For a moment, neither of them moved. The silence was suffocating, their proximity tangible, like the air between them had thickened, pulsing with a heavy, undeniable tension.
The air was thick with something unspeakable as Marvolo's eyes never left her. She stood there, slightly unbalanced, still recovering from the shock of being held in his arms, when he did the unthinkable.
Without warning, Marvolo knelt before her.
Then, in a move that was equal parts control and dominance, Marvolo still kneeling before her, breaking the moment's fragile tension with a simple, deliberate gesture. He grasped her other heel with the same care as before, snapping it with an almost sensual precision. "Now you'll be able to walk," he said, his voice tinged with something darker, something that was not quite a command, but close enough to make her question if she had any say in the matter at all.
Alexandrina blinked, the sensation of vulnerability striking her all at once. She was no longer the one in control, and it made her heart race in ways she didn't want to admit. She pulled in a sharp breath, steeling herself to stand tall, to refuse to show any weakness, but there was a fleeting moment where she wondered just how much longer she could maintain this facade.
As Marvolo rose, his hand brushed against hers, but not once did his gaze waver from her face. The weight of his stare was suffocating, pulling her deeper into his orbit. He didn't need to speak the words; they hung between them like an unspoken challenge, something neither could ignore.
Her lips parted, her breath shaky, but she remained still, caught in the web of his unyielding presence. Marvolo was too close. He always had been. And now, with the distance between them so negligible, she realized, with an almost sickening clarity, that there was no going back. The air crackled with the undeniable pull between them, and though Alexandrina tried to steel herself, tried to push him away, there was no denying that part of her didn't want him to leave.
"Tell me what you were doing in 1995, Alexandrina," he murmured, and the question was both a demand and an invitation-an invitation she feared more than anything else.
Her body went rigid, her pulse hammering. But even as she froze, as her mind scrambled for a way to deflect him, she knew that there was no escaping him now-not in this moment. Not in the crushing heat of his gaze, nor in the rising tide of tension between them.
She was already lost, and they both knew it.
The moment Marvolo's hands had reached out to catch them, he hadn't expected the sensation of her body against his to feel like a storm raging through him. He had thought it would be an easy task, steadying her, ensuring they didn't both fall, but something shifted the instant her body collided with his. His grip had been firm, possessive-he couldn't help it. His fingers curled around her waist like a brand, marking her in a way that felt inevitable.
Her breath had come in uneven gasps as she steadied herself against him, her soft body pressing against the hardness of his chest. His arm, around her waist, had felt almost like a warning, a slow-burning fire igniting beneath the surface. There was something about the way she fit against him-her form small, delicate, yet there was a quiet strength in the way she held herself. Even as she leaned on him, there was a pride in her, a dignity that he hadn't anticipated.
Her scent lingered in his nostrils-something rich, something alluring. He'd never been one to care about a woman's scent. It was never important. But her... hers was different. It seeped into him, wrapped around him, tugging at something dark within him, pulling him deeper.
As Lyra's tears soaked into his shoulder, Marvolo knew he should be focusing on the task at hand-ensuring Alexandrina and Lyra were safe, that they wouldn't crumble under the weight of their emotional turmoil. But he couldn't tear his focus away from the woman in his arms. There was something magnetic about her presence, about the way she clung to him as if he were the only thing keeping her from shattering.
And that damn look in her eyes-the vulnerability she tried so desperately to hide-tore at him in ways he didn't understand. It was a battle of wills between them, one he hadn't anticipated, but in the back of his mind, something primal stirred. There was power in her fragility. There was a beauty in her strength.
When he saw her stumble, when the heel of her shoe snapped beneath her, his first instinct hadn't been to let go. No, he had bent to her-shifting his posture, lowering himself to the ground without even realizing it. He had never, in all his years, knelt before anyone. Not once. He wasn't a man to bow. Not for anyone. But when he saw her standing there, vulnerable, her pride still intact despite the physical pain, he couldn't stop himself.
His eyes had never left hers as he moved, his fingers brushing against the broken heel. And in that moment, a dark realization swept through him. He hadn't knelt to help her-he had knelt because he was compelled to. He had been the one to take a step down, not out of weakness, but to claim a different kind of dominance. The kind that was subtle, dangerous, and precise. The kind that he knew would have her trembling under his control, whether she realized it or not.
But there was a moment, just before he broke the second heel, when he saw the subtle flicker in her eyes-the realization that she couldn't escape this. The realization that he was, in some twisted sense, in control.
And yet, as he kneeled before her, a gnawing thought settled in the back of his mind. There was something about Alexandrina that made him feel... less certain. Something that gnawed at him, tore at his very resolve. She wasn't like the others. She didn't just challenge him-she consumed him.
As he fixed the second heel, his hand brushing against her skin with an intimacy he hadn't intended, his mind raced. She was strong, yet fragile. Proud, yet vulnerable. He couldn't understand why she had this effect on him. He was the Dark Lord-he was the one who instilled fear in everyone, the one who bent people to his will. But her? She was the only one who could make him question everything.
There was power in her, power he couldn't name, but it was there. A spark that ignited something darker within him. And though he had believed himself immune to such distractions, to the allure of another person, Alexandrina had shattered that illusion completely. The way she had resisted his touch, the way she had held herself with a quiet dignity, had only made her more irresistible.
Her eyes-their emerald depths-haunted him. In them, he saw everything he had ever wanted and everything he feared. They were the same eyes that had consumed his every thought, the same eyes that now haunted his dreams.
The moment he stood up, and she finally broke free of his hold, Marvolo couldn't help but feel a certain kind of loss. She had been right there, so close, so within reach, yet she had pulled away from him, slipping through his grasp like water through his fingers. The silence between them was suffocating, but it was a silence laden with the knowledge that something had irrevocably shifted. There was no going back.
She had, without a doubt, lost. But Marvolo was no victor in this. Her eyes had destroyed him, just as his favorite curse destroyed his enemies-slowly, methodically, and with a cruelty he could not escape.
For the first time, he wondered if he had made a grave mistake-if this woman, this enigma, would be his downfall. And as he stood, his heart thrumming with a dangerous tension, he knew one thing for certain: she was a force he had underestimated. A force he could no longer control.
And in that moment, he realized-he didn't want to.
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HI GUYS!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER, GOD'S IT TOOK ME 3HRS TO WRITE.
DID YOU LIKE IT? I TRIED MY BEST TO WRITE TENSION, I HOPE IT WAS WORKING.
DOES THE TITLE WORK?
DID YOU LIKE THE JUSTICE, WELL THEIR WILL BE MORE.
EXITED, MARVOLO WILL KNOW EVERYTHING.
NEXT LITTLE TOM WILL BEGIN HIS PLOTTING, I HOPE TO MAKE THE TENSION IRRISITABLE.
LOVE YOU ALL
XOXO
YOUR AUTHOR
AnjaniManda8
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