Page 97 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

Pandora spins to Senri and says, “Does he have a wife? What’s his favourite food? Does he have children?”

Senri, as baffled as I am, answers her demands. When she has the information she wants, Pandora enters the room and closes the door behind her. I step towards the two-way mirror, fold my arms across my chest, and narrow my eyes as I watch her work.

Pandora spins the keys she took from Senri around her finger until they rattle. The man raises his head, his entire body jerky and twitchy, as if on high alert.

“Hey, honey,” she purrs. Disgust tenses in my stomach. “I’m home.”

This is sick.

Pandora touches his shoulder, her fingers brushing against his flesh with tender affection. Every word from her mouth solidifies my thoughts on what her parents wanted her to be. It explains a lot about why she uses her body for persuasion and maintains a flirty, overly lustful persona when she’s acting like someone else. This is what her parents trained her to be, and every word coming out of her fucking mouth causes my throat to tighten, gripping my jugular.

She told me in the briefest moments that she isn’t good at interrogating unless it involves abusing her body. Now, my mind fills with chaos and disturbed imagery of her parents forcing Pandora to act suggestively, touching men with sick minds to gain knowledge when no other method works.

Pandora flicks her leg over his, ready to straddle him, when my brow twitches. As I open the door, Pandora rises. Her eyes widen, but there’s nothing in them. It’s as if she’s nothing more than a puppet on strings, moving to someone else’s rhythm.

That’s what she meant when she tried flirting with me in her room, and Pandora mentioned being a puppet trained by everyone around her.

“Reen,” Pandora breathes.

I grab the guy by the throat, raise him off the chair until his legs flail from underneath him, and I squeeze very fucking tight. “Who the fuck do you work for?”

Silence.

I step toward the wall, slam his body against it, drop my grip on his throat, and then pin his head against it with my hand. “Say it or die,” I say through clenched teeth.

He grits his teeth, biting back his words.

I move him away from the wall and slam him against it with a sickening crunch. “Say it.”

Nothing.

Another sickening crunch, and then another. His brain bleeds out of his cracked, fragmented skull.

“Okay,” he gargles, blood dribbling out of his mouth. “Walsh…Walsh.”

“Walsh?” Pandora furrows her brows. “That’s…I was meant to meet him when I got to…here. He would protect me—at least, that was what Maya told me.”

“She spoke utter fucking bullshit because she wanted you dead,” I say through clenched teeth. “If this is the same Walsh, he was there to kill you, not help you.”

“Fuck me,” she mutters. “Why is everyone always out to use me?”

Narrowing my eyes, I lift his bloody head away from the wall and hiss, “Is that all you know?”

Blood spews out of his mouth as he nods. Knowing that’s all, I slam his head against the wall until I hear another sickening crunch. Then I do it again, feeling his skull break into fragments, and again, causing his head to crumble in my hand. Again and again and again until his brains slip through my fingertips, and there’s nothing recognisable about him that Pandora will remember.

“Reen…” Her eyes widen, and she takes a cautious step back as I approach her.

My nose flares, and this irritable anger towards Pandora comes out. “If you end up killing me, don’t do that again. Got that?”

Wide brown eyes waver with unshed tears, and she dips her head in a nod.

Dragging my bloody hands through my hair, I exhale a frustrated breath and turn away from her. “Come on. Let’s interrogate Kate.”

“Are you angry with me?” she says as I reach for the door.

I close my eyes, inhale deeply, and then sigh. “I am more livid with how your parents raised you, Pandora. If what I witnessed was your life, it’s no way to live. You deserve better.”

A bell-like laugh trickles out of her mouth. “So, are you catching feelings, eh?”