Page 37 of A Dance Macabre

Wolfgang’s baritone voice slithers out from somewhere behind me, and I’m grateful I manage to hide the shiver that hearing his voice creates.

Slowly, I turn to face him.

My eyes travel up his aubergine pinstripe suit, pausing on his fingers fidgeting with his signet ring on his left hand. Finally, I meet his serious gaze, and my stomach dips. I’m mortified, unable to control the flash of heat burning up my body at the sight of him.

“Yes.”

“We have a meeting in half an hour,” he says with far too much authority for a mereco-ruler. “Logistics about the inauguration,” he adds with a dismissive wave of his hand.

I cross my arms. “Then postpone it.”

He chuckles softly. Humorless and with a hint of a threat as he takes a few steps toward me. “What couldpossiblybe more important than the very thing you double-crossed me for?”

My jaw clenches as I flash him a bored look. “Your hurt feelings are getting old,” I snap, “Move on, already.”

He lunges for me. He’s fast, but this time I’m faster.

My adrenaline spikes when my dagger digs under his chin, the skin taut under my blade. This time his laugh is a little heartier and it skitters down my spine like a cold shiver. Éclair lets out a low growl beside me.

Wolfgang’s breathing turns heavy, matching mine. It’s the only thing I can hear, as if even the silence cloaking the room tries to give us a wide berth. We’re at arm's length, but even from this distance, I can smell the vanilla in his cologne. It muddles my head with desire and I swallow hard.

I twist my wrist, my eyes glued to his as the blade softly pierces the skin. Wolfgang hisses, revealing his gold canine and incisor, but his grimace slowly turns into a leering grin as he keeps still, his blue-gray eyes swirling with unspoken threats.

“I’m starting to think,” I muse, tracking the small drop of his blood down the blade. “Thatdamnatio memoriaeis a lesser punishment than suffering nineteen execrable years with you.”

Releasing him, I bring the blade to my mouth. I’m mystified as to why I even do it. Wolfgang’s darkened gaze widens, seeming just as surprised as I am. It doesn’t prevent me from slowly licking the blade, my tongue collecting his blood into my mouth.

His taste, inexplicably sweet and with a tang of iron, explodes on my taste buds. I suppress a moan, my body engulfed by a roaring ripple of flames. Wolfgang studies me intensely, his chest still rising quickly as he swallows hard, his mouth falling open as he tracks my tongue glossing over my bottom lip.

I take a step back, my mind ablaze just like my body.

“I need to visit the Grounds,” I finally say, my voice much too soft. “There’s a body, I need to — it’s private.”

Wolfgang’s voice comes out hoarse, the rise and fall of the words laced with a staggering amount of need. “Let me come with you.”

23

WOLFGANG

Iam not sure how I got here.And I don’t believe Mercy knows either.

One moment we’re at each other’s throats and the next I’m sitting on a bench in a dark barren room watching Mercy fiddle around with a corpse, who she’s donned in all white.

There’s a small twinge of pain on the underside of my chin that pulls me out of my thoughts and without taking my eyes off her, I bring my hand up to rub where she nicked me. Forbidden heat travels up my spine at the memory of her licking my blood off her blade.

The throaty groan she thinks I didn’t hear. I don’t know how I resisted the urge to slam her against the wall and taste myself on her tongue. Bite her lips and taste her blood in turn.

My responses to her actions are becoming steadily more confounding. And asking to witness the private worship of her god might be the most bewildering to date. But the fact that she accepted perplexes me the most.

I wonder if she could still taste my blood when she breathed out a small defeatedYes. I don’t think she would have everallowed it if we weren’t both so rattled by what had just transpired.

I’m still waiting for the trap.

Maybe she’ll burn my body next.

But for now, I sit and watch.

She’s propped the corpse on a chair and is now carefully brushing their long blonde hair.

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