My Fake Boyfriend is Possessed

LIORA

“What’re you gonna do if I don’t move?”

Damian Cross leaned against the desk in front of me, blocking the narrow path between the rows while my heart hammered painfully against my ribs.

I tightened my grip on my notebook and tried not to give him the reaction he wanted. I had only been at Stoneleigh Academy for two weeks on scholarship, yet somehow that had been enough time for half the rich kids here to decide I was entertainment.

Being poor was already enough to make me stand out. Being quiet, awkward and different only made it easier.

Lucky me.

Beside Damian, Sloane Kensington crossed her arms over her expensive blazer and watched with a cruel little smile. Everything about her looked polished, from her blonde hair to her makeup, and she carried herself with the confidence of someone who had never once wondered whether a room wanted her in it.

I stepped to the side. “Excuse me.”

Damian moved with me and blocked the path again, earning a snort from somewhere behind him.

I only wanted to get to the bathroom before class started, but Stoneleigh had a way of making even that feel impossible.

“Excuse me,” I repeated.

Damian immediately pitched his voice higher. “Excuuuuse me.”

Laughter spread through the classroom, and I could feel people watching without needing to look around. Some were entertained, a few looked uncomfortable, but nobody was going to interfere and risk becoming Damian’s next target.

I had learned that much quickly.

Keeping my head down hadn’t helped either. I sat quietly, avoided people whenever I could and did everything possible not to be noticed, yet they always found a reason.

Rather than give Damian another scene, I backed toward my seat. The bruise beneath my eye from last week was still fading, and I had no interest in adding anything new to it.

I had barely turned when pain ripped across my scalp.

Damian caught a fistful of my hair and yanked me backward hard enough to blur my vision.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“L-let go…”

“You don’t turn your back on me, pig.”

Before I could pull free, he drove my face into the edge of the desk.

Pain exploded through my nose with a sharp crack, and the force sent me to the floor. My vision swam while something warm spilled over my lips and began dripping onto the white tiles beneath me.

Blood.

A few seconds ago everyone had been laughing. Now nobody moved.

I curled slightly around myself, dizzy and humiliated, trying not to cry where they could see it, but Damian crouched beside me and caught my hair again, forcing my head up.

His anger was gone now, replaced by a calmness that frightened me more.

“The next time you disrespect me,” he said quietly, “I’ll break more than your nose.”

My breath shook as I stared at him, but before he could say anything else, excitement burst from somewhere near the doorway.

“Ryder Russo is here!”

The reaction was immediate.

Damian released me and stood while students rushed back to their seats, conversations dying so quickly that the room felt completely different within seconds.

I remained on the floor with blood still slipping over my mouth, too disoriented to understand why one name had terrified everyone more effectively than a teacher ever could.

Then the classroom fell silent.

A scent reached me through the coppery smell of blood—cedarwood mixed with warm vanilla and something darker beneath it.

I lifted my head as black boots stopped in front of me.

My eyes traveled upward over long legs, broad shoulders and black hair falling slightly across sharp blue eyes. Ryder Russo towered over most of the room, beautiful in a way that should have softened him but somehow didn’t.

Everyone watched him carefully.

He looked down at me instead.

His eyes moved over the blood on my face before returning to mine, and something unreadable passed through them.

“Move.”

His voice was calm, but that somehow made it more intimidating.

I pushed myself upright too quickly and nearly slipped before catching the edge of a desk.

“S-sorry.”

Humiliation burned through me as I moved aside, and Ryder walked past without another word before taking a seat in the back row.

The cedarwood-and-vanilla scent lingered behind him.

I wiped beneath my nose with my sleeve and tried to ignore the fact that half the classroom was still looking at me. Against my better judgment, I glanced toward the back row.

Ryder was watching me.

Those bright blue eyes held mine long enough to send goosebumps across my arms before I looked away.

“Vaughn.”

I jumped at the sound of Mrs. Fairfax’s voice.

She stood in the doorway with a frown, and the moment she saw the blood covering my uniform, her face changed.

“Oh my God. What happened to your nose?”

A quiet snicker came from Sloane’s side of the room.

I looked toward Damian and found the warning already waiting in his eyes.

Say something and you’ll regret it.

“I walked into a wall, ma’am.”

Mrs. Fairfax stared at me. “A wall?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She clearly didn’t believe me, but after a moment she only told me to go to the nurse and return when I was finished.

That told me enough about Stoneleigh.

I nodded and hurried into the hallway, but I had only taken a few steps when the uncomfortable feeling of being watched followed me out.

I glanced back through the doorway.

Ryder Russo was still looking at me.

He hadn’t moved or looked away, and something about the way those blue eyes remained fixed on mine unsettled me more than Damian’s threat had.

I turned and kept walking, unable to stop wondering who Ryder Russo was and why everyone at Stoneleigh seemed afraid of him.