Celine seemed to be in belief that Lucian was under the Voice's control and was above a high ranked shackled.
The high ranked ones like her brother could mimic human behavior, speak and think, but couldn't hold their own against their goal of seeking human extinction.
He didn't think there would come a day, where he would have to gain her trust to make her stop seeing him as a monster.
It was hilarious, the woman who was willing to do anything to gain his trust, was the one who didn't trust him at all.
Not when it came to that part of him, at least.
She raised her head from his crotch, but he kept her head in his lap.
He petted her hair, and said, "I can never hide from you, can I?"
The thought of her knowing everything about him made him feel quite vulnerable, yet...at the same time, it felt good. Like a large weight was lifted from his shoulders.
"It's a well known fact that people with my features are destined to be short lived. Anything out of the norm would have raised suspicion of my origin," he said, playing with her hair.
He revealed why he kept it to himself, not that it would make her less wary of him, "My weak constitution had crossed my chances to ever seek the path of a knight when I was young, and I was forced to find my worth in money instead."
Large resources could buy you out of any situation, and he made people believe that his strength came from pouring his money on the best physicians, best medicine, and thrice the amount of materials that a normal knight would need to advance to the next rank.
Even though there were Voice's powers inside him, he couldn't just use them willy nilly and expose himself to be a shackled, and had to resort to his own strength more often than not.
Celine breathed out, tickling his pants. It made him shudder and bit on his lip to stop from sighing, but his breath still came out uneven.
She must be thinking about how to react to this. She had successfully provoked him into revealing the thing he had been hiding. Now she had to decide how she would use this information. Would she pretend to accept him, or would she keep pushing?
"You dared to reject my proposal. You dared to make me beg," she said, grabbing his hand to shove it away from her head. She looked up at him, her lips twisted in a cold, cruel smile, "And now you have the gall to humiliate me, again?"
She spat at his crotch and pushed herself up, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You're nothing but a filthy rat, and I will crush you like one," she said, "You think you can use me and throw me away whenever you like?"
"..." Lucian looked down at the spit stain on his pants. "You dare to call me dirty?"
He was the one who had been humiliated by her.
He was the one who had been toyed with.
He was the one who had been manipulated.
He was the one who had been betrayed.
He was the one who had been treated like garbage.
It wasn't just what happened five years ago, it was also about what happened before that and after that…
"You're the one who should be crushed," Lucian said, his voice cold and menacing as his palm connected with Celine's cheek with a loud smack.
The slap was hard enough to make her head snap to the side, her hair flying out of her face, her cheek red and throbbing.
In the silence that followed, Lucian grabbed the keys from her pocket and unlocked his wrists.
The silence was broken by the sound of the chains falling onto the floor.
He lifted Celine by her wrist but she struggled against him.
"I can't believe I wasted so much time on a man like you!" she screamed, "I hate you! I hate you so much!"
"Then you should have stopped coming to me," Lucian said, his grip tightening. "Why did you keep coming back? What were you hoping to find? Why didn't you just give up on me and let me go?"
Her leg shot up to kick him, but he grabbed it and pushed her against the wall.
Her lips began to form saliva, and she spat again.
This time, however, her spit landed inside his mouth as his head was lowered to meet hers.
"Don't spit on me," he told her, his tongue licking at her lower lip. "If you have something to say, use your words. They say communication is a way to a healthy relationship, after all."
Her teeth snapped at him like a rabid dog, aiming to bite at his face, and he pushed her harder against the wall.
She winced at the pain, but refused to utter a single word.
His lips pressed against her cheek, kissing the place where he had slapped her, and she hissed in disgust.
They were both at fault, both to blame, both the cause and the solution to their mutual suffering.
They knew… yet moving on seemed impossible, forgiveness seemed like a joke, and forgetting was a luxury they couldn't afford.
"Does it hurt?" he whispered, his breath hot against her cheek, "Want me to make it better? I will," he continued, "Like a toy of pleasure you used to come to me to become..."
She tried to headbutt him, but he dodged it. His hand slipped in between her legs and his fingers rubbed her through the fabric.
Her body reacted to his touch despite herself.
But instead of moaning, she sneered at him in disgust at her body's own betrayal.
"You slapped me. You are no different than the rest," she said in a raspy voice.
"Yes," Lucian agreed, "I am no different than the rest. But the rest didn't hurt you enough…did they? They weren't strong enough to break you. Put you back together and break you again."