Page 107 of How Does It Feel?

Tension surged through my body on the edge of tipping over. I was about to—I was co—

He pulled away. “Remember that,” he said as he removed his hand and stood up with a wicked glimmer in his eyes.

He turned and walked to the door as I sat dumbfounded and unsatiated in an angry, frustrated blaze staring at his back as he walked out the door.

Just before he closed the door behind him, he jutted his head inside and said, “Sleep. I want to invade your mind before I invade your body, my sweet lamb. I need to hunt down a few families. The beast keepers are refusing to speak to anyone other than the queen about which door the beast will be placed.” He ran a hand through his tousled black hair. “I will kill every member of their family in front of them until they tell me what door the beast will be stationed behind. Callie”—his face looked so serious now—“look to me tomorrow, and I will tell you which door to choose.” He held my gaze for a long moment before the door slammed shut, and I was left in an unsatiated stupor.

Could I even trust him to tell me the door that would lead to my freedom? He was the one who had put me in the trials to kill me. What if he still wanted me dead and this was all a lie? It’s obvious he was a psychopath. Would he tell me the door with the beast just so I couldn’t leave him? My mind swirled with torturous thoughts.

Could I trust him?

Chapter 29

The Last and Final Trial

Callie

Music suggestion for chapter:

Reach by Eternal Eclipse

Inferia by Eternal Eclipse

* * *

I stood in a small, poorly lit room outside the giant colosseum. Like every other time I had been outside in the Unseelie realm, the sky was set at dusk, only light enough to see with the help of the leftover sun and moon that shone down and illuminated everything like a blue stadium light.

When I woke up that morning alone in Mendax’s bed, I had a split second of disappointment. When I looked over to his empty spot, the bed still made with crisp dark linens, I immediately felt like something was missing. It was for the best, but I couldn’t help but hate it.

I had never felt more confused about what I wanted than when I had watched Mendax walk out that door.

Part of me—the part that was left yearning—felt so angry and frustrated I had let myself fall under his spell. Another, much less intelligent, part of me felt a pang of sadness that he wasn’t sleeping next to me on our last night together. It would be the last time I ever saw him.

The last time I would probably ever have someone look at me the way he did. Like I was everything to him. Like he . . . loved me.

I couldn’t stay. That would be insane. Wrong.

It had taken me ages to fall asleep, completely engulfed with his amber spice lingering decadently on the sheets of his bed. I tossed and turned all night, filled with nerves and confusion. My body felt great though. Every wound, even the deep acid burns from the first trial, had healed completely. It was incredible.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to choose the right door, the door without a human-eating beast behind it.

The queen was the only one who knew what was behind the two doors, and I had no faith in deciphering her facial tells. Besides that, I wasn’t sure if she would take pity on me and rather I return to the humans or have me dead. I had a pretty good feeling it would be the latter, and that was what I would bank on if I was left with no other options.

I paced the small square room as the four guards watched me. I could probably take them out somehow and run, but that’s not what I was here for, and I wouldn’t know where to find a portal anyway. It had taken me a decade to find the one that had sent me here.

I hadn’t seen Mendax at all today, and my gut clenched at the feeling that I was making a huge mistake. I grabbed handfuls of hair on either side of my head and pulled, begging to feel something that would ground me—something that would keep my mind on track with why I was here.

This was it.

I would leave one way or another, and I would never see him again. He would be gone forever.

A small scream shot from my chest that startled the iron-clad guards as I pulled at my hair.

I would not let him get to me like this. He didn’t love me, he was just infatuated and mad.

I loathed him.

Didn’t I?