I think I’m going to puke.
Movement from the crowd stops me from losing it to hysteria. The talkative kraken turns, and the others follow suit. A few grab their fallen friends and the severed head. The talkative one throws one last barbed comment before diving beneath the waves.
I can’t move a muscle, frozen even when the only creatures in sight are Ordus and a growling Vasz. Dread seeps into my bloodstream, poisoning me until the fear leaks from my pores.
He’s going to force me to marry him.
He’s going to force himself on?—
No.No.
I can’t live like that again. I won’t do it. I refuse.
A hand clamps over my mouth. I scream, kick out, thrash my entire body against the tentacle tightening around me. We’re flying through the island, between the thickets of palm trees and shrubs, heading west toward the tunnel into the den.
He’s really going to do it. He said I had to be willing. He lied to me. Ordus lied, and he’s going to prove my fears true. He’s just like Tommy, manipulative and violent. They take, take, take, even if I don’t want to give.
I let my guard down. It crumbled to the fucking floor, and I spread my legs and let it happen. I let him in without remorse, and now, he wants to sink in his teeth.
I’m so stupid.
It’s happening again.
I didn’t learn the first time.
“Calm yourself, Cindi,” Ordus growls against my ear.
Angry, frightened, hot tears spring from my eyes and trickle onto fingers muffling my cries for help. My reality turns bleaker with every tree we pass, descending deeper into the island.
No one’s coming to save me. No one ever does. Not anymore.
Vasz is barking and nipping at Ordus, but what can a shark-dog do? He can’t get me out of here or keep me fed. He won’t be able to fend off a kraken at least quadruple his size.
Kristy died a long time ago. I should’ve begun digging Cindi’s grave the moment I stepped foot in Indonesia.
Ordus is going to kill me the same way Tommy did, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
The cave entrance glimmers under Ordus’ command. He lunges for it. Vasz sprints back toward the shack to get to the tunnels. His hand leaves my mouth, and I suck in a breath. A chorus of “no, please,”and “don’t”fall from me. My cries and pleas echo through the dark tunnel. I angle my head toward the light, reaching for it. It’ll be last time I see the sun.
I’m being taken into the basement again. This time, I won’t be let out.
No one will check on me. There will be no escape, no solace, nothing but a monster who will take his pound of flesh.
“Please, Cindi,” Ordus rasps, rubbing his hand all over my back and arms in a move that’s too reassuring for the fate I’m about to endure. “Please.”
I whip my head side to side. “You can’t. I won’t let you. Please, don’t do it.”
We make it out the bottom of the tunnel faster than we ever have. Panic shreds me to pieces, frozen and scorching. My vision is blurry from the tears, voice raw from screaming.
I gotout. I was free. I was surviving.
Ordus turns me to face him, cupping my cheeks in his big hands. “Listen to me.”
Black hair morphs to blond, brown skin to white. It’s Tommy, back from the dead to haunt me, lips twisted into a crooked smile—the type that promises a world of pain.
Logic and reason escapes me. I can’t summon the image of Tommy lying dead on the floor, because he’s here right in front of me, touching me.
“Please. I will not hurt you.”
