AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How did you escape the manor?” I asked Mariana, hating the tremor in my voice.
Mariana slipped a hand into Derrick’s jacket pocket. “Oh, they’re plenty busy up at the manor.”
That was ominous.
I tried not to imagine what horrible things might be happening to Cade or the others, and then I scowled because at least Cade was trained and had backup. I was just me and it was obvious that Mariana had unpleasant plans for us. Her malice was a palpable pressure on my chest, full of derision and annoyance for both myself and Derrick. Nothing at all like the woman she’d been two days ago sipping tea in Delilah’s rooms.
Then again, I had been cursed two days ago.
She drew out a pair of cuffs from Derrick’s pocket, the same sort Maureen had been wearing during her interrogation, and dangled them on one finger. With a sharp, terrible smile, she held them out to me. “Put these on.”
I stared at their cold, runed steel, remembering how helpless Maureen had been to answer every one of the Lieutenant’s questions. “Why?” I asked.
Mariana rolled her eyes and angled the point of her dagger at a space below Derrick’s armpit. “Because if you don’t, I’ll kill your dear Constable.”
Derrick’s fear pulsed out at me, and it was everything I could do to concentrate around it. I could sense him straining, pushing against the bonds of his runestone, desperate to break free. His eyes glittered down at me, a mix of fury and pain.
“Why not throw another runestone at me?” I asked, still not taking the cuffs.
“Because I only had the one, you little idiot. Now put them on.”
For emphasis, she jabbed the dagger point upward, digging it into Derrick’s side enough to draw blood. He inhaled sharply and I gasped, “No!”
But the dagger stilled, its tiny sharp point buried a half an inch past Derrick’s aviator jacket. With a shaking hand, I snatched the cuffs from Mariana and prayed nothing vital had been pierced in Derrick’s body.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The cuffs hung heavy and tight on my wrists, their steel resting uncomfortably on the bones as Mariana led the way back into the horrible chamber with its gleaming walls and cabinet full of pieces. With a crook of her finger, she beckoned me inside, not bothering to repeat her threats against Derrick. I knew what she would do if I didn’t cooperate. We all did.
It was an effort to move my feet. Heart hammering in my chest, my little dress shoes scuffed across the metal floor as I stepped over the threshold. A sound of protest escaped Derrick, but it was formless, his jaw still rigid under the runestone, and I turned to look at him. His arm was bent, hand aloft, open as it had been while he traced my cheek with his thumb, and something about him stuck in that position made my gut squeeze tight.
Had I looked that helpless when I was first cursed?
I met his gaze and held it, wild thoughts chasing each other in my head. I hardly knew him, and yet I couldn’t let him die in my place. Not before in the forest with Mark chasing us, and not now, with Mariana and her dagger.
I can’t be sorry for the kiss, he’d said.
And I realized at once that I believed him, that he had not been using charms at the safehouse.
I could feel his mouth on my own, the promise of care that had come with it. It had been wild and true and I wanted more of that. I wanted to see how deep that promise went. I wanted to hear more of the boy he’d been, of the trouble he’d gotten into.
Maker help me, I wanted to know him like I had never wanted to know anyone before. I wanted him to know me, too. For us to have the intimacy that I often saw in my study, when couples shared glances and secret stories, and only gave half-truths to me because the whole truth was reserved only for them.
Yearning tugged through me, battling for dominance with my fear and I tried for a smile. “It’s going to be all right,” I told him as the door clanged shut.
Mariana turned the wheel and heavy locks sealed the door, leaving Derrick frozen on the other side. She smirked at me, and I was struck by the difference in her. There was a coldness to her that I hadn’t been able to sense before, an indifference that made my stomach flutter as she grabbed hold of the cuffs and dragged me toward the cabinet. I stumbled but managed to right myself before I could bang directly into the cabinet’s corner.
Up close, the cabinet was worse. There were jars with what looked like fingernails, one with something that had to be intestines coiled about each other, and another with a horrible, bulbous grey that could only be a brain.
My stomach turned.
“If you throw up on my shoes, I will kill you and take you apart right here and now,” Mariana said with barely a glance my direction. “I don’t care how fresh he wants your blood.”
Blood.
Well, of course they wanted something from me. I’d known that from the fore. Still, it was another thing to have the specifics brought forward.
I tested the strength of the cuffs and took a steadying breath. “Then you know he is a sluaghna,” I said, more to have something else to concentrate on than the thought of being drained.
