He took a step forward, eating up the precious distance between us. I remained seated on the stone bench and took another bite of my third plum, smiling as the juices coated my fingers and dripped down my dress, slipping beneath the neckline. I was using every ability I had to sell the lie that I wasn't flustered by his sudden presence. That I wasn’t absolutely terrified.
"I wasn't expecting a dinner guest. Want some?" I held the plum out to him. "Careful, though. They're known to give you filthy dreams."
He took another step toward me, then another, until the tips of his giant boots nearly touched my bare toes.
Instead of taking the plum, he captured my wrist and wrenched me off the bench. I thrashed, trying to get away. His arm banded around my waist and drew me close to his hard body.
"If you're so sure these plums are enchanted like the one served with your dinner, why are you stuffing yourself silly?” he growled, the blue lights in his eye sockets glinting through the dark.
“B-because I'm starving.”
“For what, little thief? Food, or me?”
I swallowed thickly, and narrowed my eyes, refusing to answer.
His jowls parted, and that thick black tongue slithered out, oozing saliva. Its hot tip slid over my jaw, slipped down my throat, and flicked at the skull amulet on my collar. “I will always know where you are because of this. At the end of each day, I will come to you and bid you goodnight. Together we will count down the days left until you are mine.”
His tongue roved lower, slipping beneath the neckline of my dress to taste the plum juice that streaked down my front.
I was so caught up in the sensation of his tongue against my breast that I hadn’t seen him take his claw to my wrist….Until it was slicing into my flesh.
He was cutting me.
I clenched my teeth together, biting back the scream bubbling up from my throat. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
He dragged the razor-sharp claw down my skin, leaving a two-inch mark. Then he brought his tongue to my bleeding wrist to lick up the blood. “This marks one day passed. You have two more, little thief. Or, you can give up now, and become my queen without all this added suffering?”
“Fuck you. I’m not giving up,” I snarled.
The monster chuckled. “Good girl. I’d be disappointed if you did.”
With that, he released his hold on me and turned around. The swish of his cape stirred the fog up behind him and in a blink, he was gone. My hand raised to my throat, toying with the amulet—thetrackingdevice.
No matter how deep I went into the labyrinth, how far away I got from the castle, the Lord of Bones wouldn’t be far away.
He’d always be able to find me. Always watching.
Waiting for my time to run out.
Chapter18
RAYVEN
I woke up with a scream.Something was touching me.
My eyelids flung open to see a vine slowly winding around my ankle.
I shot up into a sitting position and tried to pull the vine loose, but it wouldn’t budge. It only wound tighter, cutting off my circulation.
Fuck.
My gaze followed the vine, trying to find the plant it came from, and my heart clenched when I saw it disappeared beneath the hedge wall. Whatever this plant was, it wasn’t from the garden of plum trees.
It must have sensed me, searched for me. Whatever it was doing, it couldn’t be good.
No matter how much I pulled at the vine, it wouldn’t loosen. If only I had something to cut through it…
Belial’s dagger earring!
