Page 18 of Her Blood Revenge

‘And where do you think you’re off to?’

‘I was looking for wine.’

‘You’ll be looking for a fair while, Pix.’ He rests the axe over his shoulder blades, standing proudly. ‘I dumped it all. You could slurp it up from the mud if you like, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Might get worms.’ His eyes narrow. ‘You bite yourself again?’ His eyes linger on my barely healed lip. ‘The teeth can be tricky at first. I can teach you-’

‘What are you doing in here?’ I ask.

‘Do youlike it?’ he asks, looking around the mess. ‘It will look better once it’s done. Imagine the stone gone and nothing but soil. We’ll get some flowers in here—a bed, of course. Maybe some vines so they can climb the walls.’

‘You’re making me a garden… inside the castle?’

‘Yeah. I guess.’ He looks back at me, that smile stretched across his face. ‘Cool, huh?’

I’m not interested in anything he has to say, nor saying anything to him. I turn to leave, slamming into the Dream Walker’s chest as I do. Beside him is the Shadow Master.

Typical. Of course, he went to fetch him.

I sidestep. So does he.

‘You won’t get past us, Pixie. So don’t even try,’ the Dream Walker groans. ‘I promise. You won’t enjoy it if you do try.’

‘I enjoy nothing that involves you three,’ I sneer in reply, knowing that he’s right. Not with their marks on my skin, the Shadow Master’s doll, my chain within reach and their combined strength and speed.

The corner of his mouth hitches into a half smile.

‘Now that’s one hell of a fucking lie, isn’t it, Pixie? I know you enjoy the three of us extensively when the mood strikes.’

‘That was before you betrayed me, got me killed, turned me into a monster, resurrected the Blood Queen, who also happens to be your ex as well as my mother, and allowed her to escape with my lunatic ex-fiancé.’ I poke his chest. ‘Remember all that, Dream Walker?’

‘Vividly.’ He removes the space between us with a purposeful stride. ‘We’re going to talk. Are you going to make this harder than it needsto be?’

‘I have nothing to say to you.Motherfucker.’

The Wolf snorts out a laugh.

The Dream Walker’s palm rests on my stomach as he steps towards me, pushing me back into the room the Wolf is currently demolishing.

‘Let me pass.’

‘No,’ he says darkly, taking another step inside. He kicks the door shut behind him, sealing the four of us inside. ‘You’re not going anywhere, Pixie. Not until we get what we want from you.’

Chapter five

The Dream Walker

She flinches ever so slightly as the door seals shut. Her doe eyes scan the room, and a brief flicker of panic flashes in them. She sees the wide open window. Her fingers flex, and she no doubt feels the power she can channel in the dirt Archie has, for whatever reason, decided to expose.

She figures that she can escape if she has to. That she can defend herself if needed. If she runs, she won’t get far. We’ve made sure of that.

She won’t last a day alone out there. Not with Neve and Cole, who are probably watching us from afar and waiting for us to make a mistake. And not with her old coven circling our border. They know she’s here. And they think she has something to do with Cole, their coven leader, going missing.

Never mind her magic and newfound bloodlust. Both of which she can’t fully control.

But I’m glad she sees the open window. The dirt.

And I’m glad she chooses to stay and not fight her way through us. It would be a bloody mess, and things would get bad quickly because we’re not going to let her go, and she would rather die than succumb to us right now.

She’s ours. She just hasn’t accepted that yet. Butshe will.

---