Alectra's eye met mine, and her signature smile deepened.
"Rentt Ardent," her voice was soft, full of love. "The most handsome, thoughtful, and wonderful person I know."
Bastard's voice crackled in my skull, delighted. {Did you hear that. She just admitted you're not the number one on her list. In other words, she just called you ugly and unthoughtful.}
My head snapped towards Alectra, my look on my face that screamed one word: Really?
Her smile faltered. She coughed into her sleeves once. "Ahem, well, you're just as good-looking as him."
I narrowed my eyes, unconvinced.
I leaned back against the pillows, crossing my arms with a huff. "Just as good-looking? Please, Alectra. I'm not 'just as.' I'm leagues above him. If the gods sculpted me any better, statues would get jealous."
Her golden eyes narrowed, lips twitching like she was trying not to laugh. "Do you ever hear yourself talk? You're a narcissist, Sebastian."
I pressed a hand to my chest, feigning offense. "Narcissist? No, no, no. You misunderstand. I'm the most humble person alive. The fact that I allow mortals like you to witness my perfection is proof enough."
Bastard started laughing in my head, voice dripping with amusement. {Keep going, maybe she'll actually believe it.}
On the outside, I may have been acting all cheerful, but inside, a war was raging in my head.
---
Rentt Ardent.
When I first heard his name from Alectra, the only thought I had about him was how he wooed my sister, but then, as the memories clicked into place, I remembered.
Rentt wasn't some background character. He wasn't just Belle's adopted brother. In the novel, he was a third-rate villain. A forgotten stepping stone in the protagonist's rise to power.
And the reason he fell so low?
Because his girlfriend had died.
His girlfriend. Alectra.
Rentt had blamed the protagonist for Alectra's death.
Not without reason either. The one who had set off the chain of events that led to Alectra's death wasn't some faceless monster or distant accident; it was Liam Luceris.
Liam, the protagonist.
Rentt had confronted him once, trembling with grief, voice fragile and on the verge of breaking. "Did you know? Did you know your choices would kill her? That your glory would be built on the corpses of people like her?"
And Liam… he hadn't denied it. He hadn't even flinched. His answer was quiet, but sharp enough to scar. "Yes."
That single word had been enough. Enough for Rentt to know where to direct his hatred, his despair, his need for vengeance.
Liam's rise to power had been paid for with Alectra's life. And Rentt Ardent had sworn that the debt would not remain unpaid.
The thought that my sister had died because of some idiot with an overinflated ego nearly drove me to the edge, but I held on.
Whether it was "just a book" or not didn't matter anymore. I could still remember the passage where Alectra's light was extinguished, the grief that drove Rentt into madness.
I swear on all that is holy, I'm going to make your life hell, Liam Luceris.
I'd crush his hopes. Destroy his peace. Rip apart everything he loved until the very idea of happiness became foreign to him.
I'd make him suffer, and Alectra would be safe throughout all of it.
I didn't feel it at first. My mind was too consumed by rage, by the vision of tearing Liam apart with my bare hands. But Alectra…
Her golden eyes widened. She staggered back a half step, her lips parting in shock.
"Sebastian…?" Her voice trembled. For the first time since I'd met her, she sounded afraid.
Her hands shook. Her breathing hitched. She looked at me not like a brother, but like a stranger cloaked in something monstrous.
And that was when a voice cut through the haze:
{Oi, dumbass.} Bastard's voice thundered in my skull, sharper than it had ever been.
{You trying to traumatize your sister on your first day back, or what? Snap the hell out of it before you drown her in that aura of yours.}
I blinked.
Aura?
It was then that I saw it. The faint black mist curled around my body, clinging to my skin like water vapor. The room smelled like rust, iron, and rot. The aura pulsed with every heartbeat, an extension of the hatred burning inside me.
And Alectra stood there, staring at me with wide, terrified eyes.
I froze.
The realization hit me harder than a truck. I was scaring her, the person I had just vowed to protect.
"…Sis," I whispered hoarsely, the death aura writhing as if it could taste my shame.
Her golden eyes widened, trembling with something I'd never seen in her before, fear. Fear of me.
No. no, no, no.
I slammed my will against the black mist, focusing so hard that I didn't notice my nails drawing blood from my palms.
The death aura resisted, thrashing violently, eager to taste, to consume, but I refused. I forced it down, inch by inch, even as my veins screamed and my lungs burned.
With a final desperate shove, the aura recoiled, fading like smoke in the wind. The suffocating weight vanished, leaving only silence and the sound of my ragged breathing.
I collapsed forward onto one knee, sweat dripping, chest heaving as if I'd clawed my way back from hell.
When I finally looked up, Alectra was on her knees before me. Her face was wet; her eyes were both fierce and fragile. She cupped my jaw like someone holding a wounded animal. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have been scared of you. I—I shouldn't have let myself…"
She was apologizing to me. For being frightened of the monster I'd almost become. She hugged me and promised to never let me go.
Even amid all this madness, Rentt crept back into my head like a stubborn ex who refuses to let go.
But was he… actually perfect for her?
He had done everything in his power to avenge her. To bring the one who caused her death to justice. Even if he had failed, even if his blade never reached Liam's throat, that kind of devotion, that kind of love, was undeniable.
Could I even compare?
Rentt's entire existence had been reshaped by Alectra. He had lived, suffered, and raged for her sake. And me? I was here, trading jokes, boasting about my so-called perfection, while deep inside I was terrified of losing her.
For a moment, the cheerful mask I wore threatened to crack. Because maybe, just maybe… Alectra had already found the person who truly deserved her, and it wasn't me.