Page 13 of Inside the Wicked

“It matches your hair. What’s wrong with it?” Kenna says, irritated.

I can’t wear color.The thought makes me sick.

“Don’t you have a black dress?” I ask.

“No. Now hurry up—the car is here.”

Unless they forcibly dress me, I won’t put it on. I may know Rhett’s alive, but until we’re together and out of this nightmare, I can’t pretend like I’m fine.

Kenna’s look slices me with ire, but she sighs and reaches for the zip of her dress. My mouth opens to protest, but she’s already shimmying out of it.

“We’re about the same size,” she says, holding it out to me.

In her lacy black underwear, I can’t help but appreciate her physique. She’s beautiful in every imperfection she wears. I notice various lighter scores of raised skin all over her and wonder what each scar is from.

“Thanks,” I mutter.

I’m surprised by her offer, but I assume it’s not through kindness or consideration of my feelings that she’s offering me her dress, but rather that her impatience with me is running dangerously thin.

Kenna takes off her purple jewelry too. While the red dress looks stunning on her, she definitely knows purple and black suit her best.

“Men fuck with their eyes the instant they land on you. Men like Silas are possessive and will decide if you’re worth the pursuit in seconds. The red dress would have been a natural magnet on you. I hope you’ve been working on your seduction as much as your lame left hook.”

I barely get the final piece of diamond jewelry on before she’s marching from the room, and I scramble to follow.

“My left hook isn’tlame,” I say, jogging after her, but the ridiculous heels I’m wearing make it more of a hobble.

“Your round kick is often humorous to watch too,” she adds.

My mouth parts at her jesting, and I realize she must have been watching me many times, maybe every time, to have such opinions on my fighting.

“Why hasn’t he asked you to train me? All I’ve been tried against are men.”

“Because you’d never face someone like me, nor need the kind of skill I have, in the real world. He doesn’t want you for anassassin. He merely indulges your fire to let you release all that rage, and so you won’t be defenseless if you come under attack. You don’t need the finesse and precision knowledge.”

She presses the garage button in the elevator, and I’m starting to be awed by her. Though she still scares the shit out of me.

“I want to learn,” I argue.

She slips her green eyes to me, and I wonder if she’s recalculating the opinions she’s only gathered about me from afar. I don’t think she finds anything admirable in me though.

“You may think you’re part of this underworld, that you know what goes on, but you’ve only caught a glimpse. Protect your innocence, Anastasia. It’s not always ignorance. It’s peace you can’t ever get back if you allow every part of it to be taken.”

I don’t expect her words. They feel like a warning. Wisdom about something she’s already lost. Perhaps she wishes there had been someone to helpher.I don’t push for details about her life—we’re barely more than strangers, and I’m quite sure she hates me.

“Just Ana,” I say.

It’s a small token of amity. Even if her vine has thorns, it may be the only thing I can grapple for the composure to face Silas.

CHAPTER 5

Anastasia

We get to the club called Lumina Lounge. It’s a spectacle even from afar. The entire front is made of frosted glass, with each panel lit up in a hypnotizing gradient. It isn’t a place where just anyone can decide they’d like to go to for the night. Apparently, you need a VIP pass that requires a fingerprint scan to enter, and they’re given by invitation only.

Alistair sent my request weeks ago, leaving his name out entirely and making sure it couldn’t be traced back to him. It seems to have taken that long to get the approval, and now I recall the time he made me press my thumbprint to a document he claimed was for his own keeping.

I can feel the bass of the music before we even get out of the car, and my nerves start to rattle. This is what Alistair wanted me for. Not to fight or smuggle or participate in his blood money. I’m a power pawn, used only for my status, to gain for him prettily.

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