The clicking of the lock is both a blessing and a curse. I back away quickly, prepared to fight, and the sight of Nix makes me bare my teeth in a snarl. “I knew it was you doing this. What is your problem? Why are you doing this to me? I never did anything to you!”

“Do yourself a favor, love bug,” he mutters before looking over his shoulder down the hall. “Don’t start shit around here.”

“I didn’t start anything! You are the ones who won’t leave me alone.”

“Damn right. You stay where we tell you to, for as long as we tell you to. And if I ever catch you out of your room at night?” An ugly smile twists his features, making him just as disgusting on the outside as he is on the inside. “Then you’ll pay. I’ll see to it.”

After last night, I can’t even take that as an empty threat. I know what he’s capable of.

“Why are you doing this?” I didn’t want it to come out sounding so pitiful, but it’s how I feel. Small and inconsequential and pitiful. “Why do you hate me? I’ve never done anything to you—and if I have, I wish you would tell me because I wasn’t aware of it. I never intended for any of this.”

“Why? You want to know why?” He takes one slow, menacing step toward me, then another. I have no choice but to back away until I bump up against my desk. Even then, he leans down, and I lean back until my head touches the wall. “Why does there have to be a reason? I hate you. I always have. I hate you and everything about you. I’ve hated you since the first time I set eyes on you. Back when you were strutting around like hot shit, like you were somebody special. You’re not so special now, are you?”

So that’s it? He hates me because I was popular once? All because of what I could do, not because of who I was. It’s not like I asked for any of it. “But things have changed now. And I didn’t do anything—”

“Just shut up. The sound of your voice makes me sick.” His eyes dart over my face, his nose wrinkling like he smells something nasty. “You are a disease. You’re a cancer buried deep, and there’s no cutting you out.”

I knew he hated me, but I didn’t know it was like this. So nasty and vile, deep-seated. All I can do is stare at him in mixed surprise and horror, still wondering what I did to earn it.