“You know the rules,” Silas warned, leaning against the common area entryway.
“Don’t pretend you care about rules now, Mr. Forbes,” he scoffed.
I closed my eyes. I needed to close them for a minute, clutching onto Phoebe. I hesitated to let her go, taking in the perfume she was wearing, the softness of her hair, and the temperature of her body against mine. There was no knowing if this would be the last time I saw her.
“This way!” Luka roughly yanked me by my arm toward the other room, settling on the red couch with the mahogany trim. “You sit over there. You know the rules, one at a time,” he directed to Silas.
Silas sat across from us. Phoebe was hovering by the door.
Other guests were preoccupied with their Hosts, too busy to notice any commotion, though I suspected brash characters were nothing new at a party involving alcohol and blood.
“You’ve been up to mischievous things, haven’t you?” Luka pulled me onto his lap, positioning my legs on either side of his hips.
I stared silently.
“Cat got your tongue?” He played with a piece of my hair between his fingers. “You seemed happy enough to take this position moments ago. What changed?”
I turned my face away from him.
“It’s disappointing. I thought we were all bonding, no? How about we share some things about ourselves?” He glanced at Silas. “Did she tell you what she did at the country estate?”
I remained silent, though I did look in Silas’s direction. He looked intrigued, but his expression held something else. Was it contempt? Jealousy? Something worse?
“Yes,” Silas said.
“Even the part about her father?”
Silas was silent.
“I must be the delegated bearer of bad news.” Luka cringed. “What did your father’s coroner’s report say? Arsenic?”
My eyes snapped angrily at Luka. I had to keep it together. Just wait a little longer. My bottom lip trembled, and I shook my head.
“It was interesting to find that you poisoned your fatherandhis assistant. Were you jealous he finally had a son?” Luka teased. “I thought your journal entry from that day was quite interesting too. ‘Thirty-five hours, twenty-nine minutes, and fifteen seconds.’ I couldn’t believe you tracked how long it took him to expire! How morbid.”
I stared off in the distance, though I saw the look on Phoebe’s face. Her expression was nothing short of petrified, frozen in a state I had never seen. I did not want to see the look on Silas’s.
“Playing with poisons before a storm wasn’t very bright of you, was it? Truly careless, Alina. Though I assume that it was a beginner’s mistake.” He laughed. “Oh, I found your little collection. Your friend did a poor job at hiding them.” His eyes were locked with mine, interrogating me. “Tell me—which one of us would you have poisoned first? Me or Silas? Perhaps Phoebe as well?”
I could feel the anger building up, the tears clouding my vision.
“Oh, don’t be so glum. You should learn to be thankful that I didn’t snap that pretty little neck of yours after that stunt.” He smiled, moving my dress up my thigh.
“Luka!” Silas shouted, standing up. “That’s enough!”
“Stay!” Luka grabbed me by the back of my neck, pulling me closer against his chest.
I shook my head subtly at Silas, and our gazes lingered.
Then, his eyes narrowed, seemingly noticing I wassilent.
“Ah, ah!” Luka scolded, and grabbed my face to look at him again. “Don’t look at him, look at me.” A fire burned in the embers of his eyes, his smile showing off those deadly talons for teeth. “Now, where were we?”
He slid the skirt of my dress higher, exposing some of the leftover bruise marks on the back of my thighs from the riding crop. It was all a disgusting display designed to make Silas angry because Luka knew he was safe behind my flesh as a shield.
His craving for power over others was his unfortunate vice. It was precisely why he was perfect for this particular stunt.
I leaned forward, holding the fabric of his shirt gently between my fingers. My lips timidly brushed over his chest, the front of his throat, then the crook of his neck.
