Page 92 of Take Me Darkly

“Serena!”

The roar of the ventilation system greeted me, alongside the dry heat radiating from the furnace. It was glowing amber, its light dancing across the freshly poured concrete floor, reflecting off the racks of blowpipes.

On the polished marver table near the center of the room, sitting perfectly illuminated beneath the harsh glare of an overhead task light, was her sketchbook. It was open to a fresh, blank page, waiting for its artist.

But there was no music playing. No movement.

The glassblowing studio was completely empty.

Serena was gone.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Serena

* * *

Looking up at the statue in the glass, my heart ached with a sudden, suffocating grief. God, I had been so utterly foolish. I’d allowed myself to believe that a beautiful thing could exist without a price tag—that Anton’s tenderness was pure. But nothing in his world was ever genuine, was it? Not the statues, not the gates, and certainly not the night he’d stepped out of the shadows, exploiting my grief and letting me fall for the seductive lie that fate had brought us together.

It hadn’t been fate. It had been a precalculated, cold-blooded hunt. Every gentle touch, every protective promise had been part of the snare, making the depth of his deception cut straight to the bone.

I wrapped my arms tight around my ribs, barely able to draw air through the crushing, hollow ache in my chest. The betrayal tasted like poison. I had given him my trust, my vulnerability, my absolute devotion—only to realize I’d simply traded one gilded cage for another, stupidly falling in love with my own warden. And now, standing at the edge of his property line, the sickening truth settled in. My freedom was an illusion, and my leash only reached as far as he allowed me to go.

“Serena?”

The voice vibrated against the back of my neck. Soft. Sugary-sweet. Viscerally feminine. It was a horribly familiar pitch that instantly made the tiny hairs on my arms stand up.

I spun around, every muscle in my body seizing.

Briana stood less than three feet away. One French-manicured hand was pressed flat against her breasts, her chest heaving as if the mere sight of me had robbed her of oxygen. She was a masterclass in polished, upper-crust perfection—not a blonde hair out of place, her head tilted at that exact, pitying angle I would recognize in a blackout. It was the precise expression she always wore right before she gutted me.

“Oh my God.” Tears welled in her eyes—so fast, so fake. “I can’t believe it’s you! Serena, when I heard about the fire, I thought—” Her voice broke in a practiced, flawless tremor. “I’ve been sick over it for weeks! What are the chances of us meeting here?”

My throat locked. My mind raced, desperately trying to make sense of a nightmare that was unfolding too fast, but every piece of this puzzle spelled disaster.

Briana. Three thousand miles away from Florence, weeping on a Manhattan sidewalk as though we were still the tight-knit roommates we’d been before she crawled into Cade’s bed.

The memory of her betrayal tore through me like a blade. I’d once considered her one of my best friends—until I discovered she’d been sleeping with Cade, the man I thought I’d loved. Then she looked me in the eye and made me feel like I was the crazy one. She tried to rewrite the narrative until she had me believing their betrayal was my own fault. She’d made me doubt my own sanity while systematically dismantling my life, then walked away without a backward glance.

“What are you doing here?” The words left my lips as a cold, trembling whisper.

Something sharp and calculated flashed beneath her tear-rimmed gaze—quick as a shark moving beneath a sheet of ice. Then, the warmth flooded right back into her features, smooth as silk.

“Does that really matter?” She took a step toward me, and my body recoiled, backing away on instinct. “I’ve been half out of my mind. Come here, let me hug you, sweetie.”

Sweetie.

The word sent a wave of pure revulsion down my spine.

And then, the absolute horror of my situation crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Cade had been branded with a serpent. Cade had been planted in my life to poison my father. And Cade had been sleeping with Briana.

She wasn’t just a toxic friend. She was one of them.

A suffocating terror gripped my chest. Looking at her now, the fake concern on her face looked monstrous. My instincts screamed at me, the air between us suddenly reeking of a trap.

My hand flew up to my throat in pure panic.