“So over the last three years, you never thought about giving up?”
I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my head down, continuing to shovel. “I didn’t say that.” I pause, waiting for Kole to make some snarky remark, but he doesn’t. “The thought had crossed my mind, but in the end, I just didn’t have it in me. Maybe if my life had been some kind of fairytale, I would’ve called it quits, but after you all took over, it kind of felt like a gift.”
“A gift?”
I lean up against the chain link fence, taking in Kole’s stunned expression. “Okay, maybe gift isn’t the right word, but there were a few positives that came with the end of the world.”
“Like?”
I shake my head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” Kole insists, propping himself up along the opposite side of the pen.
I can tell he’s not going to let this go, so I turn my attention back to the poop, hoping it’ll make this feel less personal.
“After it was all said and done, it sort of felt like I had a new lease on life. One that belonged to me and no one else. All of the old rules didn’t apply anymore.”
“What kind of rules?”
“The kind that felt like shackles, chaining me to a life I never asked for.” I look up just in time to see Kole’s expressionshift from curiosity to pity. “Careful Kole. That look you’re wearing almost makes you look like you care.”
“Who’s to say I don’t?”
I exhale a hollow laugh. “You made it pretty obvious you don’t last night. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.” I pick up the pail full of shit and head back to the edge of the woods to bury it.
By the time I get through all the pens, I feel like I could collapse from exhaustion. The rain held off, but thunder has begun to rumble, which means a monsoon will be arriving any minute.
“Now what?” I ask, handing back the shovel and shit-stained bucket.
“Now you clean the dungeon.”
“The what?” I gasp.
“Oh, come on. Surely you’re not surprised we have a dungeon,” he remarks, discarding the shovel and bucket.
“I-I mean, I guess I didn’t really think about it,” I admit, now wondering why it never crossed my mind.
“Well, now you know. So let’s go.”
When we get to the side of the house, there’s a stairwell that leads underground. As we descend into darkness, dim lights line the walls as Kole guides me through a maze of tunnels that I’d surely get lost in if I tried to find my way back out. Eventually, we reach a door with three sets of locks.
“A bit overkill, don’t you think?”
Kole peers at me over his shoulder while he sifts through a ring of keys. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew what lies on the other side.”
“If that’s your attempt to scare me, you’re going to have to do better than that.”
He stops flipping through the keys and whirls around, grabbing a hold of my face with unnecessary force.
“You’re ballsy and tenacious, Grey, but don’t forget you’re living among creatures who could rip your heart out without a second thought.” He turns my face away and runs his thumb over the mark. “This may protect you from most of us, but there are others out there who live by only one code… and that is tokill.”
When he turns my face back, there’s a darkness in his eyes that wasn’t there before. Almost as if there’s a hint of fear behind them. A moment of weighted silence passes between us before he turns his attention back to the door. Once he’s gotten through all three locks, he motions for me to continue down another dark corridor. To the right is a narrow path, and somehow, I know it’s the one that leads to the beasts Kole just warned me about.
The farther we walk, the colder it gets. Even the air has gone stale, and there’s a prickle of unease crawling down the back of my neck as we take another turn, stopping in front of another door with only one lock this time.
“Stay close behind me,” Kole orders, before turning the key.
The moment the door creaks open, we’re accosted by snarls and hisses. Vampires and werewolves reach out for us between the bars of their cells. I flinch, reaching for Kole’s wrist when one of them howls, but quickly release it, regretting that I had shown even an ounce of fear. The word, “human” spews from a few of them, but most of their threats are muffled by thecontinued growls and sneers as we make our way down the wide stone corridor.
