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The sound of knives and forks ripping meat apart, liquid sloshing in glasses, and feet pounding on the marble floor came through. There was laughter and chanting as someone danced atop a table, and then the distinct grunt of someone who was fucking.
Neo was gawking at the offending couple. The man’s bare ass was on display, clenching and unclenching as he thrust into the little woman beneath him.
I glanced at Reese to gauge her reaction to the debauchery as we passed two naked women kissing, their bodies molded together so that their breasts rubbed against each other. One sat on the face of an unidentifiable male, and the other bounced distractedly on the same man’s cock.
She was flushed from cheek to what I could make out of her chest, but her expression was one of fascination rather than disgust or fear. She took everything in with a critical eye—ascientist’seye. She glanced up at the roof, then gasped.
It caused all of us to follow suit. My stomach bottomed out.
Above us was a giant, writhing ball of vines, which wove in and out of itself. The vines were thick, thorns protruding from them. That wasn’t what bothered me, though, no—it was theheadsticking out of it. Whoever was inside it had died, and their head had been attached to the end of one of the vines, left to protrude above the writhing mass.
Reese barely held in her gag as she stumbled into Neo. “Oh God.”
The Commander flashed us a shark-like grin, the tendons in the skeletal side of his face moving with the action. “We do enjoy a good public execution,” he uttered, motioning to the other side of the room where people were in cages. Some sat stoically awaiting their deaths, while others openly sobbed, their anguish drowned out by the raucous laughter and singing of the others.
“I thought this was a party to celebrate us?” Johnny asked, his eyes scanning the rest of the room as we continued down the path carved out for us.
“It is a bit of both,” he informed us. “The traitors have been tried and sentenced. They are awaiting their turn in the Coil. This is something we celebrate. It is like the culling of the bad crop that hid amongst the good ones.”
He was still grinning as he took off ahead of us again, clearly unaware of our internal struggle.
Neo had maneuvered Reese in front of him, and guided her back a gentle hold on the back of her neck. “Don’t look anywhere but forward,” he instructed her quietly. I was unsurprised when she simply nodded jerkily.
I was about to ask Aria if she was okay when I locked eyes with an elderly woman in the crowd. Unlike the people around her, she sat quietly, her expression resigned. Her eyes flickered to where I held Aria’s hand in mine before we locked eyes again.
Her lips moved slowly as she tried to convey something to me. I slowed my steps, which jolted Aria, but I was focused on the woman’s lips, on the desperation her features had morphed into.
Not…
I managed to make out, as her movements sped up. She seemed to be repeating the same phrase over and over. I could only catch the first word. It wasnot. Not what? Not—
Safe.
I stopped walking entirely.
Not safe.
Aria jumped gently again when I continued to stare at the woman.
Not safe. Not safe. Not safe. Not safe. Not safe. Not safe. Notsafenotsafenotsafenotsafenotsafe.
For a second, the entire room slowed. The woman’s eyes glowed, and I heard her voice clear as day as it whispered into my head.
It’s not safe for you here.
I sucked in a sharp breath, blinked, and then the world resumed its speed. Someone crossed in front of the woman, and when the spot where she sat was within view again, she was gone.
Aria tugged on my hand. “What’re you looking at?”
Her anxiety had settled a little. Except for the spike at the sight of the head and people in cages, she’d seemed to relax.
I glanced down at my beautiful mate. She blinked those clear eyes up at me, blissfully unaware that I’d just been warned that this might be yet another fucking dead end. And I lied.
“It’s nothing. Thought I saw someone I knew,” I answered, forcing a smile on my face as I kissed her forehead. She melted into me, and I had to force my angel into submission as he rustled in annoyance at my lie.
If I knew anything, it was that if my angel could talk, he would snitch. His loyalties continued to lie with me, but my better half apparently trumped me in terms of happiness—though I was sure it had more to do with him doing what was best to keep our mate happy.
“Let’s go meet these people,” I suggested.
