Page 29 of Traithorn

This haunted, dark castle, with spirits surely roaming around the halls right this moment, as I rush past the gazillions of paintings depicting their not-so-noble heritage.

I arrive at a grand staircase, my heart pounding harder than ever in my throat with the reality that I know she’s behind me. Somewhere, somehow, she’s behind me.

Ready to pounce on her prey.

The grand staircase is made of marble, covering two halves of the hall below, with the chandeliers casting an eerie glow over the surroundings. The light flickers, wavering like the flames ofa dying candle, and I begin my descent down the stairs, careful not to slip on the marble.

One misstep and I would be dead, head cracked open on the floor below.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind me causes something to take root deep in my stomach, an unsettling sensation that’s far from welcoming. Making it to the last step of the staircase, I finally dare to look behind me, even when I know I shouldn’t.

It feels as if my heart has been ripped out of my chest with the sensations that overwhelm me when I stare at Celine in all her dark glory, an eerie smile stretching her lips. Her eyes flicker behind me, and confusion washes over me for a second.

She looks so deceiving, and the way she stares at me makes a tingling sensation take over between my legs. I’m wet, I know it, and I fucking despise it.

But it’s not me, her sole focus is on—it’s something behind me.

Gulping, I barely dare turn around in fear of what I will see, but I force myself to take a steady breath.

Steel my spine.

Turn around, slowly.

And this time, it’s as if my limbs have been ripped into thousands of pieces, not only my heart. There in the shadows, hiding behind the pillars, is another more menacing shadow.

No, nothiding. He’s stalking, waiting for me to make the move.

The past comes pushing back at me, and no matter how hard I’ve tried to keep it buried, it simply isn’t enough.

The shadow is unmoving, but I feel his gaze on me.

Heavy, heady, with an undertone of something possessive that makes my palms clammy.

I can’t breathe anymore—he has sucked all the oxygen out of the room, like a vampire feeding on blood.

At the top of the staircase, Celine chuckles to herself, but I don’t dare look up at her. My gaze is locked onto the shadow waiting in the darkness, never once letting my gaze move from him in fear that he will pounce.

This is too much. Entirely too fucking much, and it feels as if my limbs will turn to jelly, breaking apart. I will remain this fragile, pathetic little human being.

“Are you scared?” he muses, and I watch as the shadow moves, arms crossing over each other. His muscles are bulging, even more so now than when I last saw him three years ago.

When I sent him to prison, along with his twin.

Hearing his voice makes something flutter inside me—something I long thought dead.

He steps out into the light, a violent force of nature, ready to drag me underneath the storm he embodies.

It takes a while for me to gather my voice, heart in my throat and utterly terrified of what this entire encounter means. “You think I’m scared?” A step closer to him. “No, I’m fucking terrified of having you in my vicinity again.”

I hear Celine’s footsteps as they descend the stairs, her high heels clacking and the sound reverberating through the abandoned castle. They’re slow, deliberate, just as her entire being is.

Vernon steps out of the shadows, staring at me with those intense eyes. And it’s at that moment I see them—bright and clear. Like thunder in a storm. Brown, dark, molten, allhim.

Fuck, I didn’t think about how it would feel to fall into the depths of those eyes again.

The tension is so fucking palpable in the space, I don’t know what to do—how to breathe, act, even exist.

He is still partly hidden by the shadows, yet it’s his eyes that are the most visible. They sear over me, steadily strangling me. A suit stretches over his muscles, and the heady scent ofmusk washes over me when he shifts closer. I hold my ground, even when my instincts tell me to run as far away from here as possible.

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