Page 31 of The Labyrinth

I’d have to figure out some other way to get her clothes, and until then I’d have to put up with seeing her wearing mine. Not that it was a hardship exactly. Her scent was shifting the longer she stayed, her smell merging into something midway between her own and mine.

I liked it. It declared her as mine.

I shook my head. I was obsessed with Rissa, in more ways than one. It wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t evensane. And yet, I couldn’t stop it. I knew it clear as anything. I was obsessed with her, and the idea of losing her to someone else inside the Labyrinth was enough to drive me crazy.

Iwascrazy. Fuck. Who was I anymore?

A fist thundered against my front door, and Rissa stirred beneath me. “Master?”

Fuck. The way that word left her mouth. I didn’t want to go answer the door. I wanted to lie in bed with her, and make her understand exactly why I was herMaster. My cock hardened against her ass, and I ground it against her before the fist beat against the door again. “Fuck. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

I got out of bed, tugging on the pants I had cast aside. Rissa sat up, eyes wide. “What is it?”

“Someone is at the door. I need you to stay here,” I muttered, my fingers fumbling with the button. Only a few people would dare knock on my door this late—or early—and only with a damn good reason.

“Are you going to lock me in again?”

I gritted my teeth. “Yes.” I didn’t want her running away on me. The thudding continued downstairs, driving a nail between my eyes with every knock. For fuck’s sake, I wascoming.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she snapped. The front door knocked. Rissa looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

Fuck. That was my final straw. I glared at her. “You’re forgetting your place, deliciae. You will be locked inside this room. You will be silent. And you will think about how best to show me you’re sorry when I get back. Understood?” It was for her safety. Everything was for her safety. I hoped somewhere deep inside she understood that.

Rissa was silent, chest heaving as she stared at me.

“Am Iunderstood?” My voice was low and quiet, but absolutely deadly, and Rissa knew it.

Her expression didn’t change a bit. But under her breath she whispered, “Yes, Master.”

I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room, locking the door behind me. I leaned against the frame for a minute, closing my eyes and breathing deeply.Should I go back in and apologize? Was I too harsh?Fuck, Rissa had me all mixed up. But there was that God-awful knocking at the door again, and an apology was going to have to wait until I dealt with whoever it was. I was going to kill whoever was at the door. I was going to nail them to the gates and flay their skin from their body while they were still alive. I was going to pluck their eyeballs from their skulls and feed them to their wife. I was going to—

“Ten. We have to go.” Griffin stood on my doorstep, soaking wet from the rain that poured all around him. “The Ravens have infiltrated an apartment building on the West Side. We don’t think it’s all of them, but it’s enough to cause problems. We need to gonow.”

Fuck. I looked back over my shoulder. Rissa would be waiting for me to return. Double fuck.

“Everything okay? You got company or something?” Griffin’s voice told me exactly what kind ofcompanyhe thought I had. He was waiting for me to slip up, but I couldn’t afford to do that right now. Not with Rissa’s safety on the line.

I shook my head. “Just wondering if it’s worth putting a shirt on,” I lied. Badly.

Griffin knew it. He cocked his head to the side, looking at me like he wanted to say something. He knew I didn’t lie, and he wanted to call me on it. I held my breath, wondering what would come next. But he opened his mouth, and all he said was, “You’re fine. Let’s go.”

I stepped outside, casting one last glance to the bedroom I knew concealed Rissa. She was safe, and that had to be enough for right now. She would have to forgive me later.Hopefully she would forgive me later.

I followed Griffin toward the edges of Solaris, and into Panshaw. Technically, we governed the entirety of The Labyrinth. In a city as large as ours, split up by conflicting gangs and ideologies, some neighborhoods were under different rule. Solaris was the safest, with Panshaw still under our guidance as well. Some, like Mirstone at the base of the mountains, went untouched for years. Others, like Graycott, were no-man’s-land, fair game for anyone who dared venture out that far. The longer the gangs ran unchecked, the smaller our safe territory seemed to get. The furthest edges were the most dangerous, tumultuous with gangs like the Hell Skulls vying for control. I knew it was only a matter of time before we were forced to take action on those dark corners of the Labyrinth. While I wasn’t ready to force my people into a war, it seemed my hand was being played whether I liked it or not.

Griffin led us to the outskirts where the apartment buildings stood closer together, and the residents often lived with their extended families.

I knew what the villagers thought. That we all lived in luxury and glamor. While even the poorest of my people had access to food, and running water, not everyone lived the way I did. I was privileged, and I knew this. I wondered what Rissa thought of it all. If she judged me for living the way I did, what I had while her family had nothing. Did she think poorly of me? Did she hate me for everything she didn’t have?

“Ten,” Griffin muttered. “Get your head together, man.”

“What’s that?” I asked. I snuck a glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

He adjusted the patch he wore over his missing eye. “I was telling you about the intel I received, and I could’ve been reading you my grocery list for fuck’s sake. Where’s your head at?”

“Here.” I nodded, as if the small motion could make the word more truthful.

Griffin scoffed, and muttered something under his breath I couldn’t quite catch. He was the only person who could get away with stuff like that. “Listen. We don’t have time to get into it right now. But we need to have anhonestconversation about this sometime soon.”

---