Page 151 of Lovely Venom

“Wait here,” the guard grunts, disappearing inside.

My hand brushes the underwire of my bra, checking that both vials are still snug.

Noel appears moments later in the entryway wearing black sweats and a white T-shirt. He’s got bare feet, bed head, and morning breath.

His smirk is as greasy as motor oil. “I was wondering when my little failure would come back.”

I smile tightly. “Just keeping you on your toes.”

He grabs me by the wrist and drags me down one of those corridors I noticed the last time I was here. Next, I’m pushed into his bedroom. No warmth. No pretense. Right to the punishment phase.

Shit.

“Don’t you ever disappear on me again,” Tahiri barks.

“My best friend was raped,” I say, backing up. “I was comforting her.”

“If she’s a slut like you, she deserved it,” he scoffs.

Anger flares in my chest. “If he had a dick as small as yours, it’s no wonder he had to rape her.”

“Cunt.” Noel backhands me across my face.

My vision craps out for a second from the sharp sting, but I stay standing.

“The next time you fucking speak to me like that, I’ll break this jaw so you can’t talk. Or eat,” he snarls, grabbing my face.

I don’t wince. I can’t.

He shoves me backward, and I hit the floor hard.

“Stay there,” he snaps. “I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

Noel proceeds to kick me, punch me, pull my hair, and yank my arm until I’m sure it’s dislocated again.

Fuck.

All while yelling something incoherent.

The blinding pain has dulled many of my senses. I wasn’t expectingthis.

The arrests are set to happen in the next few minutes and I’m running out of time. Rhys knows where I am. But if I don’t emerge after the knights are arrested, they will storm this place for me. I just have to survive. For Connor. He won’t forgive himself if I die. And Valdrin might end him for letting me get killed.

Noel lifts my dress and drags down my underwear. He tosses them aside and sneers, “Now, therealpain begins.”

But salvation comes in the form of a voice from the hall where the guards wait their turn.

“Kyre!” one yells. “Black Fang is on the phone. Says it’s urgent.”

Black Fang! No. He’s giving Noel a heads-up.

Tahiri growls something incoherent and storms out of the bedroom. I roll to my knees, my heart hammering. With the arm not screaming in pain, I slip the poison vial from my bra and pop the cap with trembling fingers.

This is it.

I tip it back and let the fluid pool on my tongue. The taste is metallic, laced with cyanide’s signature almond flavor for a deadly kiss. I press the vial back between mybreasts and wipe my lips.

If I don’t get Noel to kiss me in the next two minutes, they’ll be burying me and not him.