Page 7 of Phantom Flower

It didn’t open.

The lock was gone. The metal door was hanging slightly open like someone had forced it. For one stupid second I thought maybe it was just a random break-in. Then I looked inside and felt sick.

Right in the center, pinned to the back wall with a small knife, was a flower. The same one I had been wearing when I kneed him. I thought it had fallen when I ran.

Above it, written in thick black marker, was one word big enough to fill the whole space:

BOW DOWN

Below it, in smaller letters: Next time, the flower won’t be the only thing I take from you.

I reached in without thinking and pulled the ruined flower free. The knife clattered to the floor. The petals crumbled in my hand. I felt something rise in my chest. Grief for the small, stupid thing that used to be mine, and rage at how easily they had reached into my space and torn it apart.

Then I heard footsteps.

I spun around. My shoulder hit the open locker door. Dimitri stood three feet away, alone this time. Alexei and Ilya weren’t with him, but I could feel them somewhere close. He looked at the destroyed flower in my hand, then at the word carved into my locker. I saw the satisfaction on his face and I wanted to punch it off him.

God, he made me so fucking aggressive.

And I was never aggressive. Unless it was about Daniel, the parasite at home.

I closed my fist around the petals.

“You did this.”

He took one step closer. I took one back. But there was nowhere else to go unless I tried to climb inside the locker.

Dimitri stopped right in my space, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to keep eye contact. Up close he was even taller than I remembered. He was blocking my entire view.

“You put your knee between my legs in front of half the school,” he said. “What did you expect, little fairy?”

I lifted my chin the same way I had the day before. I wouldn’t bow to him. I refused.

“So you’re pulling these pranks because I hurt your ego?” I asked, trying to sound bored.

He smiled. “You don’t know the rules yet. So I’m teaching you the first one.”

My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.

I hated how close he was.

Couldn’t he talk from farther away?

I wanted to shove him. I wanted to knee him again just to hear that sound he had made. But I stayed still, because moving felt like signing my own death warrant.

And while I might have been depressed, I didn’t actually want to die.

Dimitri leaned in until his mouth was near my ear. It made me shiver.

Has this guy never heard of personal space?

“You had your moment yesterday. It won’t happen again. From now on, when I look at you in the hallway, you lower your eyes. When I speak, you answer. And when I tell you to get on your knees, you do it without making me ask twice. Understood?”

The arrogance on this guy was insane.

Unfortunately for him, my pride was the only thing I had left that hadn’t been ripped apart, and I wasn’t giving it to him.

“No.”