AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But I have to bide my time.
Foxglove Noire has enemies slithering within the walls of her father’s Household, and they want her dead.
Little do they know, she’s already bound to serve a different master who decides whether she lives or breathes. And I’m in no mood to entertain any fucker who thinks they can get away with threatening what belongs to me.
Even though I have to endure exactly that.
I knock back another gulp of whiskey as I sit here in the dark, surrounded by the raging thoughts of gory retribution clouding my mind. The words on the screen are imprinted in my memory; I’ve read them so many times.
“The heiress Foxglove Noire is a traitor. Those like her with poisoned hearts will lose their tongues and their heads before the serpentine moon rises. The clock will strike, and her blood will spill, clearing the bloodline for the true heir.”
It gives no clues, other than the usual bullshit the Anguis like to spew. Their followers get off on speaking in riddles and prose as they practice their arcane rituals.
What makes my stomach churn is the open threat against her and the connection to the Pledging ceremony.
It isn’t supposed to happen like this.
Our plans are coming together, and this confirms that moves are finally being made—but it’s not how Hawke or I anticipated things might go.
We have to be wary.
If we think for one second we know what this snake will do, then we’ve already lost.
It leads me to wonder if they’re planning something before the Pledging, or choosing to wait until the night itself. Whatever the case, I don’t want to take any undue risks before I can put my teams onto making sure her safety is ensured.
The mere fact they were able to get this message sent to me while here inside the compound is enough to have my teeth grating. It doesn’t guarantee that they could reach her in here, but it’s a lingering menace. The meaning of which is spelled out in bold letters.
We know how to get to her.
So, my only option is to get out ahead of this threat—one that wasn’t supposed to be happening like this—and hide her away somewhere safe.
Even if I have to drug her again to ensure the girl complies.
These endless tests and demands to prove our loyalty are driving me to the brink.
If I have any hope of exposing the scum responsible and getting to disembowel them slowly while feeding them their own putrid organs, I have to temporarily get her secured. And I know a location that will be the safest possible.
Draining my glass, I fish out my phone and send a text to our jet pilot informing them of our flight plans—well, a time when they need to be ready to depart at least, they won’t know the actual destination until we take off—followed by a coded message to Hawke.
It won’t mean anything to anyone except him, but my twin will know where we’re heading.
That means I’ve got three days to set plans in motion with my teams and operatives scattered throughout the Anguis. Which, in my world, is more than enough time to put enough distance between us and the threat against the girl sleeping just down the hall.
38
There’s a moment, right as the life finally drains from a person’s eyes, when they’ve given up the fight. It’s a look of resignation as they accept their inevitable fate.
Sometimes, I catch a glimpse of it as I’m kneeling on their windpipe in the bowels of some underground fight ring headquarters. While my victim lies bleeding beneath me, coated in the grime of their existence.
Other times, I can only imagine the fleeting glimpse that might appear as their neck snaps, and they crumple to the ground. Lifeless, before they’ve even hit the rotting floorboards below our feet.
I tug my helmet off, feeling the sting as it scrapes over the fresh cuts along my nose and eye socket. The asshole I had been tasked with eliminating tonight was scheduled to be dispatched in the fifth. Which meant taking enough blows to make the bout look believable for the drunken hordes baying for blood.
The stench of piss and mildew and vomit still clogs my nose, even after traveling for hours. Usually, the long rides like this one will clear some of the filth away.
But tonight it feels like it has embedded itself into my very bones.
I swing my leg off the bike, and I can still taste ash and gasoline on my tongue from where I stopped to burn my clothes.
