Page 96 of When Bones Whisper
Grabbing her nightgown, she walked out of his bedroom without so much as a backward glance at him. Prickles of magic shot through her fingers, spurred on by the mixture of hurt and anger swirling in her stomach. Walking barefoot, she hurried back to her bedroom, blinking back tears.
She had been so foolish to think the kiss, the soft words they’d exchanged, the things she felt and thought he did, would change anything.
Once she reached her room, she slammed the door shut and looked at the salt circle, broken in one place.
“Who let you out?” she asked, eyes widening. Slowly, she kneeled, running her fingers over the scattered salt. She could only be contained for as long as the circle remained intact.
With a deep breath, she ran her hand over the curve of her hip, now free of the necrotic mark binding her to the entity. Although now and then, she swore she could still feel the phantom decay moving under her skin like worms.
Shuddering, she turned away. As long as she wasn’t hexed, the demon posed no threat to her. They could not harm the living, and she was never stepping foot in the Realm of the Dead again.
The pressure of The Hunt and winning overrode her fear of the Smiling Woman. She had to focus on one thing at a time, but first, she needed to wash the embarrassment from her body. Hisscent clung to her skin, swarming butterflies when all she wanted to do was kill them.
As she walked into the bathing room, the decapitated head of Charles Eringhorn stared back at her from the washstand, a milky film over his unseeing eyes. Her scream died in her throat. She’d forgotten Nathaniel’s gift was still in there, but she could swear she’d covered his remains with a sheet. Although she had lapsed time when the hex had taken over and she’d climbed out onto the roof. God only knew what she’d done in that period.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
With a clenched jaw, she grabbed the head and stomped into her room. Shimmying the window open, she inhaled the cold, lavender and rose-tinted air from the gardens, before throwing it out, watching as his shocked expression rolled over a patch of grass.
Meow.
“Duke!” She spun on her heels, a sense of calm washing over her for the first time since she’d woken in Nathaniel’s arms. He darted to her feet, then pounced into her arms. She closed her eyes, pressed her cheek to his body and said, “I have had an awful morning.”
Purrs vibratedagainst her throat.
“I’m okay,” she lied, when a well of emotion rushed through her chest and into her eyes. Damned, she hated how easily she cried when the person she was feeling such pain over likely felt nothing. Nathaniel had said such beautiful things to her, words that she had foolishly clung to, and had meant none of them. He says he cared, but did he even know what it meant? How could he? He was still willing to hold her to their agreement if she lost. What he didn’t know was that if that happened, she was going to fight until the very end. She had the magic of her entire bloodline and the knowledge learned from all her studying of the grimoires.
He was toying with her all along and like a foolish little lamb she had wandered into the wolf's den and lain down on the altar.
Well, no more. To Hell with him.
Petting Duke’s head, running her thumb between his ears, she said, “I need your help again. You are the only one I can rely on.”
He let out a soft meow, his paws kneading her arm.
“I need to find a spell to help me evade detection.”
Duke looked up at her, yellow eyes closing in a soft blink.
A knock resonated on her door, and she froze, Duke’s tail wrapping around her wrist.
“Hello.”
“May I come in?” a honeyed voice asked before swinging it open without waiting for an answer. Standing in a full-length olive house dress with a thousand ruffles, wearing her hair in two golden braids hanging in loops over her ears, was Katherine.
She had hoped it was Hartley arriving with her breakfast.
“Hello, Katherine,” she said wearily, trying to force a smile. She had helped her at the ball and brewed the potion that removed her hex.
“Don’t sound too pleased to see me,” she said, waltzing inside, her layered skirt twirling around her ankles. She lifted a small vial of purple, shimmering liquid clutched in her manicured fingers and smiled. “Especially when I have something that can help you.”
“Did Nathaniel send you?”
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” she said, brown eyes darkening. “I want you to win tomorrow. For all our sakes.”
“What do you mean by all our sakes?”
Katherine leaned over the bed, stretching her legs. “If you lose, Nathaniel will sacrifice you and he, along with Alexander, will become mortal again. I can’t have that.”
