Page 39 of The Wraith & Her Killer

Turning back, I stare into the sickly, sunken eyes of none other than Santino-fucking-Ferrero. Who, by the way, looks a lot worse for wear. He’s significantly thinner and his skin has taken on a grayish pallor as opposed to the olive tones I had no choice but to look at every day for ten years.

The first emotion I feel tearing through me is an unfettered rage that boils beneath my skin and rushes through my veins at the fact that Adris had the nerve to bring himhere.

But then I take in the fact that he’s heavily chained to a chair. They seem a bit excessive, noting just how frail he looks sitting there, staring at me like he’s seeing a ghost.

I guess he is, though.

Adris presses his chest to my back and wraps his arms around me before bending down to speak over my shoulder.

“Surprise!” he whisper-shouts. The sudden sound of his voice causes Santino to snap out of whatever stupor he was in and starts to fight and pull against his restraints, albeit weakly.

“What the fuck?” His eyes widen when they finally focus on me. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

I look at Adris who barks out a laugh that makes Santino jump. “He doesn’t remember much around the time his fucking house exploded.” He shrugs, walking around me and up to a table that’scovered in a black cloth with… Yeah, that’s a fucking giant, shiny red bow. Whatever is under the table is legitimately wrapped up like a gift.

I point at the red monstrosity, ignoring Santino’s sputtering. “What’s that?”

He looks back and forth between me and the table a few times, his brows raised, “Oh, this? Another little honeymoon gift for you, Wraith.”

“Honeymoon?” Santino slurs, looking at Adris. “You were supposed to kill her, and you married her instead? She’s a fucking soiled cum dum?—”

SLAP.

His head jerks to the side and my hand stings from how hard I hit him. Shaking it out, I look to Adris, who looks like he’s ready to pry Santino’s head from his shoulders with his bare hands. I walk up to him until my chest brushes his abs and look up at him. He’s not looking at me, though. I can feel him physically vibrating from anger.

Reaching beneath his shirt, I run my nails up his stomach, digging them in hard enough to make him hiss, and his attention snaps back to me.

I quirk a brow when he just stares at me. “You were about to show me my honeymoon gift?”

His posture relaxes and he smirks at me. “Right.” He snaps his fingers, and gestures for me to follow him the two steps it takes to get to the table. With all the finesse in his body, he pulls the cloth from the table, revealing… tools.

Like… murder tools.

All laid out in perfect rows are dozens of different knives, hammers, chains, saws, and there are even fucking forks and spoons laid here, but also… candy hearts. I want to laugh at those, but instantly, I recognize those mortifying broad-tipped arrows laying inches from my hand.

Adris sees me eyeing them and he picks one up, rolling itbetween us fingers as he rounds the table and closes the distance between us. He holds it out to me in offering and I take it.

“I promised that I’d let you be the one to drive the arrow directly through his heart?—”

“Wait—” Santino tries to butt in.

“His kill is yours,Wraith,” Adris says, hopping up on the table and swinging his feet. He gestures to a struggling Santino. “Have some fun.” He winks. “He’s completely detained. No part of him will be able to get to you.”

My fingers begin to tremble around the arrow when I look away from Adris and back to Santino. The man who was supposed to kill me a decade ago, but took me to keep as a pet instead. He overworked me as a child, then used and abused me as an adult. Degraded and debased me, reduced me to nothing more than a subservient vessel, trained to crave his punishing hands and utterly hate myself for it every day.

My anger turns to fury the longer I look at the pathetic man in front of me.

“Hold this.” I turn back to the table and slap the arrow against Adris’ chest.

“Yes, ma’am,” he growls, dragging his tongue across the straight of the arrow where my hand held it. It’s doing things to me with how feral he looks right now., “Fuck him up, baby girl.”

My face flushes at the nickname and my eyes flick to his, the silver in them practically glowing with excitement when I pick up a small rubber mallet.

Santino spots the new weapon in my hand and actually has the balls to scoff at me when I hesitate just long enough to gather myself.

“Odessa.” He tuts, albeit weakly. “You can’t even do it, can you? All these years, and it seems you’ve still lost your fight.” His eyes light up in victory as he drags my traumas back to the surface, the mallet feeling even heavier in my hand. “When exactly did that happen, hm?”

“Shut up,” I grit through clenched teeth, shifting on my feet. Adris watches closely in my peripheral vision but makes no move to aid me.

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