I held it against her for a count of five before peeling it away, her body collapsing.
She would need to rest for the rest of the day, maybe two. “Have Manson meet her in the bedroom,” I told Alaric. My eyes lifted to Red’s to see her eyes as red as her hair. She was crying. “She’s mine. Go report it to our dearest Uncle.”
Her throat bobbed. “I asked you to save her.”
I straightened, feeling that black fog burning in the pit of my stomach. “That’s what I’m doing. Just because it looks like damnation to you doesn’t mean it is to her.” I turned away from her, Alaric sticking something into Scarlett’s neck. “Goodbye, Red.”
46
Scarlett
April 2nd, 2023
Icouldn’t feel my hands or my back.
I suppose I could, in a sense. I could feel the way my clothes brushed against them, the way the gloves felt, but the pain? There was none.
Just numb nothingness.
I wasn’t allowed to look at them yet, and Doctor Manson told us both that we couldn’t have any intercourse until after they were further healed.
I didn’t mind fully this morning. I was still exhausted, and I knew that my hands and back must have hurt quite a bit, but aside from all of that, we were going to church this morning, and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.
It’s been a week since we were married, but it felt like a lifetime. I felt like a completely different person, yet this was my job, one Azrael had laid out for me long before now.
I would need to act the same. Slip back into the role of Scarlett Harris before I could go back to being the Queen of Hearts, his little sinner.
I liked being his sinner more than I liked being the Queen though. I’d much rather play that part than the other.
I stared out the window, my hands folded in my lap, the trees speeding by. The dress I wore today was floor length with a collar and sleeves that hugged my wrists. It needed to cover every inch of me to hide the bruises, cuts, and marks he had left,although, for the first time in my entire life, I felt sad that I had to hide them. The marks Azrael left on me were ones I wanted. I liked looking at them. I liked knowing that I got them because I wanted them.
Today, I was exhausted, but I would do everything in my power to make him proud.
We weren’t going to my church this week, we were going to one of the branches to speak to Judge Ruiz about Thomas’ nonprofit. I continued to think back to any and all conversations I had been a part of, but there was nothing. He had never mentioned a nonprofit before. Not even in passing.
So, rather than thinking about something that wouldn’t change, I thought about the girl from yesterday. Poppy, Red. Her hair was beautiful, her eyes fierce. Everything about her sang with power, yet her eyes still didn’t feel as warm as Azrael’s. I wondered if they ever would.
Whatever feelings I had for her, though, changed the moment she called Azrael sick. Every cruel word she said about him after that only made the dislike I had for her grow.
“Red won’t be at this church,” Azrael said, breaking the silence.
I felt my eyes hardened at the way he read my mind. I wanted to learn how to do that.
“They all think I’m sick, sinning doll.”
“They are the sick ones,”I signed, feeling my skin stretch and tear at the movement.
“We cannot blame them for their inability to see the world as we do. That,” he went on, glancing over, “is your first lesson.”
I finally found his eyes, confusion filling me.“My first lesson?”
He nodded, returning his attention to the road. “I told you yesterday that I wanted to start your training. It’s time you learn how I do things. Far deeper and far more intense than that of others in my world. I will tear you down to the very seams of whoyou are and build you back up into what I know you can be. You may believe I hate you, fine. You may think I’m trying to kill you. Fine. What you can’t comprehend is who you will be on the other side. When I did it, it took two years. One in the program and one in the asylum, for you? I’m going to force you through it in three months.”
I shook my head, my mind spinning.“How is that possible?”
“There are four of us,” he answered, “and you are a force to be reckoned with once you put your mind to it. I have narrowed the lessons down to what I know will shatter you and rebuild you in the perfect image of me.”
In his words though, I was already him. So this training would only refine me. Like he said, tear me down and build me back up into his equal.“The mission?”I asked.
