Lilith’s morning began the sa way it always did, with rage simring beneath flawless, porcelain skin.
She stood in front of her mirror, purple eyes glowing like polished athysts, frad by hair the sa shimring shade. The early light from her dorm window washed over her face, illuminating every perfect angle, every soft curve, every feature sculpted by the gods purely to tornt mortals.
And yet she looked absolutely furious.
Her reflection looked back at her: mature, sensual, breathtaking.
Perfect.
Lilith clicked her tongue. "Of course I look perfect." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, admiring the way it caught the light like a waterfall of silk.
But the satisfaction didn’t last.
Because the mont her mind wandered, the mont his face appeared, her eye twitched.
"That—" she muttered, fists clenching at her sides,"black-haired... golden-eyed... ARROGANT little—"
She stopped, sucking in a breath as her anger spiked so hard that the lamps in her room flickered.
67.
67 tis in one month.
She lifted her hands, staring down at them like they were the true victims here.
"Sixty-seven rejections," she said aloud, incredulous. "In one month. One. Month."
Her reflection stared back at her, equally offended.
She leaned closer, pressing her palms to the mirror. "Why," she demanded, voice rising, "WHY would you reject ? ."
The mirror did not offer wisdom. Which only made her angrier.
"I am PERFECT!" she declared, gesturing aggressively at her own reflection as if daring the universe to disagree. "Mature, beautiful, composed, people fall at my feet! Kings would declare war for ! Queens would write poems about !"
She jabbed a finger at the glass." And you, Sebastian, you little bastard, you look at like I’m an NPC."
The mirror cracked slightly under her glare. It was subtle, but she saw it, which only made her angrier but she endured.
Lilith inhaled slowly.
Exhaled.
Then gripped the edge of her dresser so hard it creaked.
"One day..." she hissed, voice darkening, "one day you’re going to beg for my attention."
Her eyes flashed dangerously, lips curling into a smirk sharp enough to cut.
"And on that day... I might consider rejecting you seventy tis before I finally accept you."
She straightened, smoothing her hair back into perfect order her fury contained, but not extinguished.
Lilith stepped away from the mirror with the grace of a queen preparing for war.
Today, she decided, she would not be rejected.
...Probably.
But if she was?
The academy might not survive the aftermath.
Lillith was marching toward the academy courtyard to et up with the usual group Nora, Annalise, Kent, and of course, the bane of her existence, Sebastian.
Her anger simred. Her heels clicked dangerously. A small first-year saw her coming and pressed himself against the wall like she was a runaway car. Smart child.
Then her purple phone buzzed.
Lillith didn’t even need to look to know who it was. Only one human being on the planet would dare call her before she had consud at least two hours of self-adoration.
Sebastian.
Jaw clenching, she accepted the call.
"Lillith," he said casually, "where are you? Hurry up—"
A vein exploded on her forehead.
"HURRY UP?"
Her voice echoed through the hallway like a divine wrath alarm. "I JUST WOKE UP, YOU WALKING CURSE. I AM BUSY. BUSY. DO YOU HEAR ? BUSY!"
In the courtyard sowhere, Sebastian probably blinked and said sothing infuriating like "Okay?"
But Lillith didn’t give him the chance.
She cut the call. Hard.
Silence fell.
Then she felt it.
Dozens of eyes on her.
Students stared wide-eyed, so horrified, so impressed, so very confused. One guy whispered to his friend,
"Did she just scream at the hot black-haired apex?" His friend whispered back, "Isn’t she always screaming at him? Poor guy"
Lillith felt heat crawl up her face.
Great.
Wonderful.
Fantastic.
A woman who shalessly wore outfits that covered maybe forty percent of what should legally be covered...
A woman who wouldn’t hesitate to climb into Sebastian’s dorm window at midnight "to check the structural stability"...
A woman who had attempted seduction with the sa subtlety as an exploding volcano...
That sa woman was now turning red from public embarrassnt.
Absolutely perfect.
She cleared her throat, tossed her hair, and glared at everyone, "What are you all staring at?" Half the hallway was scattered instantly. Good.
But humiliation still prickled beneath her skin, and unfortunately, humiliation always led her thoughts down one very specific path.
Speaking of shaless things...
Her mind drifted back to the real reason she even started trying to seduce Sebastian in the first place—
Her affinity.
The stupid, ridiculous, unfairly accurate affinity the world gave her:Seduction and Heartbreak.
Her power grew the more attractive n she seduced, and grew even more when they fell hopelessly in love with her and she rejected them. It was a terribly immoral feedback loop, but Lillith had never claid to be a saint. It worked, it got her stronger, and plenty of hot guys were more than happy to fall into her lap. Literally.
Then ca the day everything went sideways.
She had first seen Sebastian standing on the golden steps of the orientation hall, delivering the famous speech he was known for, the one that sounded like sparkling praise but was actually layered with weaponized insults. Half the audience clapped. The other half only realized they’d been insulted ten minutes later.
That was when she saw him.
The black hair.
The eyes like a perpetual ’I’m bored of this world’ problem.
The face that looked sculpted for magazine covers.
The aura of effortless arrogance.
Lillith had stared at him and thought, Oh. Jackpot.
Soone that handso would boost her affinity so much that she might rankup on the spot.
So she went after him.
And got rejected four tis in one day.
Four.
In. One. Day.
Most n collapsed into puddles of worship after a single wink from her. Sebastian had looked her dead in the eyes and said things like, "No thanks." "Not interested." and her favorite: "Please stop standing on my desk."
But Lillith wasn’t deterred. She was many things: shaless, dramatic, morally flexible but she was not a quitter.
So she word her way into his friend group.
She clung to the edges until she was no longer on the edges.
And then sothing unexpected happened.
The more ti she spent with him. The more his personality hooked her.His dry humor.His chaotic confidence.His stupid, dramatic one-liners.His unwavering loyalty.The contrast between the arrogance he showed the world and the quiet softness he thought no one saw.
She realized, horrifyingly, that her chest actually fluttered.
Her affinity stopped being the reason.Her sches stopped being the motive.
She no longer wanted to seduce him to grow stronger.
She wanted to seduce him because she loved him.
She wanted him not his confession, not the power boost, not the heartbreak.
Just him.
And yet...Despite every honest attempt...Despite her bare, raw, unhidden feelings...
The bastard still rejected her.
Lillith’s eye twitched again, rage and longing swirling violently inside her.
"One day," she muttered under her breath as she marched forward, "one day you will accept my feelings, Sebastian. And when you do, I’ll make you regret rejecting 67 tis, no, it’s actually 70 now."
She straightened her back, lifted her chin, and let her seductive confidence slide into place like a mask.
Then she headed toward the courtyard, this ti not to et the very man she loved and wanted to strangle at the sa ti, but to find soone else.
---
The restaurant she arrived at wasn’t one she and her friends ever visited. Just standing in front of it felt strange, like stepping into soone else’s routine.
A massive structure of cold white marble towered above her, polished so clean she could see her own annoyed expression reflected faintly in the stone. But the mont she pushed open the heavy wooden doors, the entire atmosphere changed. Inside, it looked like the interior of a dieval manor: warm lanternlight, wooden beams, thick fur rugs, round tables, and the faint crackle of a fireplace in the corner. The air slled like spiced tea and roasted herbs.
Lillith paused at the entrance, pretending to admire the décor while her sharp purple eyes swept the room.
It didn’t take long to find them.
At a table near the back sat the pair she was supposed to et.A boy with ssy golden hair and sharp red eyes, sitting like he owned the entire establishnt. Bold, confident, too sure of himself.
And across from him, a woman with jet-black hair falling straight down her back, her red eyes flat and unreadable, expression empty as if carved from steel.
Lillith exhaled softly.
Great. Dramatic colors all around. Perfect place for .
Her heels clicked against the wooden floor as she began walking toward them, her seductive mask slipping effortlessly into place once more.
She didn’t know how this eting would end.But she knew it wouldn’t be boring.
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