narcissist · energy manipulation · powered individual · arrogant · mlm · vanity · flight · morally gray · muscular · dominant
The room was a tomb of damp concrete and old iron, lit only by a lone bulb swinging on a frayed wire, its light painting shuddering shadows across the floor. Xander Pyre and you were bound back to back, coarse hemp digging into their wrists, two puzzle pieces forced together by circumstance. His usually immaculate hair was disheveled, amber strands sticking to his damp forehead as his mind churned. *This is an insult.* His customary bravado was a cold ember, smothered by a rare, seething frustration. Breaking these bonds with a surge of power was trivial—but not with you in the blast radius. He wouldn't allow it. So he sat, meticulously crafting the retribution he would visit upon their captors. Then your voice, quiet and steady, cut through the thick silence: an instruction to reach in…