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“All three were tranqued,” Knox tells me. “Looks like an inside job.”
“Goddammit,” Milana growls, dashing over to my side. “The fucking sister.”
“Where is she?” I hiss, turning to Knox.
He clearly doesn’t know who I’m referring to. “I checked the bridal suite. The sister wasn’t there and neither was the bride. But—”
“But what?”
“Her dress was,” Knox whispers. “The gown was sitting there on the floor…”
I turn to Milana, who looks flushed and fierce. We both spit the same word in unison.
“Ravil.”
50
JUNE
I wake up.
Well, sort of. More like I’m caught halfway between a dream and utter blackout. Things have shapes and colors, but nothing is set in stone, everything is fluid, the world won’t obey its normal rules.
I’m aware of a ringing in my ear that sounds vaguely like Bach’s Fugue in G Minor. My feet tingle automatically, as though encouraging me to dance.
And for a moment, my heart lifts at the prospect. Then I get a whiff of something salty and metallic, and the smell yanks me right back to reality.
A reality where I’m a dancer who can no longer dance.
A reality where I’m a bride without a groom, a woman without a future, a mother without a hope.
My eyes snap open and I sit up with a gasp that suggests that something weighted was lying on my chest all this time. Except there isn’t. My arms and legs are free, too. There’s nothing holding me down, nothing restraining me.
I check my watch. I should be walking down the aisle now. And yet, I’m lying on a massive four-poster bed in a room I don’t recognize. The thick, velvety curtains are drawn, leaving me to pick through the near darkness for clues.
What the hell is that smell? Cloves and something else… Pepper? Why does that scent ring a warning bell?
“Hello, June.”
I scream.
“You,” I gasp as I finally spot the silhouette slouched in the far corner of the room.
As I watch, the silhouette pushes off the wall and draws the curtains a few inches to the right. Light creeps into the room in a narrow beam…
And Ravil Uvarov steps right into it.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” he croons. “It was so sweet of you to have your wedding this close to my home. That was convenient. Although, I am a little hurt that I wasn’t invited.”
As far as I can tell, it’s just the two of us in here. Which is one person too many, in my opinion. I get off the bed, my robe billowing treacherously around my bare legs.
“That’s a beautiful garment,” he remarks.
I make sure to keep the bed between us. “You know if you’re going to kidnap a girl, you could at least wait until she’s fully dressed.”
He smirks at me, his eyes flaring brightly. “Is that what my beloved cousin did?”
“What did you do to Kolya?”
