Page 25 of Traithorn

I’m not prepared to see what’s before me; who’s coming.

I don’t think I ever will be.

Each of the clicking footsteps sends a violent shiver down myspine, a tick to my doom.

Yet, the silence that ensues between each step is even worse. She’s drawing this out; this twisted game. It’s her time to hurt me like I’ve hurt her.

The fire crackles behind me, radiating a heat that only makes sweat trickle down the nape of my neck. Other than that, it’s entirely silent between her slowed steps.

Way too quickly, the footsteps stop right as they reach me. I catch a glimpse of those high heels delicately wrapped around bare feet, red painted toenails giving her an even more feminine aura. At first, I don’t even dare lift my gaze—not prepared to meet it after so long—but then, I force myself. I rake my eyes over her naked feet, to her bare thighs. To the black satin dress fit snugly against her curves, and up to her eyes flaring with something unknown and intense.

Fuck, she’s gorgeous.

I stare up at her for the first time in years. Dark, twisted, and sinfully her—the way she stands there, looming above my lying form. I can’t sit up, not with how I’m delicately wrapped in ribbons.

A smirk splits her red-painted lips, and I tense.

My fingers curl into fists behind my back, nails pressing hard into my palms with an unnatural force. Teeth grinding together, fear wraps around me, spreading like a seed from a flower inside of me.

The sharp line of her frame is both elegant and feminine, at the same time as it’s dark and menacing.

Fuck, she’s even more beautiful than she used to be.

A deep chuckle escapes her as she notices my expression. Then, she leans down on her haunches in such an elegant way that it seems almost royal. She’s far from it, if you don’t count perhaps the devil’s spawn.

The faint scent of her perfume hits my nostrils in an instant,and it’s then that I know she’s definitely toying with me. That goddamn perfume; it’s been in my nightmares more times than I’d like to admit. Something floral and sweet, a poison that lures you in.

A devil that tricks you into her den.

She speaks for the first time, her voice wrapping around me like a siren.

“Good. You’re awake.”

A red-painted fingernail trails over my temple, brushing away a hair strand from my face. I lean away from her, trying to escape her intoxicating grip.

It’s impossible with the ribbons tied securely around me.

“We have waited a very long time to finally claim you again, angel.”

“Don’t touch me,” I whisper, the fight leaving my body. “Where am I?”

I knew it would come to this, and yet I couldn’t properly prepare my mind for the feelings that would be invoked inside me at seeing her again after so long.

“At Mayhem Castle.”

My stomach drops.

She smiles deviantly at my reaction, her finger continuing to trail over my face, staring deep into my eyes, as if she can see the demons hiding there, slowly stealing my soul away. A shiver runs down my spine at her sinful touch.

“Did you like the gifts we left you? More specifically, thehand?” She taunts, just confirming what I feared—they left the hand in my stone hearth.

“W-why?”

“He touched you. At the crime scene the other day,” she breathes into my ear.

Everything falls into place, and I don’t know if I should be moved or not. I’m mad at the fact that I nearly got caught for it,the day Casper called me home. How did he even know about it?

“We gifted you the hand to prove our devotion. We’ll protect you, no matter what. No matter if you betray us.” She sniffs my hair, as if dragging in my essence. “Heads up: don’t do it again.”

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