Page 97 of Black Castle

One flight attendant shakes like a leaf, eyes glossy with horror. The second pilot stands frozen, torn between acting and self-preservation.

One of Lucan’s soldiers watches, sunglasses on, arms crossed—doing nothing.

Vivienne’s gaze snaps back to Lucan.

A thick veins pulses along his neck, another branches into a Y at his temple. His sneer is razor-sharp, his expression murderous.

Then it clicks.

This isn’t Lucan.

This is the other one. Zev. And one inch forward, the girl will die. He will kill her.

“Zev!”

And suddenly, a loud shrill vibrates in the room. The echo is so thunderous, times seem to freeze in motion and everywhere goes quiet enough you can almost hear a feather move through the wind.

Her command, however, draws his attention sharply to her, and indeed, she is right. The softness is gone, replaced by something deadly and lethal. He looks crazed and whatever was once lively and kind, lost behind something dark and depraved. There is not a sliver of emotion.

“Go back to bed,” he grounds out, and her feet stagger backward at the power his words carry. “Now!”

“Let her go,” she says, fear etched into every word. “Please.”

“I said, go back to bed!”

“No!” she chokes out, her head shaking rapidly. “You are about to throw a woman fifty thousand feet down and you want me to go to bed and do what? Sleep?”

“Ladybird—”

“Please, I’m begging you.”

Emotion doesn’t work on him. It seems he can’t even interpret them. So even if she starts shedding tears, he wouldn’t even flinch.

His eyes shift from her to the woman, and his jaw clenches. An invisible hand of the clock begins to tick, the air filled with tension, breaths bated, lips trembling…and he finally does it; he releases his hold on her, and the lady staggers inward, falling to the ground as a series of cough echoes from her throat. Her team members rush to her, grabbing her quickly and moving her into another cabinet.

“Zev—” Her words catch in her throat as he trudges to her, and in a fleeting second, faster than a blink, he has her pinned against a wall, his long fingers wrapping around her neck.

“What the fuck, man?!” Kenji yells, panic leaping into his tone, and from the corner of her currently burning eyes, Vivienne sees Kenji surge forward in defence. But he doesn’t even glance at Kenji, his deadly eyes are on her, threatening to obliterate her.

“I am letting you off with a warning.” His voice is raspy and harsh, his hot breath which smells like coffee hitting her face, his talons digging into her neck. “Never in your life, interfere with my business again, got it?”

Vivienne doesn’t even know how to answer that. She is scared, trembling and her tongue feels too heavy to speak.

“Answer me!” he growls, his heavy weight crushing her against the wall. “Do. You. Get it?”

“Mhmm.” She nods, the corners of her eyes burning with tears.

“I did not get that.”

“Y-yes,” she finally chokes out. “I’m, I’m sorry.”

His empty and cold eyes stare at her for what feels like forever and with a huff, he finally lets go.

Desperately, like she is trapped under water, she fights for air back into her lungs, her chest burning. Her back slides down the wall, her butt hitting the floor.

Through the curve of her lashes, she sees him walk away, more like cavort. Anger radiates off him, in the trembling off his fingers, in the bold veins at the corners of his neck and in his steps.

He disappears behind the drawn curtain, the sound of the bedroom door being pulled shut echoes, and two seconds later, she hears a crash. And something tells her that’s the wine glass she spotted on the tiny table in the room earlier.

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