Page 42 of Fangs & Freaks
Warrick straightens, his expression shifting to something graver. “That can wait. You’re here now, and we need to tell you something.”
Bellonna crosses her arms, her eyes narrowing. “Spit it out.”
Blackwell shifts lazily in his chair, one leg still draped over the armrest. He examines his nails, though the faint glow of his irises betrays his sharp focus. “It’s not about you, mistress of sex and death,” he drawls, his tone laced with mocking reverence. “It’s about Varys.”
I stiffen at the mention of my name. A cold knot forms in my stomach. “Me?” I step closer to Bellonna, instinctively reaching for her hand. Her fingers entwine with mine, and though her grip is firm, I can feel the tension radiating off her.
Warrick’s expression falters for a split second—a flicker of something raw and unspoken—but he quickly masks it with his usual stoicism. His nostrils flare slightly, and I swear I catch thebriefest flash of his fangs before he speaks again. “The Obsidian Circle has your sister,” he says.
The words hit like a punch to the gut. I drop Bellonna’s hand, fists clenching, and I step forward, my horn emerging and flickering with a faint, shimmering glow as my emotions surge. “We have to save her. What do they want with her?”
“They want us to return you to them. They killed one of our prospects, Lucien. Left a note on his severed head saying we took something of theirs and now they’ve taken two something’s of ours. If you want Vienna back safe, we have to give you back to them.”
Bellonna’s lip curls into a snarl. “She’s not a pure unicorn, so they can’t use her for their sick experiments. Instead, they’ll rent her out to the highest bidder each night in their dungeons.” Her voice is low, venomous. “Fucking bastards.”
The subtle sparkling of my horn intensifies, the glow pulsing with my heartbeat. “How did they know she’s not pure blooded to begin with? How did they know to take me and not her? Or both of us?” I ask, my voice trembling with a mix of confusion and anger.
Warrick crosses his arms, his muscles taut beneath his dark shirt. “I asked your sister that very question the day we brought you here. Vienna told me her mom was a unicorn and her dad was human. But how would they know that without being told—or without a DNA test?” His eyes narrow, suspicion clouding his features as if he can already smell betrayal in the air.
“Good point. They wouldn’t even know to check unless—” Blackwell begins, but I cut him off, unable to keep the truth bottled up any longer.
“She’s not my sister.”
Blackwell’s brow arches, his fanged grin widening slightly, curiosity lighting his gaze. “Who is she then?”
I exhale slowly, the story unraveling in my mind. “She’s my cousin. Her mom was my mother’s sister. I heard she was the sweetest, kindest person you’d ever meet, but she was married to a bastard. One night, after he’d beaten her brutally, she left and met a man. He treated her with kindness, gave her one night of solace. She never thought she’d conceive, especially with a human, but she did. When the baby was born, she couldn’t hide it.”
Bellonna tilts her head, her eyes glowing like molten rubies. “What happened?” Her tone is deceptively calm.
“Her husband went into a blind rage and killed her,” I say, my voice low. “My parents took the baby in and raised her as their own. They placed a spell on her to conceal her humanity, but I’ve noticed it’s been waning.”
“Is he still alive?” Bellonna asks, her voice icy and laced with malice. Her eyes burn brighter, her smile unnerving, as though she’s already imagining all the ways to make him suffer.
I shake my head. “No. My father killed him and buried the body. Everyone thinks he ran off and is in hiding.”
“Good,” she says, her lips curling into a satisfied, almost feral smile. “He deserved worse.”
The room falls silent, the weight of the revelation settling over us. Warrick’s gaze lingers on me, his jaw tight, as though processing the full scope of what I’ve just revealed. Blackwell’s grin fades, his expression unreadable, though his fingers tap rhythmically against the armrest of his chair.
“Where is she?” I demand, my voice hard and unwavering. “Where are they holding her?”
Warrick’s expression hardens, his crimson eyes narrowing. “We don’t know yet. But we have a lead.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bellonna
“Care to letme in on this lead?” I’m barely holding my anger together.
Warrick lets out a sigh. “I’m not a hundred percent sure. But I doubt they’re holding her in the same place as Varys. Not after we got in there so easily and took him. I’m thinking it’s somewhere off the map. Some place that only holds importance to them, somewhere obscure.”
“Fucking Christ, Warrick, just spit it out. I clearly don’t have the mental capacity to figure it out and by the look of the death dealer, she’s about to blow a gasket,” Blackwell interjects as mental images of our playtime flood my mind, soothing the fire raging inside of me. It’s something I definitely plan to revisit again.
“I’ve been researching you, as you already know, trying to find out everything I could about you in order to take you down. In my search, I found your connection to the Obsidian Circle and a piece of property that was purchased. One that you know well.” He pauses, waiting for my response.
“My mortal home. The one they built on.” My voice is soft as the words slip across my lips. The unicorn steps up behind me, placing his arms on my shoulders with such tenderness and love. Warrick gazes at me with sympathy in his eyes, clearly thinking this is news to me. I’ve known since the day it happened; I just didn’t care. That was no longer my home, but the beginning of my end.
“You knew?” He quirks his brow.
