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“He gave me a choice as well, mon chat. That’s why I’m here.” He gives me a smile that’s all flashing teeth. “You’re my chosen one, Romain.”
I swallow at those words. Hard. My brain flutters in circles while I try to make out his words. “Why tonight?” Is all that comes out. I clear my throat and the self-loathing away. I shouldn’t be asking these kind of things. I shouldn’t care.
He lifts his free hand to adjust his mask and I can’t help but look at the shape of his veiny fingers and shiny rings. How I always loved their cool material on my heated skin. “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know?” I bite the inside of my mouth to fight the need to grab his hand, because I want it so badly, want this chase to end before it has even started. But he’ll make me kneel again, collar me, use me as his pet. Breath catches in my throat, and I swallow, and swallow. I locked that door. I will not open it again.
Shaking my head, I want to tell him non. No, I won’t give him the satisfaction of asking him why he has come back for me. Wondering if he too has felt like his heart was ripped out of his chest after we were separated. But it’s not relevant, because I have only one more year to go and I will graduate. I don’t need some old man with a golden cane to tell me how tonight might alter my future. I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself. By working harder than all the other ones.
“A quoi tu penses?” Edouard asks. What are you thinking of? He used to ask me that all the time.
Rather than cowering away, I will tell him exactly what’s on my mind. “I was thinking of how this evening is weird,” I snap, feeling the tree press into my back. The ache helps me to clear my head and spit it all out. “How this is crazy, to all run around in a cloak and eliminate each other.”
“Ahh, don’t tell me you don’t like a bit of craze?” Edouard cocks his head and smiles, showing off his obnoxious golden tooth. “Because we both know that that’s not true.”
Ignoring the malicious poke, I touch my own silk mask that covers most of my upper face. This conversation is going nowhere and I didn’t come out here tonight to lose the game. “Alright. Tell me about this fraternity.”
“Please.” Edouard adds, cocking his head. “You seem to have forgotten all your manners.”
I snort, but don’t rephrase my question. Fuck him.
He waits a beat, but when it’s clear that I won’t obey, he simply shrugs. “Then I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Oh, come on,” I snarl impatiently. “What will happen after two hours?”
Edouard says nothing, just stares at me.
“How do you eliminate me?” My eyes involuntarily dip to where he’s still holding the knife, his hand cupping the small cut I inflicted on his stomach. He’s armed, and I do well in not forgetting that. After all, Edouard learned from the best how to wield that thing. The death of Father Benoît had been all over the news back then.
He still doesn’t speak, but his golden tooth shines when he approaches me with a smile, and he lifts the knife to reach for my collarbone.
He’s going to kill me. The thought flashes by on a whim. I need to clench my jaw so tight it hurts, anything to keep from spilling the words. He’s going to kill me, while I still have so many questions. Like, why did he come to Saint-Laurent? Why did he come here and ignore me for the entire school year? Why did he choose this moment, even though wer’re on our summer break, to bring me back to Monterrey Castle and chase me, cloaked, masked and knifed? Why tonight? What choice did the Dictator give him? Does he need to take me out? Did Maman build up a new debt? Do they need to erase all traces of my existence for god knows what reason?
Anything could set off Edouard’s wrath, and he has an entire collection of accidents to back up that statement.
“Are you scared now?” He murmurs, while bringing his mouth closer to mine. From up close, his lips are painfully delectable. How I remember them pressed on my skin. Inhaling deeply and through the ache of recollections, I look away, forcing myself to think clearly through the scent of mint and citrus that is so him.
When I do, my eyes involuntarily land on a pair of gesturing hands behind another tree a little less than twenty meters from me, trying to get my attention. Someone’s waving one of the torches that have been placed in the woods. Another participant? I can’t be sure from this close. It’s definitely not one of the other terrifying masks. Whoever it is, wildly gestures for me to try and come their way.
“There’s no need to be, petit amour,” Edouard moans into my ear, and I shiver, warming from the inside as my gaze never leaves the other participant. “Scared, I mean. I’ve waited this entire year, played this game three rounds to perfection, before it finally was my turn. But now you’re here, Romain, looking all tough and sweet at the same time. Mon chat. Clawing and slicing and hissing and fighting. And I simply can’t let you go, amour, I—” His phone buzzes in the pocket of his cloak, killing the moment.
Oh, Edouard. My chest aches at his words. If only he knew how they affected me.
I allow myself one final glimpse of his glorious golden mask with that snake and the perfectly aligned embroideries. At those lips I have dreamt of ever since I left his bed and entered Saint-Laurent.
Edouard makes me whole. He makes me crave things I shouldn’t crave. He makes me love things I shouldn’t love. He’s lethal, he is pitch-black.
The hands gesture at me again, and this time I don’t hesitate. I think of that song we used to love.
If you see darkness, run away. It’s so true. And so I run.
CHAPTER 4
ROMAIN
Itried to follow her out that day, four years ago. But I was a sixteen year old runt who’d been captured by a pack of wolves, and they knew it. Maman knew it. I didn’t stand a chance. The way she turned over her shoulder with wet eyes and an apology hanging from her lips. Yeah, she knew it. And my confused brain couldn’t quite make out if I should be terrified or excited. This was Edouard Beaumont, after all. Girls wanted him, boys wanted to be like him. I…
Edouard clasped a collar around my neck and watched me carefully. Those gorgeous, grey eyes peered into my blue ones, searching, as if soaking up every single emotion that went through my mind. And I honestly feared that he would see. Would see my attraction toward him. It made me feel terrified, and upset.
“You like to disgrace me?” I spat at him.
