“Who are you.”
“My name is Serena Avery. I don’t know how I got here?—”
“Ah, ah, ah.” He holds up a hand. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One step at a time. Serena, is it?”
“It is,” I bite.
“What were you doing in the Bone Forest?”
“I told you, I don’t know how I got there. I don’t know anything.”
He tuts.
“See, I think you do.” Shaking his head disapprovingly, he picks up a serrated knife and holds it up to the light, examining it like a serial killer.
“I’m telling the truth. I have no idea how I got here.”
“You know, for a human, you’re not ugly,” he muses, lowering the knife to my cheek. I hold my breath.
“Not exactly a compliment,” I mutter, chancing a look up into a set of dazzling golden eyes.
“I didn’t say you were beautiful,” he specifies. “It’s a plain face. But an interesting one. However, I think I can make it even more interesting.” His voice sends traitorous chills down my arms as it leaves his mouth. He crouches before me, leaning over my lap with the knife still pressed to my cheek. He tickles it along my skin, teasing the pain that will come if he applies just a touch more pressure.
“I have no reason to lie to you,” I say evenly, my eyes holding his.
“Don’t you?”
“No.”
“Are you a witch?”
A laugh bursts from me as I stare at him. He stares back, unblinking and unamused. “Oh, you’re serious?”
“I’d like to show you just how serious I am,” he murmurs, gently dragging his knife up the inside of my leg to stop above my knee. The sound of my scream echoes down the cavernous hall as he sinks the tip into the meaty part of my thigh.
He makes no move to pull the it out. Instead, he holds it in place with the tip of his long pointer finger.
“Don’t waste your energy all at once. We’re just getting started. Now tell me how a human came to appear in the Bone Forest by way of shadow smoke?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” I growl, tugging at my restraints. A red splotch blooms around his knife, drenching my jeans in blood.
“Red blood.” He clicks his tongue. “Not a promising start. Is it a glamour?” His knife digs in the slightest bit more, and a high-pitched yelp tears from me. I force myself to smile and laugh through the searing pain.
“If this is your idea of flirting, you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
His upper lip curls back in a snarl.
“I’ll be straight with you. You’re only here because you’re suspected of being the last Blackblood witch.”
“On what grounds?”
“Well, let’s see—is materializing in a cloud of smoke with a rabid familiar grounds enough for you?”
I shake my head, exasperated. “Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If you just cut the act and tell me the truth, this can be over.”
“And then what? Will you let me go?”
