Page 28 of The Villain We Tempt

I glare daggers at the screen.

I don’t knowwhyit bothers me so much that Velvet Villainess has more followers and higher engagement than I do.

Actually, I do.

I am aslutfor attention, and it galls me that her account has a bigger number next to it than mine, even though I’ve been doing this longer, for fuck's sake.

But I can’t be mad right now.

A grin creeps over my face as I scroll through her feed, looking at thumbnail after thumbnail of her.

I know who you aaaarrre,little villain…

I’m not gonna lie. The sheer thrill that comes with knowing her secret identity, or I suppose more accurately knowingGalina Nikitin’ssecret identity, is addictive.

And very,veryfun.

Watching Galina discover my…arrivalin her online world before Professor McGrath’s Social Psychology of Deception class the other day?

Amazing.

I figured Ghost leaving a comment like that on her latest video would start some fireworks, but holy fuck. Her fans, a lot of whom are probablymy fanstoo, lost their collective fuckingshit.

To be clear, scaring her isn't the goal.

The fact that a small part of me finds her fear a littlearousingis something I'm not examining too closely right now.

Again, especially considering my lineage.

Freaking her out isn’t the reason I left that comment on her video.

It’s because I know Galina hasanothersecret account.

Achilles is, academically, the top of our class at Knightsblood. But again, that’s becauseI let him be. When you’re the smartest, you’re also under a microscope. That’s a big fat “no thanks” from me under any circumstances, but especially if you’re secretly running one of the biggest MaskTok accounts out there.

Being publicly “the best” also means that everyoneknowsyou can do that thing. But being good at something can be ten times more effective if no oneknowsyou're good at it.

Case in point: my skills as a hacker.

Believe me, as a total jock,no onelooks at me and has the slightest idea that I could crack my way into their email accounts or see what sort of porn they watch.

But I can.

Which is how I was able to IP-trace Velvet Villainess’s account and cross-reference it with other accounts on the app. That, predictably, got me into the wi-fi connection at The Atheneum. There's about a hundred students living there, but narrow down search parameters to viewing habits involving books, masked men, and ads for J. Crew?

Ding ding fucking ding.

Galina’s other handle is DeluluForDarkRomance. It’s what she uses to browse and watch other BookTok and MaskTok content, and to comment on videos.

I've spent the last two days going through every comment she's ever left.

She comments here and there as Velvet Villainess, of course. But those are comments that are engineered to bump engagement, pull followers, create interaction with fans…that sort of bullshit.

The comments she leaves as DeluluForDarkRomance areherthoughts.

Galina’s.

She watchesa lotof MaskTok and leaves a ton of thirsty comments on many of the other more popular male content creators’ stuff.