AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If Victor hadn’t seen past the ruse and wasn’t going to kill me today…then tomorrow, he might. The longer we played this game, the worse our fates would be.
What if Victor makes Henri kill me?
What if no one comes?
What if I spend the rest of my life being raped—
Oh God.
I choked.
Easy, Il.
Breathe.
Just breathe.
My vision turned dark on the edges as I struggled not to give in to another panic attack. As far as I was concerned, the one in the library was my first and last. I couldn’t afford to give in to misery. Couldn’t cry around Henri again. Couldn’t let myself plummet into an abyss of despair.
Henri.
My chest squeezed as my bruised ass pressed against the pole. He’d struck me. He’d delivered agony that I’d never forget. I’d gone my entire life without any form of punishment or abuse and now my body sang with it.
Tears burned my eyes again.
Henri’s gaze snapped to mine, locking onto whatever wet glimmer appeared.
Swallowing hard, I forced them back.
I let my mind drift as more and more men filed into the quaint glade, some with drinks, others with slaves, all of them ready for a show. Henri spoke to a few of them as thoughts of my wonderfully sensitive brother smothered me. He would’ve snapped in this place with so many emotions flying around.
Lust and despair, desire and dread, ruler and enslaved.
Krish could feel emotions like an old woman could feel weather changes in her arthritic bones. He’d been labelled by doctors and psychiatrists as on the spectrum and strange. I’d lost count how many times he’d been told he was this and that and broken.
I hated them for that.
Hated that they diminished him to a condition and tried to sell us a false cure.
He wasn’t strange; he was wonderful and incredible and far more in-tune than the rest of us—tapping into a part of his awareness that made this world far too bright and noisy for him.
Closing my eyes, I blocked out the men, fountain, and glade as I tried to sink past racing thoughts and find peaceful quietness instead.
I might’ve given up pieces of myself for Sam, but I would find those pieces again…somehow. I would find a way to be free from this place, even if it was just in my head.
Henri’s deep laughter cut through my concentration, ripping my eyes open.
My chest swelled with determination.
I’d been tasked to help him bring this perverted palace down.
I wouldn’t fail on our first test.
Victor broke ranks from the milling men, moving to stand on the small bridge over the moat. Someone had given him a tumbler full of ice and amber alcohol.
Taking a sip, he smirked in my direction, then tapped the glass with his fingernails to get everyone’s attention.
“Gentlemen. Friends. Welcome.”
