The bull gleams golden beneath the floodlights. Alec’s fear scents the air. It hits my veins like the best drug in the world. I revel in it.
“It’s said that Falaris described the screams of his victim, ‘as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings.’” I settle into the armchair. “Let’s find out.”
Alec’s eyes are wide. He’s too petrified to put up much of a fight as Noah and Antony stuff him into the bull. Alec reaches out to grab Noah’s collar. The look in his eyes is of hope dying. “Help me. She’s mad… she’s going to kill me—”
“Damn right.” Noah slams down the heavy door, jamming Alec’s hand and severing three of his fingers. They drop onto the ground. Blood spurts from the door, and Alec’s words break into screams.
I lean back in the chair and cross my legs. The crowd has gone eerily quiet. The only sound now is the crackling of the fire and my own blood roaring in my ears. The bronze bull groans and creaks as it slowly heats up. Smoke curls from the nostrils of the bull – faint tendrils at first, then great puffs of smoke, reminiscent of the steam trains that once used this roundhouse.
After a time, another sound reaches my ears. The sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.
Alec LeMarque screams.
His screams become more than screams – they are inhuman, otherworldly, rising from a place of essential truth within him.
Even though I’m watching Alec die with hundreds of other people, this feels strangely intimate. Noah’s fingers stroke my scalp. As Alec’s screams wash over me, there’s only one face I see.
George.
She leans against the railing, the flames reflected in her green eyes. Can she smell him burning? Can she taste his death on her tongue?
Does she love the sweet sounds of retribution?
Noah remains beside me, his hand in mine. Gabriel films the whole thing. Later, I’ll send it in an anonymous text to all the girls at Stonehurst who Alec victimized. Let everyone in this town know what the August family does to rapists.
Let bad men tremble before me.
It takes a long time for Alec to die. The bull glows. His screams pour over me. Falaris was right – it’s the sweetest melody.
When it’s finally done, I exit the arena to stunned, reverent silence. Tiberius drives us home, and I gather the three princes into my bed. That night, for the first in many nights, I sleep with peace in my heart.
20
Noah
No.
I throw myself out of bed with such force that I send Gizmo flying across the room.
She hits the curtain and bounces to the floor, shaking her head and peering up at me with wide, terrified eyes.
“I’m so sorry, girl.” I pick up the tiny kitten and settle her back in beside Eli’s sleeping head. I stand at the window, sucking in breath after breath, trying to disgorge the nightmare from behind my eyelids.
But there’s no getting rid of it. Because my nightmare is my reality.
I boiled Alec LeMarque to death last night.
Every time I close my eyes, he screams inside my skull, the way he screamed inside the bull.
I don’t regret it. Not for a single fucking second. What a way to spend my last night of freedom.
Because therealnightmare is about to begin.
Grace’s story will hit the media this morning, and it will burn my life to ashes. I’ll be shoved back into the media circus I lived through when Felix died. My life won’t be my own until the media drags all of my father’s sordid deeds across the coals.
He deserves every bit of the shit that’s about to be flung his way, but it feels like history repeating itself – too much like last time, and last time ended up with my mother floating in our swimming pool.
Back then, during Felix’s trial, I only had one person left on this earth I cared about, and she left me. This time, I have Claudia, the guys, Grace, George, Yara, even Tiberius and Ms. Drysdale. I have a real family. And the thought of losing them makes me sick.
