A few minutes later, the storm inside her finally quieted to sothing small and trembling. They lay on their backs beside each other, the cold night air brushing over them.
Athena had Theodore’s jacket draped across her lap to cover her exposed legs. Her fingers absently gripping the fabric like she needed the weight of it to stay sane. Her breathing was still uneven, but at least she wasn’t shaking anymore.
Theodore glanced at her from the corner of his eye, the lake glimring faintly behind them.
"Do you stay with him?" he asked quietly. "I an... do you live in the sa house as Oliver?"
Athena didn’t look at him. She kept staring up at the sky, eyes hollow, voice barely above a whisper. "Yes."
There was a beat of silence.
"Why?" he asked. "What about your mother?"
Athena let out a scoff so sharp it could cut stone. "My mother?" she laughed bitterly. "She’s probably busy planning whose life to destroy next."
Theodore turned his head slightly toward her, but didn’t push. He knew there were so wounds people could only reveal in pieces.
She inhaled shakily. "Do you know..." her voice cracked a little, but she kept going, "Oliver was the one who enrolled in this school."
Theodore’s brow furrowed.
"Not my mom. Not because she couldn’t."
Athena scoffed again, angrier this ti. "Hell, she was more than capable. We’re rich. We’re powerful. All thanks to my dad’s wealth after he died... or should I say was killed."
The last words dropped heavy, dark enough to silence even the wind.
Theodore’s expression tightened, but he didn’t interrupt her. He just watched her, really watched her, the way a man does when he realizes soone he thinks is strong has actually been bleeding silently for years.
Athena blinked hard, eyes shining again though she forced her face blank.
"She didn’t care where I studied," she whispered. "As long as I was far enough away from her ss. As long as an immatured and helpless girl is out of her view. Oliver... he was the only one who thought I deserved better than living in that house."
Her fingers clenched tighter around Theodore’s jacket. "And now I’ve ruined everything...I’ve destroyed the trust...everything."
Theodore ignored the Oliver part, not willing tk open that dam damn again. Her tears got to him real bad. And he doesn’t want her to ever cry like that again. It’s traumatic.
"What do you an was killed?" Theodore asked, his voice low.
Athena blinked, her expression flattening.
"Exactly what it sounds like," she said, tone clipped, almost cold. "People die every day, Theo. It’s not so... shocking headline." She waved her hand dismissively, like she was brushing dust off a table. "Let’s not make it a big deal."
But the mont the last word left her mouth, she felt it, his eyes on her.
She swallowed.
Slowly, she turned her head toward him. Their eyes locked, and Theodore didn’t say anything... but she could feel the pity burning through his silence.
A slow smile crawled onto her lips.
"Don’t look at like that," she whispered. "Don’t give pity. I grew up drowning in that look."
Her voice trembled, but she didn’t break eye contact.
"That’s the kind of eyes I saw when I lost my dad at seven." Her fingersplaying with her long hair. "The sa eyes people gave the girl whose mother walked away without looking back." she let out a shaky breath.
"The girl who got bullied every single day in her old school while her mother noticed... and still turned a blind eye to it."
She exhaled shakily, the smile fading into sothing hollow. "I don’t need pity, Theo. I’ve survived without it."
Athena exhaled heavily as she swallowed the lunp in her throat. Athena shifted onto her side so she was facing him. Her hair fell over her shoulder, her eyes faintly red but steady.
She whispered, almost childlike,
"Show your powers... create sothing. Just like that night."
Theodore hesitated only a second before he mirrored her movent, lying on his side too, their faces just inches apart in the dim room.
His voice was gentle.
"What do you want to create?"
"Anything," she murmured. "Just... sothing beautiful."
Theodore lifted his hand between them, palm open. Frost shimred over his skin instantly. Tiny sparks of cold air danced around his fingers.
The frost began to spread upward, spiraling into the air like drifting stardust. Athena’s eyes widened as delicate threads of ice wove themselves together...petals forming, leaf by leaf, curling like glass.
Within seconds, a crystalline flower hovered above his palm. Every petal was carved with intricate frost lines, glowing faint blue, like moonlight trapped in ice. When he exhaled softly, the flower opened fully blooming right in front of her.
A small gasp escaped her.
Theodore smiled faintly, voice almost a whisper. "You said anything... so I made you a winter bloom."
The flower drifted closer, shimring in the air, and Athena reached out with trembling fingers and touched it softly.
The next day...
Athena woke up the next morning in Theodore’s bed, blinking against the soft brightness around her. Everything in the room was snow white, his thick blanket, the shelves lined with books, even the couch by the window. It felt like waking inside a quiet winter. A world dipped in frost. A world untouched.
They had left the lake together last night after she’d pleaded...actually begged to sleep over in his house, and to her surprise, he didn’t hesitate. He’d taken her in gently, given her one of his shirts and a pair of shorts that fell below her knees. Both were too big, painfully big, drowning her in the warmth of his scent. Yet sohow, it was the only thing that helped her sleep at all.
He had stayed in the sa room too, resting on the couch beside the window. She rembered watching him drift off for a mont, the moonlight making him look unreal, especially his hair.
But right now... he was gone.
She slid off the bed and made her way downstairs.
The air changed imdiately.
His house, God...she’d never seen anything like it. Everything was white, glass, marble, and clean lines. Bright but soft. Expensive but simple. Unlike Azrael’s fortress-like mansion, Theodore’s penthouse felt... open. Endless. As if it was made for soone who needed space to breathe, soone who hated feeling trapped.
A ridiculous thought crossed her mind before she could stop it: How does he stay here alone? In a house this big? This quiet? Or maybe he stays with his girlfriend. She almost rolled her eyes at the thought of him having a girlfriend.
Before she could even figure out where the living room ended and the hallway began, the aroma hit her...Eggs, sothing buttery, sothing spicy. Food she never imagined Theodore would even think about making, let alone attempt.
She followed the sll.
And then she saw him.
She froze.
Theodore was shirtless.
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