AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Seeing a picture is nothing; being there and smelling the blood and death does something else to you that cannot be explained.
And my people were behind it all.
I sigh, get to my feet, brush my teeth and splash my face. When I look up at my reflection in the mirror, the worn, haunted look doesn’t even surprise me anymore.
Being locked in here is doing something more than driving me insane; it’s changing me bit by bit, and the more I look at myself, the more I hate it.
“You’re pathetic,” I say to myself, then walk out of the room to resume sitting in front of the window. I didn’t even know that I was so lost in my own thoughts that I only realized that it was dusk when the bedroom door opened.
My head snaps towards the door, and I see Valentine walking in with two other women dressed in black and white maid’s outfits. He grabs the heads, and I see the disgust on their faces; one actually dry heaves.
“Clean this bed and add fresh bedding,” he barks and walks out. I’m about to ask them if they’re human when he saunters back inside the room and crosses his arms while walking toward me.
“Hello, Kitty Kat,” he says with zero amusement in his tone and gets down on his haunches in front of me. “You look a little pale.”
I roll my eyes and draw my legs up to my chest. “Finding out a few things about the people you love will do it,” I say. “That and I’ve been locked in here with severed heads.”
He chuckles. “You’ve been acquainted with death, so that shouldn’t rile you up as much as it did those two over there,” he says, cocking his head towards the two women. “Or is it something else?”
“You should know,” I say, looking away from him. I’m not interested in his mind games; either kill me or leave me to stew.
A few minutes later, the women let him know that they’re done then, afterward, they bring in a tray of food. He grabs my wrist, and that cold, uncomfortable feeling shoots through me - ah, I didn’t miss this.
“Come. Eat,” he says as if it’s not an order, and I shake my head.
“I’m not hungry,” I say, about to walk back to the window, when he pulls me back and throws me on the bed.
“It wasn’t a request, Kitty Kat; eat your fucking food. Gabe won’t be joining you for dinner tonight,” he says with an edge to his tone that causes me to narrow my eyes at him. He crosses his arms and leans against the bedpost while playing with his long nails.
“Fine,” I say, pulling the tray closer to me, but then I frown when I see that it’s my favorite meal again. Not only that, but the only person who knew this particular food was my favorite… is Xenia.
I look up at Valentine with a frown. “Is Xenia still alive?”
He doesn’t even look up from where he’s standing when he says, “Now, what makes you think that?”
“She’s the only one who knows that this food is my favorite as well as all the other dishes you’ve made for me.”
Chuckling, he steps away from the bed and places his hands inside the pockets. “You know a lot about our nest, right? Well, tell me what you know about Church,” he asks as a grin forms on his face.
I blink. “He’s the SGT at Arms and responsible for most of the deaths of my men; Priest’s literal attack dog,” I say, frowning. “What does he have to do with this?”
I didn’t want to ask that. In fact, I didn’t want to know what his shit-eating grin could mean.
“Well, Gabe gave him Xenia as a gift since she’s part of the guild who killed Myrcella, the little girl who used to call him big brother,” he says, and the grin drops from his face. “And since he couldn’t kill you himself, Gabe gave him the second best option.”
“What does that…I don’t understand—”
“Blood tells us everything we need to know; one drop of your blood and I can see your entire life story as if I’ve lived it. That’s how we know what your favorite foods are; or rather, that’s how Church knows,” he says, and with that, he strolls out of the room as if he didn’t just destroy my entire world.
I’ve seen the aftermath of what Church is capable of, and if he’s the one who has Xenia… not only is she dead, but he’d make sure that she suffered. Two for two, and that Jenga tower topples over yet again.
My stomach protests, and I lift a forkful of food into my mouth, but even as delicious as this food is, I can barely taste it with the tears running down my face.
Xenia is gone; there’s no way she would have survived being Church’s prisoner, especially since Valentine said that Myrcella was like a sister to him.
And that’s all my hope gone in one day.
Valentine comes to collect my tray a few hours later, with a dark expression marring his face. There’s blood on his fists, telling me that it’s either someone else’s or he’s punched a wall out of frustration.
