Page 31

His claw curled under the cross swinging from my necklace.

“This symbol, I have seen it before.”

“A crucifix.”

His eye peeled wide open. His claw curled on it, and I gasped, gripping his second digit to stop him from tearing it.

“No,” I breathed. “My Aunt gave it to me. I swear, if you do anything to it, I’ll off myself before you can take my soul.”

He hissed and rolled me onto my back.

“You will not worship any but me,” he snarled, lifting me and propping my hips higher. His claws sank into me. I gasped as blood surfaced from the pinpricks. Madness and a lack of control reflected in his eyes. He pounded into me, rocking the bed, and then continued to fuck me without releasing my bleeding thighs.

My cross remained intact, the movement of the chain tickling my skin with each of his ruts.

My encroaching death was undeniable,but before my life was extinguished, I had to be sure there were no other people trapped in the castle.

I smoothed my hands down the linen dress that had been placed across the end of the bed when I woke up. It was the same material as his shirt. It’d been one I’d seen when we went to the swap meet.

I wonder when he grabbed it.

I bunched the fabric of the dress, and the hem brushed across my shin. My steps echoed down the long, ominous hall.

Coming down here could be a useless endeavor, but it was something Ihadto do. Maybe it was some crap way of me making up for caring about the monster that had hurt so many. Fortunately, I wouldn’t live with the guilt about it for long.

I slipped through the final hidden section in the wall and slowed to peer into every cell I passed. Dust piles were still spread across the floor, and the door I’d managed to open was latched again. The torches propped between each of the cells highlighted the floating dust particles.

I gave up holding my breath, even though it felt like I was inhaling the dead’s remains. This time around, I walked down the corridor, making sure to check every single cell, but there was no sign of life . . . until a whimper reached my ear.

“Hello?” I called out hesitantly, creeping forward and trying my best to avoid the dust piles on the floor. “I’m here to help.”

Another whimper that was almost too low to hear. I headed deeper into the passageway and stopped where the last torch lit my way. There was a pitch-black section, but past it, in the distance, light flickered from around a corner.

I carefully stuck my foot out and pressed my hand into the side of the wall, making it without falling into an abyss. Once I was safely away from the dark section, I exhaled in relief and turned the corner. I stopped at the wide entrance opening to a long, rectangular chamber. At the end of the straw-covered floor was a slumped form dressed in tattered rags. I hurried forward, my steps thunderous.

The closer I got, the easier it was to see why the floor was coated in straw. Dried blood spread across the ground toward the dirty bundle huddled near a pole in the middle. From what I could see, the form was male.

A torch lined each of the four corners of the room.

He slumped against the post, his thin, frail body covered in dirty rags. An iron cuff around his ankle led to the jutting branch from the metal pillar embedded into the floor with large screws. His skin around the cuffs was raw and bloody, as if he’d tried to pull free.

He lay in a starfish position, head turned away and arms sprawled outward, but where there should have been hands was gruesomely burned flesh. Like his hands were chopped off and then a flame held to the wound.

This was meant to be a slow, painful death.

“Hello?” I whispered, waiting with bated breath to see if he was still alive. He twitched and rolled his head to the side. Human nose and ears . . . a beard grown out, but what I could see of his features was enough.

I went ice cold.

No way,no way.

Andrew.

His blue eyes flared, and he grunted, scrambling to get away from me.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, breathing unsteadily. I fell to the floor, unable to keep upright. He was emaciated, practically one foot in the grave. I clasped my neck, gasping.

My mind raced with explanations and reasoning. When Corvus came to my room, before dragging me into his realm, he’d mentioned me fucking this man. He’d wanted to punish me for sleeping with him. That wasn’t a coincidence, and I was starting to believe nothing in my life had occurred by chance.