"she was the type of person who'd explain how she was going to stab you in the front before she actually shoved the knife in... and you'd let her.
she'd probably even pass the knife to you so you can shove it in your own chest...and you would."
tom...
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a s t o m danced, he imagined what life would be like if he were born into the elite. If his family had never fallen so far, become so crippled with their greed. He imagined meeting Evelyn when they were young. Maybe at a party like this, while their fathers, his a wizard and not a filthy muggle, conversed, he would have asked Evelyn to dance. They might have known each other since infancy, and although he knew they would have knocked heads, he would have fallen in love with her, for how could anyone sane of mind not?
They would dance at every ball and sneak into the gardens to kiss, and Tom would ask for her hand in marriage, or their families would have already arranged such a thing. He would not need to take over the world, for he would have always known great power and happiness and her. He would not need to live forever when he would have always known there would be a forever in Evelyn.
He wondered if Evelyn was imagining the same grim reality, for her features had been so happy at the beginning of their dance. Her eyes sparkled up at him as if she had already fallen in love. But then, as if remembering their reality, her radiant smile drooped. Her eyes lowered until they stayed planted at the hollow of his throat. Tom wondered if she ever imagined killing him to end this cycle of tragedy.
A cold thrum had hardened her features, and when the song came to an end, she seemed not to hear the music stop. He knew what was meant for them. Disappear and boundaries set up by their stubbornness. He wished the music hadn't stopped. Wished they could stand in each other's arms for longer. But when she finally looked up at him, there was a hard determination in her gaze, and Tom took it for what it was.
So, before Tom released her, he bent into her side as if to whisper his agreement into her ear, but instead pressed his lips into her temple. A long, lingering kiss to tell her he understood. To explain to her that he forgave her for whatever she had thought that had turned the night so sourly in his favor.
Her breath hitched as he finally pulled back, but she did not have any time to do anything else, for another wizard had approached her, and with a bow asked for the next dance. She did not look back at Tom again.
Evelyn passed between more sutors and gentlemen old enough to be her grandfather and even his followers. She smiled and flirted, but Tom could see the crack in her facade. She was not playing the swooning girl anymore. She was playing the fox. The conniving and unexpected predator.
He was conversing with his followers, as an out-of-breath Abraxas returned from dancing with the same pretty girl he had seen him spending his free time with last year. Avery informed Tom that she was a few years younger than them and that her parents had arranged their marriage. Though Abraxas did not seem to be upset by such an arrangement, instead, he had spent most of the night swinging her around the dance floor and introducing her to Tom as Circe Selwyn, a member of the sacred twenty-eight.
Tom had been polite, but hadn't paid the girl much mind. She was petite and dark-haired and had done nothing to capture his attention like the golden-haired Evelyn, who had kindly greeted her and had ushered her off to get a drink.
