Page 19 of Malevolent King

Until I spoke to my brother, I had no place left in New York. It should bother me more than it did. I was a rootless person who’d never known a proper home. The closest I’d come was watching the starry canopy over the woods of the house in rural Pennsylvania before my mother had died. I’d belonged there, in the forest pines and wild dirt—at least for a while.

I stretched my painful neck from side to side, and my gaze flicked to the chair where Sofia had fallen asleep.

It was empty.

Tension roared to life inside me as I sat up and looked around the dark cabin. I’d relocked the door once we were safely inside, something that Sofia might not have realized. Since we didn’t have the key, she’d have to pick the lock to open it.

I pushed myself onto my heels and peered into the darkness of the room.A soft shuffle sounded near the door. My clever little cookie was trying to escape. Of course she was. She was as stubborn as fuck, and it was one of the many things I admired about her. Despite her life as a captive to her powerful father, she never lost her fighting spirit.

I crept toward her. My eyes were well-adjusted to the darkness, and I could make her out now. She was kneeling near the door, no doubt annoyed as hell.

“It’s locked,lastochka. You didn’t think I’d leave it open, did you?”

She spun at the sound of my voice. Her hands were untied. How had she managed that? I chalked it up to my benevolence. I’d spared my prom queen’s wrists from harm, and she was paying me back for it.

“Don’t come closer. I’m armed. You better just let me go.” Her voice didn’t shake.

“Open the door yourself, and you can go.” I straightened and leaned a hip against the chair next to me.

She turned back to the door, wiggling something into the keyhole.

I watched her for a moment and tutted. “Your technique is terrible.”

“Ah! Just let me go, you sick fuck! You left me alone, finally, five years ago. Just forget me again,” she snapped.

Those words took me aback. There was so much to unpack that I couldn’t get my head around it. Sofia turned her frustrated face back to the door, wiggling the small piece of metal she’d jammed inside. She cursed, sticking her finger in her mouth. It annoyed me she’d cut herself on such a fruitless endeavor.

“Time to leave it now. You’ve lost. Don’t be a bad sport,” I said.

She shook her head, close to the edge of hysteria. “No, I won’t. I’m not coming back over there to play house with you.”

“Play house? You have quite the dark imagination if you imagine that being leashed to the table is a normal way to eat dinner. De Sanctis family meals must be more interesting than I thought.”

Sofia let out an annoyed scoff and backed away from me. The sight of her retreating urged me to follow. I might have had a piece of material binding her to me, but she seemed to have the same. An invisible string between us we couldn’t cut loose.

“Now, come and lie down. We have a long day tomorrow.” I was aiming for reasonable with my tone. From the way Sofia’s chest was rising and falling, I wasn’t too successful.

“No. You’ll have to make me,” she snapped.

I couldn’t tell if she was warning me or pleading. I didn’t care. Either way, it turned me on.

My grin flashed across my face. “With pleasure.”

I lunged for her, anticipating how she’d feint the opposite way than she ended up going. My left arm went around her, and my momentum spun us into the kitchen.

The sensation of her body in my hands turned my blood to fire. I wanted her, and fuck, I was tired of being well-behaved. I couldn’t forget the curiosity in her eyes when I’d touched her at the river. I ended up pressing her against the counter, one of her hands trapped between us, and the other, I didn’t know where.

“That was a lot of buildup for not much fight. You want to go again, prom queen?”

She smiled at me, and I tensed, sure that nothing good could come from her confidence.

Then I felt it. A sharp point pressing into my thigh.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “If you wanted to get your hand in my pants, there are easier ways.” It was my fault for underestimating Sofia. I was ready to bear the consequences of that. Being touched by her in any capacity was as exciting as hell.

“This is your femoral artery. One puncture, and you’ll bleed out in two minutes.” Her voice wasn’t nearly as calm as she thought.

My smile only widened.“We are a vicious little thing, aren’t we? You haven’t changed,lastochka. You’re still the only woman I’d let spill my blood.”

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