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My eyes snap open, my anxiety spiking, and with it another bout of vertigo. “Who’s that?” I ask, still hanging onto the tree.
“I’m Four, and this is Eight. Nice to meet you…” the woman’s tinkling voice trails off as she waits for me to answer.
Shaking more than the leaves clinging to the branches of this great oak tree, I slowly turn around and come face to face with two exceedingly attractive women wearing little more than corsets, stockings and heeled pumps. One is petite, with startling grey eyes and long hay-blonde hair, the other willowy, with ebony skin and a shaved head. Both watch me with interest, not in the least bit bothered by my terror or their state of undress.
“Who are you?” I demand, baring my teeth and scanning the area behind them.
The petite blonde glances at the taller woman and raises a brow before stepping forward. She lowers her voice. Her tone might be gentle, but there’s little sincerity in her eyes. “I’mFour,” she says, pressing the flat of her palm against the dome of her breasts. “And this is my friend,Eight.”
“You’re Numbers.”
“Two of them at least,” Eight replies, a dazzling white-toothed smile making her even more beautiful, if that’s possible. “We live here.”
“You mean you’reprisonershere!” I snap, angry at their apparent calm.
“No,” Four shakes her head emphatically. “We live and work here of our own free will. Ardelby Castle is our home, and The Masks are our masters.”
“Then if this is your home, and you’re here of your own free will, why do you refer to thosemen,” I spit, “As your masters? Do they collar and leash you too? Do you heel like dogs like they expected me to do?”
Four flinches at my outrage, but Eight remains stoic. “We’ve all done many things for The Masks, but they only ever treat you how you want to be treated. Do you want to be treated like a dog?”
“No, of course I don’t!” I shout. “Who in their right mind wants to be treated like an animal?”
“You’d be surprised,” Eight responds, folding her slim arms across her chest, assessing me with a cool gaze.
“Well, not me.Never. I won’t wear a goddamn collar or walk on a leash, and I will never, ever heel. They’re bastards!”
“Hush now!” Four says, her eyes widening minutely. “Do not disrespect The Masks. It’s unseemly.”
“Disrespect? Have you lost your mind? Those men, thosemonsterskidnapped me. They’ve drugged me, chained me up in a cell, threatened my life and my dignity. They’ve stripped me of my name,yournames.” I pant, my chest rising and falling as my palms press against the trunk and my fingers curl into the bark, little shards of wood sliding beneath my nails.
“We’re perfectly sane, thank you very much,” Eight retorts, planting a hand on her hip.
“It’s hard at first for everyone, but truly, you’ll come to love living here,” Four adds, her voice sounds so sincere that I want to puke from the lies. “Ardelby Castle is beautiful. We’re very lucky.”
“They’ve brainwashed you. Don’t you see?”
“No, Zero. We’veenlightenedthem,” Konrad says, stepping out from behind a column of stone. This time he’s wearing a mask that covers the top half of his face. It’s white, the bottom curving over the tip of his nose and beneath his cheeks, molding perfectly to his skin. He smiles at the two women and they practically preen in his presence. It makes me sick.
“Master,” Eight and Four say simultaneously, dropping their heads and looking up at him from beneath hooded eyes. They both offer him a hand each, and he takes them, his thumb rubbing gently over the backs of their knuckles. It reminds me how someone might stroke a pet. My stomach tightens into knots.
“Thank you for being so welcoming to Zero. She’s finding it difficult to... settle in,” he explains, glancing over at me, his top lip pulling up in a slow smile. “She’ll soon learn that we have her best interests at heart.”
“Screw you,” I mutter, unable to take my eyes off of him.
Seems like he has the same trouble because he fixes his gaze on me as he lowers his mouth to Four’s hand and kisses it, repeating the action with Eight. I watch in sick fascination at the way they tremble under his gentle touch and sensual kiss, and for the briefest of moments I consider striding over to them, ripping their hands from his grasp and shaking some sense into them. The only reason I don’t is because Leon steps into the courtyard, collar and leash in hand. He too is wearing the same, snow-white, mask.
“I see you’ve met Four and Eight,Nought. You will be introduced to the others in due course. But first…” he holds up the collar, and steps towards me.
“No!” I snap, edging around the tree, my back scraping against the rough bark. I don’t register the pain, only the fear. “No,” I repeat.
“You should’ve kept running,” Leon taunts.
“I should’ve grabbed a knife from the kitchen like Eight did!” I growl back.
Leon laughs. “That was a fun couple of hours. Wasn’t it, Eight?”
Eight lifts her head and looks directly at Leon. There’s no denying the admiration, awe and lust in her gaze. “Yes, it was. I’d like to do it again some day,” she says softly.
