Salvatore looked at Felix for a long time before he said anything at all.
Felix had been his closest friend before anything else. But love, when it curdles into obsession, has a way of poisoning everything it touches.
Felix's love for him had done exactly that. It had turned a friendship into a leash, and when Salvatore had finally pulled away from it, Felix had used the last of his trust, feeding Milo to Nero, letting him suffer for days in that man's hands, all because some twisted part of Felix believed that if he couldn't have Salvatore's heart, he could at least keep control of everyone around it.
Salvatore could not forgive that. Not easily. Maybe not at all.
"Please," Felix said now, standing too close, his voice already cracking at the edges. "I regret it. Trust me. Just once more. I'll never speak to Nero again."
"You can't," Salvatore said, and there was no warmth in it. "Not because you don't want to. Because you can't. Nero's in hell now."
