Page 99 of I Will Break You
“And your first instinct was to run to the rectory?”
I flinch at the accusation. Before I can choose my words, I snap, “Well, you lied.”
He closes the distance between us, towering over me, his hoodmaking him all the more imposing. Grabbing my neck, he snarls, “How?”
I splutter, my eyes widening, my vision trying to adjust to what’s inside the hood. It’s hard to tell if he’s masked or covering his face with black paint, but I can’t see the whites of his eyes.
Raising a hand, I reach for his cheek. Part of me thinks I’m still hallucinating. The other part yearns to touch him just so I know he’s real.
He shakes me so hard my teeth rattle. Right. I accused him of being a liar and he wants details.
“I mourned your death,” I say, my eyes brimming with tears. “You made me think you were a ghost. I even tried to put your spirit to rest.”
“I never told you I was dead.”
My mouth opens and closes. I dial my mind back to the text messages he sent and remember one string of conversation. “But I asked if you were alive, and you said?—”
“’How is that possible when you ripped out my heart?’” he replies. “You jilted me when I needed you the most.”
The guilt I felt about Xero’s final hours being steeped in misery evaporates in a surge of frustration. He told me he didn’t survive his execution. That’s a downright lie.
“I explained a hundred times why I was late for our wedding, yet you still won’t give me grace. How long were you planning on making my life miserable?”
“As long as it takes for you to realize that you’re mine,” he snarls.
“Circumstances have changed.”
My fingers close around his wrist. The flesh beneath his black gloves is warm, melting away some of my anger. He really is alive, but that doesn’t mean I need to fall at his feet. My heart aches with the love I still feel for him, but the anger of his deception burns just as fiercely.
Can’t he cut me some slack? I just escaped getting killed.
“I don’t date liars.” I try shoving him off, but it’s like moving a mausoleum.
“You pledged yourself to me, in this lifetime and the next.”
I pull out of his grip, ignoring the part of me that still longs forour connection. “That’s before I knew you were the type of man to impersonate a vengeful ghost.”
His bitter laugh makes the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It’s the kind of maniacal sound you only hear in horror movies when the girl is trapped in an asylum.
“You want forgiveness?”
I stiffen, wondering if it was a mistake to call his bluff.
“I’ll give you a chance to earn it,” he says. “You can even have a head start. If you can make it back to the house before I catch you, I’ll give you anything you want, including your freedom.”
My stomach drops, and my breath shallows. What is he saying? I didn’t ask him to leave. Not wanting to provoke him further, I square my shoulders.
“And if I lose?” I whisper.
He leans in, his eyes glinting in the moonlight. “Then I seal our union by fucking you over my grave.”
FIFTY-ONE
Alderney State Penitentiary,
Dear Amethyst,
I devoured book two of Rapunzelita and enjoyed every second. Is there a third installment? Now that her lycanthropy is under control, I can imagine the villagers wanting revenge for her little accidents.