“Fuck.” Austin grumbled as my wrist slipped free from his grip.
Panicked, I lunged for him. “No.”
But it was no use. The mirror bent like water between us. Austin got dragged left, as a force pulled me right, and a pane of glass slammed down between us with a resounding thud.
“Austin.” I pounded my palms against the glass.
He slammed his fists on the other side and yelled, “Don’t stop, Mazie, I’ll find you.” Then he turned around and rushed away.
“So much for playing the hero,” Felix snickered.
I stood there with my palms on the glass as Austin ran away, leaving me alone with the ringmaster’s diabolical grin.
“Don’t worry, Poppet. We won’t leave you alone in the dark. You’re one of us now.”
Steady footsteps crept up behind me. That was when I saw another face behind my reflection.
Flynn’s painted grin stared back at me. Firmly gripped in his hand was the knife he used to violate me and end Gina’s life.
“We’ll show you how freeing the dark can be.”
December 31, 8:37 pm
The walls pressed in as if they were breathing, bowing with every pulse of my heart. Flynn’s reflection continued to approach while the blade glinted mockingly back at me.
The faint smell of dust and candle wax was overtaken by the memory of another smell. Blood. My blood. Austin’s blood. Gina’s blood. Andherblood. The coppery scent hung on to my thoughts until every breath I took tasted sour in my throat.
Panicked, I turned one way, then the other, but it was no use.
Felix and Flynn were everywhere. To the left, to the right, in front of me, and behind me. There was no escaping. I was trapped in a kaleidoscope of piercing blue eyes and painted smiles.
I suddenly understood what a rat felt like, except a rat got a prize at the end of its maze. In this one, I was the prize.
I shook my head and flattened against the mirror as a bare chest brushed my back.
When Flynn tipped his head, and his breath wafted over my neck, I couldn’t help but wonder what the rat would do in this scenario.
“Don’t be shy now, Poppet. You’ve already taken the first step.” Felix’s hungry eyes gleamed from a dozen reflections. “All that’s left is to stop pretending you don’t like the fall.”
“I don’t.” I lied to myself while Flynn stepped in.
Every move he made was deliberately slow as if he was trying to make the anticipation of what he was going to do as torturous as the act itself. And it was working.
When Flynn lifted his hand, my heart slammed against my ribs. When he let out a breath, I sucked one in. And when he leaned in, just a bit, I could feel the weight of his closeness. A few seconds of that and I was ready to jump out of my skin. And I damn near did when the knife grazed my leg.
I lurched forward, slamming into the mirror.
Flynn let out a silent chuckle that puffed across the nape of my neck and brushed the sharp edge along my thigh, tracing the lace at the hem of my dress. It was far too intimate and all wrong.
Everything about this was wrong. Felix’s reflection surrounded me while his brother pressed in behind me, and I wasn’t trembling out of fear. Flynn still had Gina’s blood on his hands, and all I could think about was how good it would feel to run my hands over those abs. It didn’t matter which one. Felixor Flynn. They both had washboard muscles that were way too tempting.
Felix watched as if the glass between us was a stage curtain he was getting ready to draw back, while Flynn continued to trace the hem of my skirt. I couldn’t help but shudder as the knife scratched along the underside of my ass.
Something in the air shifted. I was still their prey, and they were still going to hurt me. But not in the way I expected, and that was so much worse.
I tried closing my eyes to shut them out of my mind. Then Flynn grabbed my hip and pressed his hard body up against me. So, while I couldn’t see the hunger burning in their stares anymore, I could feel it.
It was all I could feel.
