerving intensity.
I straightened, tightening my grip on my books.
"What is wrong with you?" I snapped. "You can't just drag people around whenever you feel like it!"
"Then stop giving me reasons to."
I stared at him.
The audacity of this man was genuinely astonishing.
"I haven't done anything!"
"Really?" His gaze swept over me with open disdain. "Then why were you asking about Melody Club?"
My stomach tightened.
"How do you know I asked about it?"
"Answer the question."
"Answer mine first."
His jaw flexed.
"Don't mistake my patience for an invitation to argue, Eira."
There it was. That infuriating conviction that everyone around him existed to follow his instructions.
I folded my arms.
"I asked because I wanted to know. Is that a crime?"
"Coming from you, stupidity is hardly surprising."
My mouth fell open.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
"You dragged me into an empty classroom just to insult me?"
"No." His eyes narrowed. "I dragged you in here because you're a terrible liar, and I have no intention of listening to you embarrass yourself in public."
Heat crept up my neck.
"I am not lying!"
"Then look me in the eye and say it again."
I froze.
His voice hadn't risen. He hadn't needed to.
He simply stood there, regarding me as though my denial were beneath his notice.
I lifted my chin and met his gaze.
"I was just curious."
Silence stretched between us.
His eyes moved over my face, searching for something I couldn't identify.
Then his expression hardened.
"Pathetic."
Anger flared through me.
"You know what? I don't owe you an explanation about anything I do."
"Then stop offering excuses."
His answer came so swiftly that I faltered.
He turned toward the door, then paused.
"But if you're planning something stupid, at least have enough sense not to announce it to the entire college."
I frowned.
"Who gave you the right to order me around?"
He looked back at me.
"The same person who taught you to use your brain, apparently. A lesson that clearly didn't take."
For a moment, I could only stare at him.
I could practically hear my remaining patience snapping.
"You arrogant, insufferable—"
"Finished?"
"No!"
"Pity."
I nearly choked on my own outrage.
How did he manage to make every conversation feel like an assault on my sanity?
I stepped toward him, glaring up into his infuriatingly composed face.
"You don't own me, Adrian Blake."
"Trust me, Eira. Owning your problems would be punishment enough."
The words struck harder than they should have.
Not because they hurt.
Obviously.
But because he delivered them with such effortless contempt that arguing with him suddenly felt like volunteering for my own humiliation.
I hated that most of all.
"Fine," I snapped. "Then stay out of my business."
"Gladly. Try not to make that difficult."
I moved toward the door.
"Melody Club. Stay away from it."
I stopped.
Something in his voice made me turn more slowly this time.
He hadn't raised it. He hadn't stepped toward me.
Yet the careless disdain had vanished from his expression, replaced by something colder.
His gaze flickered toward the narrow window beside the door.
Only for a second.
Then his eyes returned to mine.
"What?" I demanded. "Why shouldn't I go?"
"Because I said so."
I let out an incredulous laugh.
"You're unbelievable."
"And you're exhausting."
"Give me one actual reason."
His expression turned glacial.
"Must everything be explained to you twice?"
"That isn't a reason!"
"Then consider it your first opportunity to exercise independent judgment. Stay away."
I stared at him.
He was infuriating. Controlling. Unbearably arrogant.
And he was hiding something.
I didn't know what he knew about Melody Club, or why the careless contempt had disappeared from his face the moment he'd warned me away from it.
But I knew one thing.
Whatever his reason was, he wasn't going to tell me.
He moved aside, leaving the doorway unobstructed.
I hesitated, thrown off by the sudden dismissal.
"That's it?"
His gaze turned cutting.
"Do you need me to draw you a map, or can you manage to find the door on your own?"
I clenched my teeth.
"I hate you."
"Get in line."
I was about to deliver a response that would undoubtedly jeopardize my academic future when the bell rang.
A second later, the door opened, and a student walked in, completely absorbed in his textbook.
Adrian didn't spare either of us a glance.
He walked past the student and disappeared into the corridor.
No explanation. No apology. Not even a backward glance.
He left as though the entire encounter had meant absolutely nothing.
I stood there, staring at the empty doorway, my anger tangled with an unease I couldn't quite explain.
Why had he warned me about Melody Club?
And why had he looked toward the window as though he expected something to happen?
I shook my head.
He could order me around all he wanted.
I wasn't his servant, and I certainly wasn't going to abandon Tessy just because Adrian Blake had decided to make himself a problem.
If anything, his reaction had made me more determined to go.
Whatever was happening at Melody Club, I intended to find out.
I gathered my books and glanced at the clock.
My eyes widened.
"Oh, no. No, no, no!"
I was late.
Not a little late.
Spectacularly, catastrophically late.
"Fantastic," I muttered, hurrying into the corridor. "First, Adrian Blake interrogates me like a criminal. Now I'm going to fail attendance."
I tightened my grip on my books and broke into a run.
Because apparently, surviving Adrian Blake wasn't enough.
I still had a lecture to survive—and a certain club to sneak into tonight.