Page 421 of Reign

“Is a different problem,” she says. “Be angry about Miguel. Make Luciano answer every question you have.” She smirks. “Then have angry sex. It fixes most of my problems.”

Vasilisa giggles.

Adriana mutters, “Okay gross, that’s my brother.”

Ayla ignores her. “But do something about the part you can control.”

“How?”

“Get a weapon. A gun. A knife. Something you know how to use and can reach before anybody else gets there.” Her eyes hold mine. “Then you never have to feel that helpless again.”

She reaches into her boot.

I tense as she pulls out a knife.

“Why do you have that?”

“Maksim stabs guards when they look at me too long.”

All three of us speak at once. “What?”

Vasilisa tilts her head. “He stabs his own guards?”

Ayla turns toward her. “That’s right, blondie.”

Then she throws it.

The blade flies across the room and buries itself in the wall.

Thunk.

I shoot upright. “My fucking wall!”

Ayla looks at the knife sticking out of the wall. “He throws them like that.”

Her expression turns almost dreamy. “Hottest thing I’ve ever seen. I love the sound they make when they hit a guard who thought his eyes could linger.”

“You stabbed my wall.”

Her brows lift. “Your wall?”

“Yes, my wall.”

“I thought this was your monster’s house.”

My mouth opens.

Stops.

The knife sticks out of my wall. Beside my hallway. Across from my sofa and the coffee table her boots had been sitting on.

My fabrics are down the hall. My clothes are upstairs. My berries are in the kitchen. My nightlight is beside our bed.

My monster in his office.

Home.

This is my home.