Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
He must be barefoot again.
No wonder I’d barely heard him arrive.
“Where did they find such a useless spy?”
Spy?
There were spies now? Seducers and assassins and now spies?
Anyone with eyes could tell I didn’t fit into any of those categories.
My stomach tightened at how I must seem to him: a mentally unstable woman who’d made herself quite at home, stuffing her face, drinking her fill, and lounging about in a negligee.
I’d found clothes in the wardrobe—beautiful gowns and skirts, blouses and trousers, but when my system was this strung out, anything tight or restricting only added to my misery. So I’d opted for a cream satin nightgown with long flowing sleeves and a hem long enough to trail on the floor. Its matching robe had embroidered peonies on the front. It covered a lot, yet was undeniably feminine and offered no protection whatsoever if he wanted to hurt me.
“She’s drunk,” he spat. “She drank so much, she’s passed out in a stupor.”
The panther grunted and sniffed my foot.
“You’d think they’d get sick of this after twenty years. I won’t fall for their tricks, and they can’t kill me. Yet they keep fucking trying.”
It took all my effort to keep my eyes closed and continue faking sleep, especially as curiosity scratched to know more. To look at him. To see why his tone held both exhaustion and fury, despair and wrath.
His shadow suddenly dropped beside me, shading half my face and leaving the other growing warm with sunshine. I did my best not to react, even as his fingertips landed on my brow, ran down my nose, and traced my bottom lip.
“She looks so weak,” he breathed as if he truly believed I’d passed out from too much alcohol. “So useless.”
My heart took offence even though I thought those things on a daily basis.
“Their little games are getting so tiresome,” he sighed, pulling his hand away.
I expected him to rise to his feet again, but he didn’t move. Time ticked past and his closeness made my skin prickle. The longer he looked at me, the more I felt him in every part. My bones. My blood. My breath.
His panther slinked to my other side, hemming me in and making my pulse thunder in my ears.
Lucien’s fingertips suddenly brushed my wrist.
My body betrayed me; a small flinch escaped.
He didn’t seem to notice as he leaned closer. So close I could smell him. Cedar and citrus and the bitter bite of blood.
Blood?
I froze.
Had he killed another girl before coming here?
If I opened my eyes, would I see his hands covered in red and ready to spill mine?
“It’s happened again,” he muttered. “The pain is less when I’m near her...”
The panther hmphed, making it seem as if this man and beast actually held a conversation.
“How is she doing that?”
The way Lucien spoke to it hinted this wasn’t the first time. The memory of what the other girls had said about him raising it as a pet made it seem as if he’d been living alone for a very long time with nothing but a predator for company.
My heart pinched.
Was that true?
Had he been trapped in this brutally beautiful place for twenty years?
“I should kill her,” he suddenly snarled, making my muscles tense. “Get it over with.” Soaring to his feet, his shadow drenched my body again.
I stopped breathing.
I fought the urge to brace.
How would he do it?
What would Frank and the board of Snowflake Corp think when no one could find me?
Please, be quick.
I hovered on that precipice, waiting for the end to come but...he didn’t strike.
Endless minutes ticked past as if he studied me, judged me, and found me not worth his time.
Finally, he exhaled and backed up. “Ugh, forget it.”
The panther sniffed my shoulder as if assuring itself that I was still alive before padding toward its master.
“I’ll wait to see what game she’s playing. I can always kill her tomorrow.”
The panther huffed.
Their shadows vanished.
And my body turned to soup on the grass as I gave in to the shaky relief that I’d somehow survived another day.
Chapter Twelve
I STUCK TO THE SHADOWS AS night fell, and my stubborn headache finally subsided.
After three days of rest, an unwanted visit by the ruler of this place, and a cupboard of wine, I felt strong enough, irritable enough, to go for a walk.
Perhaps, while everyone else was sleeping, I would find a way out of this nightmare.
I already knew the perimeter wall didn’t hold much hope, but perhaps there was a back entry? Some sort of service area with lax security where I could hide in the back of a truck or disguise myself to sneak out.
Once again, the grounds of Cinderkeep completely bewitched me.
By day, they were visually stunning with charming flowers and pretty courtyards, but by night, they transformed into the infernal flames of hell. Torches lined the paths like sentinels, their flames licking at the dark. Bonfires smouldered in copper braziers, and lanterns bobbed in the trees as if the stars had descended to spy.