Page 61 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood (Tales So Wicked #2)

Harrow

T he second Lenore vanishes, the in-between changes.

No longer fueled by her mind, it becomes my living hell.

I stand within the maze that sits on the castle grounds.

The entrance lies before me, and just beyond it, the dark forest awaits.

All around me, I catch glimpses of Lenore.

Her dark hair and fair skin flash by. Screams echo in the darkness.

One version of Lenore is being lifted above the maze by a blue-winged demon.

Navy horns shine in the false moonlight, an evil grin illuminating his face.

He buries his claws in her belly, ripping her open and sending her organs tumbling down.

Another version of her is being dragged into the dark forest by the trees themselves.

They fight for her, branches clawing at her small frame until she’s ripped limb from limb.

All around me, Lenore is dying in the most graphic ways imaginable.

There’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’ve existed long enough to know the tricks of this place.

It isn’t real, but it is meant to drive me insane.

Finding an exit is going to be even more challenging in my hellscape.

We were so close to escaping together. I stride through the maze, doing my best to ignore the pleading screams of my sweet Lenore as she’s maimed, murdered, drowned, strangled, and turned inside out.

The stench of blood and rot is overpowering.

I’m going to need help. It’s going to take immense energy, and once I do it, I’ll be near depleted. I decide it’s worth the risk and summon Mytha. This is not my domain. Pulling another creature between worlds tears at the very fabric of my being.

She appears in her bird form, squawking with dismay as she takes in her surroundings.

“I know, I’m sorry. Clearly, I’m desperate. I’ve lost Lenore?—”

Mytha’s squawking picks up.

“She’s alive?”

My joy is short-lived as Mytha tells me of Lenore’s captivity under the current ruler of Roseheart. “A queen with exceptionally powerful dark magic.”

Anxiety shoves its way through my relief. “Then there’s no time to waste. Fly ahead, help me find the exit.”

A woman’s laughter sounds from close by. Mytha freezes. Moving to perch on my shoulder, she tucks her head beneath her wing.

“Come to offer me another feathered adornment?” The light, airy voice of the ruler of the in-between slices through my thoughts.

A deep sigh presses between my pursed lips. “Drusinnia.”

She laughs again, the sound far too beautiful for such a monstrous creature. “Have you missed me, Prince of Death?” Heat from her breath settles over the back of my neck.

I turn, finding the ruler of the in-between lounging on the decaying trunk of a blackened tree. A half-skeletal corpse of Lenore lies on the ground beside her, twitching every so often.

Drusinnia’s face is as strikingly beautiful as I remember. But her cruelty cannot be hidden. It’s all too obvious, the acts of torture and death replaying in her irises for all to see in an unending loop of pain and terror.

She curves her full lips upward. “It’s so good to see you.”

I don’t know what type of creature Drusinnia is.

Her skin is as red as the blood she spends her days spilling from those who get lost in her lands.

A mane of curling black hair hangs down, covering part of her chest. Her bare breasts hang heavy, leading down to her waist, and the place where the true scope of how nightmarish she really is comes into view.

Her long, insect-like body is lined with hundreds of tiny legs.

They click as she shuffles upright, slithering toward me.

Part gorgeous woman, part hellish insect, a hundred percent demonic entity. She’s as lovely as she is deadly.

“Release me from your realm, Dru.”

She taps a dark nail against her chin. “Hmmm. I could. What will you give me if I do?”

My wings flatten against my back. The scars at the base of my back burn. “You’ll not get another wing from me.”

She sticks out her painted black lip in a pout.

“Pity. I was hoping to acquire the full collection. They’re rather stunning on me, don’t you think?

” She turns and my insides twist with pain and rage.

My wings have been crudely stitched to her red back.

An echo of emptiness and utter loss rattles through my ribcage.

They hang, limply. The edges are bare and featherless, having been dragged for so many years.

She can’t even fly. She just took them for sport.

“I may be willing to make other arrangements. It does get so lonely here.” Her gaze roams the length of my body. Revulsion sends bile up my throat. “Of course I’d want you in your other form. I do love a challenge.” She grins, displaying her needlelike teeth.

The idea of fucking that monstrosity sends me over the edge. “That’s never going to happen.”

“What about your pet?” She nods to where Mytha cowers on my shoulder. “A Serpien slave would look good on my arm. That one is so very pretty.”

Mytha hunkers down, burying her beak into my neck. I place a hand over her, reassuringly.

“That is also off the table.”

Drusinnia glares. “You will give me something rare and beautiful to add to my collection or you will never leave this place.”

A thought strikes me. “I can offer you something unique. Something exceptionally beautiful and darkly powerful. A new pet for your collection. A human pet.”

Her eyes light, forked tongue swiping out across her lower lip. “I’m listening.”

Lenore

The concussive throbbing against the back of my skull pulls me from a fitful sleep.

The familiar comforts of my room swim into focus.

God, my head . I reach up to soothe the wound but find myself unable to touch it.

My wrist is stuck, no, bound. My heart pumps panicky blood through my heavy body.

Both wrists and both ankles have been tied.

Each is attached to one of the four posts that frame my bed.

Twisting my arm, I work to wiggle my wrist free. I will not be a captive again. I will not be a captive again. I will not ? —

“Good morning. You’ve been a bad little princess.”

Cassius sits at the foot of my bed, his handsome warmth gone. It’s been replaced with the same cold beauty Catreena possesses. I can’t believe they’re related. Siblings .

“She’s your sister?”

“Catreena?” He nods, tilting his head and giving me a smile that I once found to be effortlessly sexy. “We’re so close in age, people have always called us twins.”

My stomach twists. “You slept with your sister?”

He shrugs as nonchalantly as if I’ve just called him out for arriving late to tea.

“As the centuries passed and I watched every other mortal slowly wither and die, I realized Catreena was the only good fit. She’d been lusting after me for decades, raunchy thing.

Got tired of dallying with mortals much more quickly than I did.

The darkness from her magic twisted her morals until her wants and needs were a perversion of what love and desire should be. ”

His face appears sad, thoughtful. “It’s not her fault. She had no idea the repercussions she would face when she made that deal. And after her failed attempt to rid herself of all the evil, she had to learn to embrace her gifts.”

“Made what deal?”

“A deal with a demon. Right here, as it were. I’d nearly forgotten this is where it all began until that hideous forest came into view.

Catreena doesn’t like to look at it. For her, it signifies a failure.

The one time she lost control. She does, however, enjoy drawing power from it.

I’m surprised we didn’t return here sooner. ”

“Catreena is the witch who created the dark forest? The story is true?” She’s the young woman who made a deal with a demon and became corrupted from the power. Which means this isn’t Catreena’s first time sitting the throne of Roseheart.

“Yes, the story always centers around Cat but there were three of us present that day. Three siblings trapped in horrible circumstances. Three people willing to do anything to crawl out of the vile pit life had tossed us in.”

Three people. “That means you have magic?” Every moment I spent with Cassius flickers through my thoughts. Wouldn’t I have noticed if he had magic? Has he been using it on me this whole time?

“Cat got the largest does of magic, having personally made the deal with the demon, but Cissy and I were gifted our own small shares. Of course, ours has faded a bit in the past few decades. We haven’t continued to feed the beast the same way Catreena has.

Their relationship is unique . But I do still manage to keep up my glamours and hold sway over others with what little bit I have left. As for Cissy?—”

“There’s another one of you?”

His lips press into a hard line. “Not in this kingdom.”

My thoughts are spinning as they work to accommodate the influx of new and hard-to-digest information.

“Speaking of a deal with a demon”—his gaze narrows—“I would love to know who you have bargained with, Lenore Lillet Roseheart. She who rises from the dead .”

My mouth runs dry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He grins, tossing his head back and releasing a belly-shaking laugh. “Lying? God, I’m finding you more attractive by the second.” He leans in close enough for his breath to disturb my hair.

“Untie me.”

“No.” His stony expression makes nerves ricochet through my insides.

“Please, untie me. Let me leave this place. I’ll keep your secrets.”

Another laugh. “You really are a terrible liar. Since it appears it’s impossible to kill you, I’ve thought of another way for you to be useful.

” His hand runs along my cheek, then lower, fingertips trailing over the hollow of my neck.

They brush along my scar, making me tense.

“My sister and I don’t age, but should the need arise, having an heir with the blood of Roseheart’s princess could be extremely valuable. ”