Page 81 of Making the King

My teeth chatter and my entire body shakes as cold seeps through my bones and all the way into my marrow. Chunks of my last meal are stuck in my hair, and the burning smell assaults my nostrils.

“Now, where was I? Oh yeah.” Mom snaps her fingers. “Really, all you need to know is that your dad was weak, and so is your brother. You and Julietta were my best hopes, but you took her from me. I know it was you who killed her. So it’s only fair you work for the both of you.”

My head is spinning with the overload of information. Some of it I knew, or suspected. But mostly, she’s ripped the carpet from under me, and now I’m not sure of anything. Maybe I heard her wrong, or maybe some of the things I’ve been told while growing up were lies.

It doesn’t matter, though. All that matters is that we’re here, and I need to find a way to kill her.

The guy who went to get me some clothes returns, but I don’t get a chance to see what he’s carrying before another comes closer. There’s a black hose in his hand, and I know what’s coming a second before water spurts out. The pressure is cruel, and it hurts as he points it straight at me.

“Make sure she’s clean,” mom says, coldly. “I have plans for her, and I can’t have her smell and look like she’s been living on the street.”

I scream as the hose is pointed at my face. It feels like I’m being attacked with ice, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

The guy lowers the hose and grunts something to another guy. I can’t hear the words, but as he walks right up to me and cuts my clothes from my body, it doesn’t matter. The knife knicks me a few times, and every time he sneers at me to keep still, which is fucking impossible with the way I’m shivering.

Once I’m naked, he cuts the binds from my hands and legs. He wraps his arms around me, holding me tight against him as I’m hosed down once more. I don’t know which is the biggest torture, the icy blast of water, or the erection digging into my back.

I scream and thrash, to no avail. All it does is make my mom laugh scornfully, repeating what a pathetic disappointment I am.

A grunt has me looking up from the floor, and I notice Mateo and Gray now standing next to each other. Both of them try to break free from the person holding them, but they don’t fare any better than I do.

“Stop!” I cry out when the guy holding Gray punches him in the stomach.

Mom rolls her eyes and throws a towel at me. I do my best to cover my body while drying, but it’s a waste, really. Everyone in the room has seen my naked body, so why worry about it now.

Once I’m as dry as I can get, mom hands me a black, see-through babydoll dress. “Here. Put it on,” she commands.

I arch my brow. “No underwear?”

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “You haven’t earned that privilege.”

I swallow down more bile, and hurry to put on the dress that covers absolutely nothing.

“Now, where were we?” mom says, sounding way too eager for my liking. “Yes. I asked you to choose, and you thought I was asking you to pick who I’ll kill. But that’s not exactly right. I won’t be doing the killing, mija. You will.”

“W-what?” I stammer, sure I didn’t hear her correctly.

“That’s right,” she says gleefully. “Who will you kill? Your brother or this Gray guy?”

My eyes fill with tears again as I look between the two men. How can I ever pick between them? Gray is… Gray is my kin—we may not share blood, but that doesn’t matter. I recognize the darkness inside him. Mateo is my relative, and my twin. How the fuck can I pick?

The longer I look between them, the more it feels like I’m choosing between my future and my past. Gray belongs in my future, hopefully. But Mateo can only ever be part of my past. Even if I save him, there’s too much bad blood between us to have any kind of relationship in the future.

I’m barely aware that one of the goons presses a gun into my trembling hands, but it’s there. I feel the steel. He stays at my back, and his hands are hovering just over mine. The message is clear; don’t do anything stupid like aim the firearm at my mom.

Fuck!

“Choose,” my mom sing-songs.

I take a shuddering breath. “N-no.”

She nods like my answer is exactly what she expected. “If you don’t, I will kill them both. This is your chance for one of them to live.”

As I look into Mateo’s gray eyes, I feel like our twin-bond snaps back into place. I feel the pain, anguish, and regret I see in his orbs. It slams into me like a wrecking ball.

Unable to look at him any longer, I meet Gray’s dark gaze. He nods, and I know he’s telling me it’s okay to kill him. There’s understanding in his eyes, and it breaks my heart that this guy is willing to sacrifice himself.

Fuck, I’ve only just gotten to know him, yet he’s in my heart. There’s a bond between us, one I couldn’t shake even if I wanted to.

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