Page 154 of Serpent In White

I nod. “Of course.”

“You won’t leave me, right?” He shivers as he crawls in, nestling up beneath my comforter.

“Never.” I climb in next to him, trying to keep some distance, though he snuggles up to me immediately, resting his damp hair on my torso. “Remember what I promised?”

His head moves with his nod, a sleepy sigh creeping from his lips before he murmurs, “You’ll never leave me. And you’ll always be mine…”

My head tilts as I look down at him where he’s curled up on me, already falling, sleep muffling his cries.

I know he meant to say I’ll always be hisbrother, which is what I promised him a few months ago. Well, I promised it out loud, to him. But I’d promised myself that same thing years earlier, when he first came into my life. When he first became my brother.

You’ll always be mine.

Something stirs inside me, in my stomach, spreading warmth up to my chest. It’s tight and hot, and it feels strange. Strange but good.

You’ll always be mine.

I watch Darian sleep for a while, almost an hour spent with him twitching and trembling, eyelids fluttering as he dreams. I hope they’re not too bad, the things he’s seeing in his head.

I can only imagine.

It boils my blood once more. And as much as I can’t have him waking up without me, there’s something I need to do. And it needs to be done right now.

Carefully wriggling myself free from Darian’s hold, I slide out of the bed as quietly as possible. Reaching beneath my mattress on the right side, I pull out my knife. A hunting knife I make sure to sharpen often, although I’ve never been hunting…

Until now.

Leaving the room, I saunter up the hall, a peculiar calm settling over me. My adrenaline is jacked, sure, and my pulse is thumping in my neck, but it feels right.

This is what I’m meant to do.

Sneaking into the dark room, silent, my eyes adjust to the lack of light as I observe the lump of shit sleeping soundly in his bed. I look around the room, squinting at what appear to be cut zip ties on the floor next to Darian’s clothes.

Swallowing a painful lump down my throat, I step up to the bed. My head cocks while I watch him, blissfully unaware in his slumber. Just another rat-faced prick with a vicious monster living inside him, like so many others on this miserable planet.

Moving amongst the rest of us like they belong. But they don’t.

They don’t get to live.

I crawl onto the bed carefully, pulling the covers down enough to reveal his body. He’s on his back, eyes still closed, though his features shift as I straddle his hips. My index finger traces an invisible line from his potbelly up to his chest.

“You come back for more, kid…” he mumbles, eyes still closed. “I told you you’d like it.”

My eye twitches as I shift down harder on him, putting pressure as I snap the blade out from my knife, angling it off to the side.

“I knew you’d see my way…” His voice trails when his eyes open and sees it’s me. His brows zip together, but before he can protest, I stick my knife right up to his throat.

“You were saying?” I hiss.

“What are you doing, shrimp? Don’t do anything stupid,” Dan grunts, hands out at his sides while he lies still, knowing his slightest move could help me nick his carotid artery.

“I could ask you the same.” I lean over him. “You wanna die quick… Or slow?”

“Whatever you think you know, it’s all bullshit,” he croaks, shifting, which only prompts me to press farther into his skin, drawing blood. “Fuck! You little prick!”

“You’re a sick piece of shit, Lannister,” I mumble. “I’m gonna take your last breath. Give it to my brother as a gift.”

“He liked it.” He releases a sickening grin that settles in the pit of my stomach like food poisoning. “He consented.”