A satisfied smile curled at the corner of my lips.
“Will you put that down now?” He raised a brow, glancing at the knife.
I reluctantly pulled it away, but so did he.
“Have you had enough of the fighting? Shall we try something different?” he asked, leaning on the railing beside me and pulling out a flask.
“I am tired of you,” I said simply, eyeing his flask as he took a swig.
“A celebratory gift?” He offered it to me.
He’d kept me busy enough all week that I did not have a moment to sleep, never mind drink. I took it from his hand and drank a few gulps before handing it back. All that excitement was making my abdomen cramp up again, like someone had punched it. I would have assumed that Silas was the cause, except he never hit me during our little games. Which was odd now that I thought about it. He only wanted to chase, catch, release, and repeat.
“You know, if you just gave in, I would be worshiping you right now instead of chasing you,” he whispered in my ear. “Though it is rather exhilarating when you play hard to get.”
“I am not playing,” I said flatly. “I don’t trust you. There is not one tender bone in your body. What makes you think I would ever entertain a sadist like you?”
“Not one bone?” he asked innocently. “You’re a woman ofscience. Doesn’t it flatter you that something superior wants to have you?”
“Superior?” I challenged. “If I remember correctly, I won.”
“Because Iletyou,” he stated simply.
“Is that what that was at the cemetery? Letting me win?Or was that a surrender?”
He fell silent, his expression unfaltering, but I could see his body physically tense.
How interesting. Could I be witnessing remorse? I had truly seen it all ifthat was the case.
20
THE CREATURE
Today, I found her in the greenhouse.
The gravel crunching under my shoes gave my position away outside the doorway.
“Silas, the greenhouse is glass. I can see you.”
“I wasn’t hiding.”
I was hiding. I assumed that she was not paying attention. Turning the corner, I leaned casually against the doorframe of the entrance.
The greenhouse was small, but that did not stop her from putting as many plants as she could inside. It was an impressive collection, but I knew better than to get close to anything she kept around.
Alina was sitting in the corner of the bright glass room, a book clutched in those elegant fingers. Today, she wore white. It was less kept than her normal stuffy attire, showing off her lovely neck and that pale skin that flushed at the slightest temperature change. The light attire made her eyes flash an impossibly light blue, like I was looking into ice covering a lake, but even colderthan that. I wished I had spent even the smallest amount of time as a painter to solidify this moment, as if no one would believe the sight of the specter before me.
She would make the most beautiful apparition, already haunting every corner of my mind.
Her nimble fingers flipped another page. In her mouth hung a cigarette, unlit.
“You know, the enjoyable part of smoking is lighting the cigarette.” I approached cautiously, though she did not look to be in a running mood this morning. I was close enough to have caught her scent clearly without the adrenaline and blood clouding it.
She smells like black cherries and cyanide.
“I ran out of matches,” she said simply, flipping a page.
“Is that why you don’t seem in a rush to escape? You were banking on me having a light?”
