Page 32 of Grotesque

I ran my fingers over the still throbbing cut on the back of my neck as I watched Corban order us a round of drinks.

He had asked me that question, and I hadn’t been able to give him an answer.

Instead, I had dragged him into the closest bar I could find and ordered two shots. Both of which I took for myself.

The idea of Underland – not Undaland as Rosaline had thought – of fae, sounded absolutely insane. Not that I knew much about it with how secretive Corban was. But if the realm was anything like him then it had to be incredible. Beautiful. Ethereal. Dripping in magic.

Yet I knew some things were too good to be true.

That was the other side of the coin. Beauty was often a disguise to hide the ugliness and evil that lurked beneath.

And I knew Corban wasn’t good, not even a little bit.

I told myself that I’d only warmed to him in the first place because of how physically good he made me feel.

How worshipped. It wasn’t until today that I’d felt the tug of other emotions, when he’d fawned over me.

And why wouldn’t he fawn? I had given him something no one ever had.

I needed to learn why he had been cursed and the truth of what had happened to Rosaline. To Grandma Macky and everyone in between. I’d be an idiot to trust him blindly after all the games he had forced me into.

A woman’s shrill laugh from across the room jarred me from my thoughts.

She was standing in front of Corban, nervous energy radiating off her ridiculously quaffed blonde waves as she prattled on about something.

Hunger filled Corban’s gaze when he tipped his head down toward her, eyes narrowed.

My heart lurched, but this wasn’t anything to be jealous over.

The hunger reflecting in his eyes was pure animal, there was nothing lustful in his gaze. Corban wanted to eat her.

“Sorcha!”

Oh fuck me. I turned just as Corban’s head snapped in my direction.

Quint threw out his arms, his navy t-shirt stretching across his chest. “Hey.” He grinned. “It’s good to see you.”

Panic alarms blared inside my head. They were so loud I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. This was bad. This was really bad, and about to get a thousand times worse the moment Corban came over.

As if in answer to my rising alarm, a wall of jealous fury slammed into me.

“I see you got my text.”

I turned, scanning for the grotesque over my shoulder, but he was gone. The woman he had been speaking to twirled the straw in her drink. She swiped her free hand over a glistening droplet on her cheek, took a deep breath and looked up, blinking quickly like she was fighting back tears.

If Corban was the reason for her tears, she was lucky all he did was hurt her feelings.

“What text?” I licked my lips. Corban should have been impossible to miss. He was taller than everyone else here with a face that could have been slapped on the cover of every romance book ever published.

“I asked if you wanted to meet here tonight. Wait, you didn’t get it?”

I tugged my phone from my purse. Six unread messages stared back at me. One was from Quint, another from my friend Lauren back home, and the remainder were from my mother. I hadn’t heard my phone go off, hadn’t even felt it vibrate.

“I see it now,” I said, tucking the device away. “Sorry, it’s been a long day.” I looked past Quint, half expecting Corban to be looming behind him. Where the fuck did he go? I scratched at the back of my neck as I turned the other way.

“Oh, ok.” Quint clapped his hands together softly. “Look, I get you’re still probably mad. But since we’re both here, will you let me make it up to you? Drinks are on me tonight.”

The stale breath he blew across my face is what finally drew my attention back to him. Glassy eyes, flushed cheeks. Quint was drunk or on his way quickly to it.

“I have to go.” If I left, then Corban would be forced to follow me. If the locket really was an anchor, he would have no choice but to chase after me. I gave Quint a half-assed smile.

Someone yelled for Quint across the room. His brow furrowed and he waved them off, his attention fixated on me. “Are you really going to be like that?”

“Let it go,” I hissed.

Quint ran a hand over his face, a forced smile plastered underneath it as I made to move past him.

I made it a single step, one that brought me to his side, when Quint’s smile faltered, his eyes darting behind me.

His pupils expanded and whatever he was about to say never passed through his parted lips.

A cool possessive touch slid around my waist, fingers digging into my flesh, as Corban pulled me back against his hard chest. “Who’s your friend?” He didn’t purr so much as he growled.

Quint stumbled back.

I’d known Corban would be angry seeing Quint, but the nausea that kicked me full in the gut was heinous.

Vile and deadly. I was too afraid to look at him because by his tone, by his intoxicating power, it was clear he wanted to rip Quint’s throat out.

No wonder he had let the girl be. Why bother with her when there was better prey to be had?

“Ah, t-this is Quint,” I offered. The words were dry in my throat.

What had I done? I’d unleashed a monster into Bristol, and here was Quint practically on a silver platter.

I knew that Corban’s threat from the other night – about slitting Quint’s throat – was no bluff. If I’d not played his game, he would have killed him.He would do it now if I didn’t get us out of here.

“Quint,” he said, letting the name drip like acid from his tongue.

Somehow Quint had managed to grow balls of steel. That’s the only explanation I could come up with for why he stuck out his hand. “And you are?”

“Corban,” the grotesque answered, sliding his palm into Quint’s.

“Quint’s a friend,” I offered. Idiot, Corban knows exactly who Quint is . “We were catching up, but I told him we had to get going.”

“And how do you know Sorcha?” Quint pressed. “I know just about everyone in Bristol and I’ve never seen you before.” He tried to pull his hand back, but Corban wouldn’t let go.

Fuck.

Fuckfuckfuck.

Corban’s grip tightened.“Yes, you have.”

Quint’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“You’ve seen me before. Don’t you remember?” Corban cocked his head to the side so that the dim light of the bar hit his reflective eyes.

I pressed my hand against Corban’s where it wrapped around my hip. “We really should get going.”

He let Quint’s hand go abruptly. Quint jerked it against his chest, flexing his fist as blood rushed back to his fingers.

“What’s the rush, love?” Corban drew his finger up my throat and pressed into my throbbing pulse.

“Don’t you want to finish your drink first?

” His eyes flicked down to my hand, where a lavender colored cocktail had appeared.

I flinched, both of my hands flying up to my chest. Corban snatched the glass out of the air before it could hit the ground.

“Love? Are you her boyfriend?” Quint had the audacity to sound incredulous despite how pale he still looked in Corban’s company.

“No.” “Yes.” We answered at the same time. I curled my hands around the locket to hide their trembling.

“Quint, can you give us a minute?” I snapped.

My nerves were shot and being caught between them, one jealous and one murderous, was making it difficult to think clearly.

I didn’t give him the opportunity to answer before I spun around, grabbing hold of Corban’s shirt and forcing him backward through the crowd.

He turned fluidly so he was now the one to herd me, forcing me back into a low-lit corner beside the bar. He hunched forward, his hand sliding to the wall beside my head. “Careful,” he growled.

“I think we should go home,” I said.

“Now? When we’re having so much fun?” He leaned farther forward and swiped his tongue over my cheek. “I quite like this defiant side of you, but I’ll warn you, get in between me and that boy again and you’ll not like the way I punish you after.”

“Leave Quint out of this. He doesn’t mean anything, he is no one–”

Corban sucked the back of his teeth. “If he is no one then you’ll not miss him.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t want him to die!”

Corban ran two fingers down my neck, following the line of the chain, past the locket, and pressed them hard where the pulse of my heart was the strongest. “You are mine, Sorcha and there is not anything or anyone that will take you away from me.”

Heat pooled in my stomach. It spread downwards, flooding between my thighs with an intensity only he knew how to drive.

“I have waited far too long for this moment. I will not be bound to Glamis a second longer than I must. I will kill anyone that stands in the way of that by thinking they have access to you. Do you understand me?”

I shouldn’t be enjoying this. My heart should not have sped up the way it did. My breath caught at the pressure of Corban’s fingers when they pushed harder. He wasn’t just threatening Quint, but me. He would destroy everyone around me just to keep me. To win his freedom.

There was a sick part of me that basked in how possessive he was.

The danger of it sent heat straight to my core.

This was all incredibly fucked up, him threatening another man over me, his deadly interest, the ravenous way he looked at me.

Even with his claws hidden they were hooked inside of me, tearing me apart as he liked.

Everything about him was wrong and yet I whispered, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Our faces were so close together our noses touched. He inhaled every time I exhaled. The sound of my pulse overpowered the music and voices in the background. I could smell the fear and excitement within my own sweat.

A wicked smile carved Corban’s face apart. “Good girl.” I hadn’t realized he was still holding onto the cocktail until he slid it into my hand. “Now, finish your drink.”