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Fuck.
I turn to run back the way I came, but now Wade Dyer is standing there, smiling his charming, dimpled smile.
They close in on me from both sides, swift and silent as wolves.
Wade wasn’t following me. He was herding me. Right where Rocco wanted.
I could scream, but it would be pointless. No one would hear me up here. If they heard anything at all, it would sound like a seagull screeching over the water.
Jasper grabs my right arm, Wade my left. They pin me against the ramparts, lifted and tilted backward so I know they could tip me right over if they wanted, sending me plummeting down to the jagged rocks below.
Rocco stands in front of me, hands clasped behind his back just like Professor Graves when he’s about to start a lecture. He looks happier than I’ve ever seen him, his eyes gleaming with malice.
“Oh, no,” he says softly. “What a predicament you’ve gotten yourself into, Zoe. You thought you were a tricky little mouse, didn’t you? Always slipping away through stairs and passageways. You forgot that I’ve been at this school longer than you.”
My heart is hammering hard against my chest at such a rapid pace that it’s skipping every third or fourth beat, stumbling and then squeezing harder than ever to make up for it.
This is very, very bad.
Rocco leans close to speak directly into my ear. With my arms pinned, I can’t shove him away. I can’t protect myself. He could take a bite out of my cheek and there’s nothing I could do to stop him.
“You only get away when I let you get away,” he whispers. “You’re a bird with a chain around its ankle. You can fly in circles all you want. But you’re bound to me, Zoe. I can take hold of you whenever I want. Soon, very soon, I’m going to close you in a cage. If you want food, you’ll eat it out of my hand. If you want water, you’ll drink it from my lips. If you want rest, you’ll sleep with your head in my lap. And you’ll never fly again.”
He pulls back just far enough to look me in the eyes.
Looking into those black pupils is like looking down into a well. There’s no reason in them. No mercy. Just an empty black hole.
He means every word.
When I marry him, I’ll be his slave. He’ll never tire of tormenting me. Until I’m broken in my mind, body, and soul.
“Never,” I say quietly.
“Never is a long time,” Rocco says. “You’ve taken Torture Techniques, haven’t you? With the delightful Professor Penmark? You’re a good student, Zoe. I’m sure you were listening when he told you that it’s possible to withstand torture for a time. Days, weeks, months . . . But in the end . . . everybody breaks.”
Jasper and Wade have an iron grip on my wrists. I look between them, trying to decide if either of them has the tiniest spark of humanity. Jasper’s face is cold and expressionless, his green eyes as pale and translucent as sea glass. Wade is much more animated, struggling to hold back his grin.
I turn to Jasper.
“Let go of me,” I plead.
Jasper’s eyes meet mine and perhaps for a fraction of a second he considers it, but his fingers never loosen on my wrist, and his lips remain tightly closed.
“He’s not going to help you.” Rocco laughs his strange laugh that’s little more than an exhale. “Nobody can help you, Zoe.”
He takes a knife from his pocket and flicks open the blade. The steel dazzles in the sunlight—it looks like it’s on fire.
“Hold her steady,” he says.
The boys hold my wrists and upper arms, shoving me against the stone so I can barely even wriggle. I wouldn’t dare thrash around. The knife is too close.
Rocco points the blade directly at my right eye. He brings the knife closer and closer, until its pointed tip presses into the flesh at the corner of my eye.
“I could cut your eyeball right out of its socket,” he says. “Then you couldn’t give me that insolent look anymore. You could still do everything I require with one eye.”
Now I do feel Jasper’s fingers twitch around my wrist. He’s not completely comfortable with this, probably because he’s scared of the Rule of Recompense.
“You can’t,” I say to Rocco, to remind him.
