Page 4 of Pretty Poison
“Dima.” Teeth nodded, his grip on me loosening. “Where’s your boy?”
Dima grinned, showing all his straight white teeth. “Waiting inside for me, naked. Do you have someone to warm your bed?”
Teeth growled under his breath. “You know very well that I have your friend Darius and the delectable Florin waiting for me.”
“Mmm, yes. It seems like we’ll both have a good night tonight.” Dima straightened up, the smirk he’d been wearing a minute ago dying away. “Don’t fuck with Wren, or you’ll have to answer to me.”
Teeth glanced at me, his brows pulling together, before he eventually turned back to Dima. “This is not what it looks like. I’m doing a favour for someone.”
I stifled a laugh at the way Dima’s brows flew up. He stared at Teeth. “You? Doing someone a favour?”
“Yes,” he ground out, tugging me forwards, away from the fire performer. “Why this couldn’t have waited until we reached Dover, I don’t know.”
An icy trickle of fear made its way down my spine.Dover? Surely…but we couldn’t be.
“D-Dover?” I whispered. “I thought we were heading northeast after this stop.”
He shrugged. “We go where the business is good. We had the chance to do a midweek overnight stop in Dover, and Judge took it. We’ll still reach the next place on time. Think of it as a bonus.”
A bonus? No. No, no,no. This was no bonus. This was a nightmare in the making.
I’d never been more grateful for Teeth’s focus than I was in that moment. He sped up his pace, pulling me with him, and I had to turn all of my concentration towards trying not to stumble. When we reached the shadows, I suddenly realised that we’d been heading in a circuitous route, and we were now in front of the tent that housed the mirror maze.
“Go.” He shoved me through the tent flap and then disappeared.
4
Wren
Istepped forwards into the entrance of the mirror maze. The only sound was that of my breathing. My heart was racing, and I couldn’t see anything.
“Little bird.”
The soft, sweet words echoed around me. I shivered, goosebumps erupting all over my skin. This time, the goosebumps were delicious, temporarily chasing my nightmares away.
“W-what?” My own voice came out as a shaky whisper.
There was silence, punctuated by my breaths, faster and harsher the longer the silence continued.
I registered the heat of someone else’s body at the same moment the voice spoke again, right into my ear.
“Run.”
The delicious scent of toffee apples hit my nose, and it took a moment for the words to register. But when they did, I smiled, and ran.
I had no plan. No sense of direction. I just kept running deeper into the maze, seeing my distorted reflection in the mirrors that lined the walls.
I stopped dead, spinning around, gasping for breath. Somehow, I was surrounded by mirrors on all sides. How was it possible? I spun around again, but an arm wrapping around my waist halted my movements.
Gasping, my gaze flew to the mirror in front of me. I saw a waterfall of blonde hair cascading over my shoulder as a head lowered, lips close to my ear.
“Fuck,” I whispered. “Amélie?”
“Hello, Wren.”
“Hi.” My voice came out as a whisper, and Amélie laughed softly.
“I didn’t think I’d catch you so easily.”
