Page 88 of Coal Hearts

Henri stood over me, casting me in his shadow. “That was for speaking without permission.”

Asshole.

Monster.

Sadist.

I huddled into a little ball, hugging myself, twitching as residual energy arced through me.

“Stand up and say you’re sorry.” Impatient fingers locked around my arm again, only to tear away with a yelp. “Fuck.” Shaking out his hand, Henri cursed. “You shocked me.”

A guest snickered. “Another rule...don’t touch the jewel while you’re disciplining them. The current passes to you. Best not to touch them for a few seconds after you push the button, just to be sure.”

“Thanks,” Henri muttered darkly. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

Next time?

I groaned and wished I could kill him.

Kill all of them.

“Good to see you’re committed to her training,” another guest drawled. “Would be such a shame if someone told Victor that you’re not up to the task.”

Henri went dangerously still. “I don’t like snitches, and I don’t like gossip. This jewel is mine, and if anyone has a problem with that, then you deal directly with me.”

Another ripple of chuckles. “Just keep breaking that stubborn beauty of yours, and you’ll fit right in.”

“I intend to.” Bending over me again, Henri hesitated before catching my wrist and hauling me upright. “Starting with a private session in the library.”

He dragged me toward the castle. The leash attached to my collar dangled down my back, licking at my heels. The fact that Henri had forgotten to grab it and would rather keep hold of me didn’t go unnoticed.

My skin crawled as he pulled me through the open sliding doors, through the decadence of a smoky, sultry billiard room, through a bar with a million colourful liquor bottles, past a glass wall dripping with condensation from an indoor swimming pool, and finally into the foyer where we’d first arrived.

The foyer where he’d admitted he wanted to make me scream because that was what he got off on. Admitted that he wanted my pain. My tears. My fight so he could hold me down and prove to me that I belonged to him, and there was nothing I could do about it.

My chest crumbled in on itself.

My heart crushed beneath an avalanche of grief.

Tingles continued to zap in my fingertips, and I couldn’t stop my tears any more than I could stop breathing.

Henri muttered a slur under his breath as he kept yanking me deeper into the castle, following the directions he’d been given. His black loafers barely whispered over the travertine slabs. His slightly shaking hand squeezed me so damn hard as we bowled through luxury, past tall arches leading into parlours and tea rooms, skirted through spaces large enough for twenty cars, and ignored a few guests with various body parts thrusting into dead-eyed jewels.

A masculine gasp tipped my chin up as we cut through a room full of overstuffed settees and puffy flower-printed ottomans. Ferns and palms grew in huge black pots, and the sweeping glass wall brought the manicured gardens inside.

Through my watery vision, I found the source of the gasp.

Peter.

My heart sank as Henri yanked me through the space, but he wasn’t quick enough. I stumbled as I drank in the sight of Peter kneeling between the legs of an obese white man, his hairy belly almost resting on his thighs all while Peter pleasured him with his mouth.

Our eyes locked for a single heartbeat before the man grabbed Peter’s hair and shoved his face back down.

This can’t be real—

Good people. Kind people. They couldn’t be at the mercy of monsters. It just...didn’t compute.

It’s not right.