Luci freezes, his shoulders tense as one hand grips the back of a chair and the other curls into a fist.
"What?"
“I … I don’t know if you remember, but I saw her, Luci. I saw what Valentine will do to me if I don’t obey him.”
“Then you should know what’s at stake here.”
He says this so bluntly that I hardly know whether to scream at him or cry.
I choose to do neither.
“I thought you said you were here to help,” I say through gritted teeth.
Luci’s shoulders relax slightly as he turns back to look at me.
“I’m trying to, Evi, but there’s only so much I can do. Only so much I can say.”
“Why? Because you’ve sworn yourself to the enemy?”
“No, because …” He pauses, his eyes hardening again as if I’ve almost tricked him into saying something he shouldn’t. “Damn it, Evi, for once in your life can you please just do as you’re told?!”
This is it. The final straw for me.
“Foroncein my life?!” I shout, storming across the room and poking him in his chest, instantly regretting how hard I do this as pain shoots through my finger. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the do-no-wrong daughter, the best friend, hell even the perfect girlfriend. Look where that’s gotten me!” I can’t help the bitter laugh that tumbles out as the world seems to crumble in around me. I shake my head up at Luci. “In all the days I’ve been alive, I never once lived a life that was actually mine.”
Luci looks down at me as my words seem to hang in the air, his face an emotionless void.
Until it’s not.
A spark suddenly bursts to life in his eyes as he reaches for me, pulling me to him as his arms warp around my body, holding me tight.
My own body goes rigid with shock, my hands hanging limply by my sides as Luci hugs me to him.
“Let it out,” he whispers softly into my hair, and yet again, he finds a way to break me.
The anger, the frustration, the confusion that’s been welling up inside me for God knows how long, pours out of me, and I sob into his chest.
I cry until I can hardly breathe, Luci’s strength the only thing keeping me from collapsing to the floor.
“I just don’t understand,” I whisper into his shirt.
“I know. Dante promised you answers,” Luci says after a long pause. “You will understand in time, but I’m not the one who can give you them.”
“Why?”
“It’s just the way things are, Anna.”
I stiffen and then push out of his arms as I take a step back, my brow furrowing as I search his face. The realization of his mistake dawns on him nearly as fast as my reaction.
He reaches for me again, but I’ve already taken another step back as I shake my head at him.
“My name’s Evelyn, Luci, not Anna.”
My heart aches. He wasn’t comforting me; he was comforting Anna. At least that’s how he saw it.
“I’m sorry, Evi, I didn’t mean—”
“Save your breath,” I hiss, turning my back to him, “just hurry up and finish whatever it is you came here to do.”