He looks like he wants to backhand me across the face or leave the room and never come back.
“Years before your agonizing fate to perish in fire, the man you fear the most will cut off your genitals and shove them down your throat while your grandmother watches.”
22. Momento Mori
Niklaus
“Are you going to apologizeto me for yelling and disturbing my peace,Boy?” Agatha walks down the steps with a pinched face and clenched fists.
I swallow down the hate forming a hard knot in my throat. Sapphire’s screams rupture the stone walls again—Agatha pauses mid-step, then smirks at the shrill sound.
“I am sorry…Grandmother.”
“Hmm.” She narrows her eyes. “My grandson is having his way with the harlot upstairs. Men have gruesome, primitive needs. Is that what you were yelling about?”
My blood runs black and cold.
“What?” I spit out.
She screams again. A long, panicked shriek that is heavily saturated with her tears.
My chest caves in.
Assaulted. Sapphire is beingassaulted.
I have been dipped in a vat of oil, then set on fire. Yet I remain perfectly still, watching the old woman with a calm and collected mask that aches so deeply I can hardly breathe.
“I was calling for Niles because I need to relieve myself,” I say.
Agatha raises an eyebrow.
“I need the toilet,” I explain.You stupid, illiterate bitch.
The old woman nods her head in understanding, examining the restraints keeping me chained to the wall. Plucking a key from the pocket of her dress, she waives it in my face.
“If I give you a longer leash, you’ll be a good boy and do your business when I pass you off to Niles without any trouble?”
I want to spit in her face.
“Yes, Grandmother.”
I avoid looking into her smug glare because she’s doing exactly what I need her to do. Unlike Sapphire, I can control my anger. I can channel it into a weapon. And in this case, I desperately need Agatha to change the position of my overextended arms. They’re stretched so far, my shoulder sockets might be permanently damaged and that tight extension won’t allow me to free my wrist.
“Now, if I see any funny business…” The old woman tucks a longer strand of black hair behind my ear, stroking my head like a pet. “I’ll inject you again, and we can go back to that cottage together, understood?”
I nod.I’m going to skin her alive.
But even the mere mention of that cottage and the men who took me when I was so young fill my brain with images I’ve long since suppressed. They flood the area behind my eyes and ears with the sound of their voices.
FUCK!
Agatha clucks her tongue, knowing the physical reaction she has summoned. Her gnarled fingers jiggle the old key around my restraints, clicking the locks to unlatch around my ankles, then moving to release my restraints from the walls.
I moan in relief as my arms fall behind my back, going slack as she carries the chains like my own personal leash.
“Let’s go, Boy.”
I do as I’m told and rise, towering above her mangled height.
