Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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My hand lowered to my side as I stared blankly at Sanela. And time slowed down with a surreal quality to my confusion. The world became quiet but for the ringing in my ears.
Sanela had purposely hit me.
Too many panicked thoughts were running through my head. The loudest was that Sanela had somehow discovered I'd been with Varen.
Stupidly, it took the second slap with a startled cry of pain tearing from my throat, my head snapping sideways and my body crashing against the wall, for me to realize what was going on. It took far too long for me to understand how I looked in my dress, my bed-mussed hair, barefooted with the high heels dangling from my fingers. How I'd been found here with Romain, in a quiet part of the mansion no one visited.
Her arm, taut and quivering with violence, whipped back, and I shirked aside cowering against the wall, drawing up a forearm to shield my face as she unleashed another strike.
Romain pushed to his feet. He lunged forward, grabbed hold of his wife's wrist, and stopped her from hitting me again. "Sanela, this isn't what it looks like."
She wrenched her hand free, stumbling back, spitting and snarling, "Oh, really? Look at the both of you." She shoved a hand through my hair, clenched a fistful of locks, and tugged hard. My head jerked with the force. Pain flared across my scalp and I winced, biting back a wail. Sanela let go to swivel around and grab hold of her husband's chin in a fierce grip. She ran a thumb over the lipstick smeared on his cheek, digging so deep and hard the skin pulled white. "Both of you look like you've had a lovely evening fucking one another."
Movement caught my attention. Marissa stood behind Sanela, her hands pressed against her mouth, vivid blue eyes stark against her pale complexion. And then my gaze flitted briefly to the servants' shortcut beyond Marissa. The secret doorway was cracked open and only a sliver of Dolcie's face was showing, utter terror was etched into her ashen features. She stood there frozen, staring back at me. She didn't know what to do. Neither did I.
"Do you deny it?" I heard Sanela ask.
My gaze slid back to hers. Such wrath roiled in her gaze. Such hatred. "I-I-I..." I stuttered, trying to shake my head, no. But my muddled head was too heavy to move and I couldn't push the words out.
Romain yanked his face free. He growled, "Listen to me—"
"Listen?" Sanela scoffed with hysteria tingeing her tone. She flipped up her hand dramatically. "Shall I listen to how you fumble and figure out a way to worm your way out of this? To twist it all and convince me it's not true?" She threw her head back and laughed, her dressing gown shivering with the motion. The sound of her bitter amusement had a flurry of shivers skating over my flesh. Her laughter stuttered out, and when she calmed herself, rubbing the back of her wrist over an eye damp with tears, she continued. "You really thought you'd get away with this." Her blotchy cheeks rounded with a black scowl. "Both of you fucking in my home, under my roof!" She struck out at Romain in a tornado of wild strikes, hitting his shoulder, neck, and face, driving him back.
by AvaLarksen
