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The pretty ring on my finger glittered in the moonlight. I wasn’t just a sad little girl anymore, all alone in the world. I had loved ones now, people whose hearts would break if I were to die. I couldn’t let that happen.

Why the hell was I even here?

What had Marcus said I’d needed? My head was still a bit fuzzy.

A cleansing.

How the hell was I supposed to get clean in a dirt hole in the ground when I hadn’t even been dirty in the first place?

“Trouble, dear?” a voice I knew all too well called out, and a thrill of fear shot down my spine.

I looked up and was glad I hadn’t allowed myself to cry earlier, because I did not want this man to see the trail of tears on my face. Adrian wasn’t the kind of man you wanted to show weakness in front of. He’d use whatever he could as a means to destroy me.

I didn’t want to give him any more ammunition, he already had plenty to use against me.

His bald head was shiny, and I couldn’t tell if he was simply sweaty or if he greased that sucker up for some insane reason. He had so many gold hoops hanging from his ears, he put my many studs to shame. His wrists were covered heavily in gold bangles, and some of them glittered as if they had diamonds set in them.

Someone put on all his good jewelry just to come out here and see little ole me. If he was any other man, I might even be flattered.

He had on black, floaty pants that looked like silk, and a silk kimono-like top that was pure white and entirely open in the front, exposing his big, rounded belly.

He had gold hoops through both his nipples, and there was a wicked-looking scar close to his belly button, just slightly to the right and below it. I wasn’t surprised to see it. When you lived your life acting like a complete and total motherfucker, sometimes people treated you like one.

He looked down on me with a happy, childlike smile on his face, like I’d just made all of his dreams come true.

Fuck my life.

I didn’t want to play this game with him.

Marcus Cole wasn’t just an asshole of epic proportions, he was also a fucking traitor. A traitor who knew a whole lot about my life that I didn’t want the Council to know about. I had to assume Adrian now knew about everything.

About Rain.

Isobel.

Baxter.

Romero Flynn.

Though that one he’d learned about all on his own. I was sure if Marcus told him about the rest, there was really no reason to leave Romero’s name out of things.

Goddamn it.

No one was safe. All because I placed trust in the wrong man. A man who my father loathed and had never once trusted.

Marcus was right, I was a stupid little girl.

Adrian cocked his head to the side as he studied me like I was a bird in a cage he found absolutely fascinating. Appropriate, given I was in chains.

I smiled my sweet, fake as fuck smile at him. “Why don’t you be a friend, Adrian, and come on down here and unchain me?” I suggested as I raised my hands in front of me and shook them.

If he came down here right now, I’d strangle him to death with these chains. And I’d do it without remorse.

He tsked at me as he crouched down at the edge of the hole. “Do not worry, my dear. You will be unchained. In time. That’s the problem with you children these days, you’re all far too impatient. You’re only interested in instant gratification. Slow down, child. All good things come to those who wait.”

I laughed humorlessly. Whatever he had planned, it was going to be very painful for me, I just knew it. That was why I was chained up and stripped of my magic. Adrian didn’t like a woman who could fight back. Now I thought I understood those markings all around me—they blocked me from using my magic and who knew what else.

I always joked about how pain was my old friend, and now I felt stupid for it. We weren’t friends, but I was fairly certain I was about to be reacquainted with a great dose of it.