Chapter 121: The trap set
It came to me amidst the quiet after a restless night. I lay there, Caspian's arm around my waist in armor, his body pinning me down. And I couldn't sleep yet. Not with Nathaniel's voice in my mind, his oath still echoing from shattered mirrors and burned letters.
I must be the bait," I whispered into the blackness.
Caspian moved beside me. "What?"
I turned to him, our lips mere inches apart. His eyes were weighed down with sleep but flashed bright the instant he saw mine. "He won't give up until I'm alone. So I'll give him what he wants. I'll pretend to break up with you. We'll fake a fight. I'll make him believe I left. He'll come out of hiding.".
His body went rigid. “Absolutely not.”
“Caspian—”
“No.” His voice was low, lethal. “You’re not putting yourself out there like that. It’s too dangerous.”
I touched his face, fingers brushing the stubble on his jaw. “It’s the only way. He’s smart, Cas. He’s careful. But he’s also possessive. Obsessive. He won’t be able to resist if he thinks I’m truly alone.”
He sat up, ruffling his hair with his hand. "You're asking me to let you march into a trap."
"No." I sat up beside him, placing my hand on his chest. "I'm asking you to help me lay one out. One where we have control. One where he believes he's got the upper hand.".
The air thickened with a silence so heavy. Caspian's face turned away, jaw clenched so hard I could see the tension ripple down the column of his neck. When he turned to face me again, there was a mixture of pain and reluctant resolve in his eyes.
"I hate this," he whispered.
"I know."
"I hate that it's the right thing to do."
I nodded. "But we do this together."
He leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. "One misstep, Lily, and I don't care what kind of strings he pulls—I'll burn the world down to get you back."
"I'm counting on it."
\---
The staged fight we staged for Instagram was brutal in its execution. Every post was carefully crafted—photos of suitcases full of clothes, a mysterious caption: Some endings come without warning.
Caspian and I took the performance to the next level publicly. A manufactured shouting argument outside a cafe, captured covertly by Evelyn and posted anonymously on a gossiping account. I cried my way away. Caspian drove alone. Our shouts weren't real, but they bruised nonetheless. Pretending to hate him, pretending to walk away from the only safe space I had ever known—it scratched raw at something inside of me.
The world purchased it. My inbox was full in an hour. In two, Nathaniel needed to know.
We waited one day. Two. Every night I lay in bed by myself, only going through the motions. But it wasn't pretend to miss Caspian's warmth. It wasn't pretend to ache for his arms or the patterns he'd make along my spine when I slept.
Then on the third, I went to the park.
Wired. Guarded. Alone.
I settled onto a bench beneath a behemoth oak, the scarf wrapped tight around my neck even on spring air. A camera team stood guard behind two vans beyond sight. Evelyn paced the periphery on phone, maintaining the guise of talking on a call. Caspian was nowhere I could see—though I felt him. Like gravity, like star attraction. Waiting. Watching.
I sat with my gaze set on the road ahead of me, my hands folded in my lap. Time dragged. An hour. Then two. A soft breeze played with the leaves in the park, and the sun kept on falling.
Nothing yet.
The ache in my back from sitting so motionless was nothing compared to the ache in my chest. I tied the scarf tighter around me. A family passed by, children giggling. A couple's kiss under a willow tree. And I waited.
I checked my phone. No new messages. No sightings. No whispers.
I stood up, muscles taut, legs half-asleep. I took the signal—three knocks on the wire against my collarbone. Time to make the extractions.
Evelyn awaited me at the gate, face unyielding. "Nothing. Not even a flicker."
"He's crafty," I growled. "Wittier than we knew."
At the villa, night had fallen like a velvet curtain. There was the scent of jasmine and the cutting edge of anticipation in the air. Caspian waited for me at the door.
He looked at my face as I came in. "Nothing?"
I shook my head.
"He didn't take the bait."
"I'm not surprised," he said, moving aside to admit me. "But I still hoped."
I strolled through the empty house side by side. I ached to tumble into bed, have his arms wrap around me, pretend for one night that the outside world didn't exist.
But then I went into the bedroom.
And I stopped.
Etched into the center of the windowpane, in something that looked like condensation—but didn't evaporate—was a message:
I only want you when you're alone.
My blood chilled.
I took a step back as if the glass would shatter with importance.
Caspian was behind me in an instant. "What—" He noticed where I was staring. His body came to a halt.
"Security tape?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
He shook his head. "System rebooted itself while we were away. Hacked. Again."
I wrapped my arms around myself. "He's been watching. Waiting. And he knew."
Caspian turned me to him, softly. "You're not alone. Not ever."
I wished to believe that. Wish to fall into his arms and watch the world drop away. But fear adhered to me like smoke.
Yet, when his hands outlined my face and his lips caressed mine, I felt the fear dissipate. At least for a second.
"You trust me?" he whispered.
"With my life."
"Then let me keep it safe."
I nodded, feeling emotion wrap my throat. "We set the trap. But now we wait."
He caressed my cheek, thumb swiping away a tear I didn't even know I'd dropped. "He's losing it. Leaving messages. Taking risks at exposure. That means he's closer than ever—and more desperate."
The epiphany churned in my gut.
We stood together, close enough to share one another's pulse. My fists clenched the material of his shirt, grounding me. "If I ever feel completely alone again," I whispered, "I'll remember this moment. I'll remember that you stayed. That you didn't go."
He touched his lips to my forehead and remained there. "Always."
And somewhere in me, way down deep where fear and courage were all tied up like tendrils, I thought:
Let him come.
Because we were ready.