Page 29

“Got it.” Cage stands, nodding his head toward the door for me to follow.

“Ah, ah,” Archon hums. We both freeze. “You lose her, I take it out on you. Slowly. In front of the rest. We clear?”

“Crystal.”

I swallow and force myself out the door and down the hallway, Cage right on my heel. Maybe a little too close. One misstep, and he’d crash right into my back.

The bathroom is tucked around the corner. I push the door open and step inside, flicking on the light. The sudden brightness makes me squint.

He doesn’t leave, doesn’t even attempt to look away.

“You’re… watching?”

“I said I’d make sure you didn’t try anything, didn’t I?” He leans against the door, arms loose, one boot hooked over the other.

“Ugh, fine. I have to go, or I’ll explode.”

Even so, my fingers tremble against the edges of my skirt as I tug it down. When I sit, the porcelain is freezing against my bare thighs.

For a second, I’m convinced I won’t be able to go with him standing right there. Then my body gives up the last shred of its dignity. The stream hits the bowl, the sound amplified by the tiny space between us.

Humiliating as fuck, might I add.

He’s already been face-deep in my pussy, now he’s watching me urinate.

Hurry up, Blair. Finish peeing and get this the hell over with.

He doesn’t look away while I go. I know because I glance up once, stupid, and catch him staring. Like a hawk.

God, he’s… I don’t even know. They have to invent a new word for how sick he is.

I turn off the faucet after washing my hands, and the pipes groan somewhere deep in the walls.

That’s when I feel him on me, his breath warm against my ear.

Right behind me.

I didn’t even hear him move. That’s its own kind of horror. He could’ve slit my throat just then, and I’d be none the wiser.

“Better?” he hums.

“Yes.”

“Liar.” His mouth twitches against my skin. “You’re still shaking.”

“I… It was a relief to clear my bladder.”

He hums. “Or, maybe you’re not shaking because of your bowels, or because it’s cold. Maybe you’re shaking… because you have an insatiable hunger that’s been woken up inside you.”

I swallow down a whimper.

His voice takes on a wave of voracity. “Do you want to die?”

My front hits the porcelain sink. I open my mouth to answer, but before I can, cold steel kisses my throat.

A knife.

I suck in quick, shallow breaths, my lungs struggling to keep up.