Page 49 of Poisoning Ivy
Ivy shakes her head, begging her husband not to say anything more, begging us not to keep pushing the subject. But there's no way any of us can just let this go.
"Explain." Killian snaps, his voice terse.
The husband opens his mouth to speak, then seems to think better of it so he shuts it. "Ask her."
"No." Ivy shakes her head.
"It's common for wealthy families. The families making the arrangement go to the doctor together, to ensure that the terms of the deal will be met. They can do a virginity check— see if the hymen is intact. The doctor told them it was, and my father told me."
"Jesus Christ," Monty mutters. "There are so many fucking things wrong with that statement."
"It doesn't work like that." Killian scoffs. "Someone lied to you."
"Ivy," her name is gentle in the air as I try to get her attention. When she turns her eyes on me, I see that the tears are gone. But I don't know if I should treat that as the victory I think it is just yet. "What happened?"
She closes her eyes, and I can't tell if she's trying not to start crying again or if she's just gathering herself.
"You can tell us, Poison." Monty says softly, placing a hand on her arm. She doesn't so much as twitch at his touch.
A few seconds of silence passes, confusion clouding the air around us as we all wait for her to tell us what happened.
"You left me."
Her voice is small, and I don't even make out the words when she first says them.
"What?" Monty leans closer to her, trying to hear her better.
But she doesn't speak again. Instead, she hefts the axe between their two bodies so that she can get a grip on it, and Monty jumps back to avoid the blade.
Killian lets out an excited whoop. "That's what I'm talking about, Bambi. Show your husband who he married."
But Ivy doesn't look at her husband. Her glare is fixed upon Monty, who's taking a step back with his hands raised, recognizing the threat in front of him.
"What are you doing?" I ask, anxiety rising as I watch her advance on Monty with the axe in her hands. She wouldn't hurt him, would she?
"Killian," I say, warning him that he'd better do something.
He ignores me, his sharp eyes darting between Ivy and Monty.
"Youleftme." Her voice is louder this time. There's no mistaking the words, though I don't understand them at first.
You left me.
There's a moment as we all silently debate her words, and then she strikes out with the axe, the blade slicing through the air for one brief moment before it finds a mark.
Chapter twenty-six
Killian
"Now, Bambi," I shake my head. As much as I enjoyed the sight of her swinging that axe, she swung at the wrong person. "That's a good practice swing. You really showed your mother's ugly fucking couch who's boss."
I try not to chuckle as her arms shake with her attempt to dislodge the weapon from where she buried it in the checkered sofa. Padding oozes out from the gash in the fabric, more of it spilling free with each fruitless shake of the axe she makes.
"It's your husband's turn."
I glance at Monty, who narrowly missed the blade last time she swung, though I'm certain she doesn't have the strength to have caused any real damage anyway. I can patch Monty up in a heartbeat— I've done it a dozen times before. That doesn't mean he needs to keep trying to appeal to her, trying to entertain some sense of rationale that may not even be there anymore.
Ivy was always our little plaything. She took what we gave her, so seeing her fight back is amusing to say the least. Especially because I know her better than she knows herself, and deep down, she doesn't want to hurt us. All she's ever wanted to dowas give us pleasure. It's why she let us push her around, why she always came back, putting herself in situations where she knew we'd find her and test her boundaries, seeing how far she'd let us take it. And she let us take it all the way, eventually, giving us her ultimate submission. I could have killed her so many times... could have loaded a real bullet into the gun instead of the blank, could have pulled the trigger one more time to bury it deep inside her and watch it blow her brains out around my living room, could have let her be hit by the train, could have suffocated her on my cock and relished in her last breaths being so deeply twined with mine. I don't want her dead. I just want her to be the badass I know she can be. I want to crown her the queen of the damned, to build her a throne of the bones of those who hurt her... every last one.
