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She grips my chin. “You didn’t get it too bad. I’ll have Augustine bring your dinner in here and some poultices of fish brine for those shiners.” She sighs loudly and drops my chin. Her dark blonde curls shake as she leaves the room.
“You’re in trouble.” I smirk at Castor.
He grimaces back at me. We’re seconds away from round two when Nico stands. “Enough.”
9
Annabelle
The noises from the hallway were too much. But just as I was about to open the door, I heard one of Castor’s fathers break the fight up.
I crouched, peering through the keyhole. They were bruised and bloodied, but nothing worse than I’d seen one summer when the field hands had a boxing ring in the barn. Until my dad stopped it. It had been my uncle’s idea, of course.
When more of Castor’s fathers showed up, I couldn’t open the door. All their eyes on me would have been too much. Instead, I kept the door shut. Hiding like a coward, I stayed locked in the mermaid day room with its soft day lounger and its soft pale colors. Staying there wasn’t such a bad idea.
Until I couldn’t take it anymore. I'm sweating through my clothes. The longer I stay away from them, the more I crave their touch. And not only Nico’s, but all of theirs. Holter’s and Castor’s too. I’m wishing for my battery-operated boyfriend. But even that won’t compare, and it makes me angry. I’m never going to be satisfied again without them. I’m not sure who I’m kidding. It barely satisfied me before them. It’s like comparing the kiddy state fair rollercoaster to one at a real amusement park.
The question is am I willing to ride the rollercoaster without paying for a ticket? I smirk to myself, placing the book I was trying to decipher down on the lounger. Yes, I’m willing to try. I can flip this around. Make them my servants. Make them never know what the game is.
I stand. Catching myself in the floor-length mirror. “No, this is what they want,” I say to my reflection.
I fight with the laces in the back of the tunic until I’ve released myself. I scrub all the makeup off my face. On the floor, I find the casual outfit I tossed there. I pull it on. It’s the softest fabric I’ve ever had on my skin. Lamb’s wool and silk, it must be. It glides over my skin. In the dressing area, I find Kai’s stash of makeup and perfume. I dab only a touch of lipstick on. I sniff all the bottles. Each one is more fragrant than the last, but I put them back. If I’m going to seduce Castor and the rest of them, I can’t smell like his sister. I spend a good twenty minutes removing the braids from my hair. It’s wavy and bouncy.
I’m ready. I want them. But I need to wait. They haven’t knocked again, but they also haven’t left the pod room. Or at least, I haven’t heard them. And I really think my hearing is better than it’s ever been. Which is even stranger than getting gills for lungs to me. I’m not going to lie.
If I’m going to make it home, if I even have the slightest chance, I have to play harder than this while taking what I want, what I need. Nico got me into this, and I’m going to make him pay for thinking he could handle me. Because I’m sure that’s why he thought I was the perfect candidate. Poor Annabelle. Easily manipulated.
No more.
Another dab of lipstick to my cheeks, and I rouge them up, making myself as doe-eyed as possible. I unlock the door and approach the one across the hall, taking a breath before pushing it open.
“Annabelle.” Nico’s voice rises with my name like a wave. He’s shocked to see me.
“I want to be mad at you. So, so mad. That’s the right way to feel. But I can’t feel the right way. Not when I’m so worried about how each of you are.” It’s not a lie. It tastes like one, but it’s not. I was worried about what they might do to each other. But not to me, not to my body. My heart, on the other hand? That’s a completely different thing. They could shatter it and feed it to Constantine’s sharks without noticing. “Can I come in?”
“It’s your room, Belle. Of course you can come in,” Holter says, standing by the door.
“I thought that was my room.” I smile up at him, blinking. This act turns my stomach. But I need to do what I need to do. And what I need to do now is pull them in tight enough that they’re willing to let me go when the time comes. That they’ll be willing to do anything for me. And a love like that is going to burn us all up.
I let the hormones possess me and slide my hand down Holter’s arm. My other hand I bring to his lips, running my thumb along his swollen lip. He winces but doesn’t pull away from me. I’m going to bruise the inside of each of them as much as they bruised the outside of each other.
Nico hasn’t moved from the side of the bed, his eyes glued to me. I lift the corner of my lips up to him.
But Castor? He stalks to me, pushes the door shut, and locks it. He brushes my hair to the side, his lips attacking the side of my neck.
I can see Holter’s about to protest, so I slide my arms around his neck and kiss his bruise. I do this for a while. With each kiss, the area is less blue. I pull back and look at him, but I don’t have much time to stare. The heat is building on my skin, pooling in my core. I open wide and grind on him.
“Fuck, Belle. You feel so good.” His head flops to the side.
I open my eyes and stare at Nico as I grind on Holter. He’s watching, his hand in his pants. With a slight twitch of my head, I have him standing behind Holter.
Nico tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. His amber eyes glow down at me. I turn my head to Holter’s neck. I’m not that transparent. He doesn’t know what I’m trying to do.
And neither does my body. My hips circle the spot where I want them to be.
Castor pulls my hands away from Holter’s neck and tugs my tunic up and over my head. My breasts are free. The corseted dress didn’t need a bra, and I suppose the thickly lined tunic didn’t need one either.
Holter squeezes my breasts, his blue eyes shimmering. I glance down, and Castor has my pants puddled around my ankles. Gentle kisses skate down my spine. I’ve denied them for an hour. But who was I causing the real pain to? Myself. I’m got a churning tornado of emotions going on inside of me. Nico’s trial, wanting Castor, not wanting to be hoisted onto a male I don’t know. I ran.
