Page 30 of Barbi and the Villain

The cold metal of a blade slides against my skin. I freeze in fear.

What the hell is happening?

“But, Damien… I’ve been thinking. What if it doesn’t work because it’s not fresh blood? We can’t afford to make any mistakes.”

“It will be fine, Jo,” he snaps, and the tip of the knife digs into my flesh, drawing blood.

I grit my teeth and clamp my mouth shut so I don’t make any noise, but the pain echoes in my body.

“Will you take the chance? After what happened last time?” Lady Jocelyn counters. “We’ve worked too hard for this. I say we wait. She already thinks we’re going to help her get back to her world. She won’t suspect a thing.”

He releases an annoyed sigh, removing the blade from my throat.

“Come on. Don’t be impatient, darling. We’re so close to our goal.”

He utters a string of muttered curses, followed by more assurances from Lady Jocelyn. Eventually, they disappear from my room.

I count to one hundred before I finally dare to open my eyes, my entire being filled with terror.

What the hell did I get myself into?

6

“Istill cannot believe how big your world is,” Lady Jocelyn exclaims later that day at dinner. “Eight billion people is unfathomable.”

I force a smile, though the fear from before hasn’t subsided.

It is pure torture to sit at the same table as them for dinner and pretend to answer all their questions about my world. As if they didn’t try to murder me just a few hours ago. But it is necessary if I want to escape unnoticed later tonight.

“You said your medicine is advanced?” Arisa asks.

The dinner is a small affair, and Arisa and Leoni, the other two mages from what once was the Five, join us. They’re equally curious about my world, but their questions are few and far between due to their deference toward Jocelyn and Damien.

“Yes. People live longer and healthier lives,” I murmur.

“That means they must have superior life force, no?” she asks, gazing hopefully at Damien.

He gives a tight nod but doesn’t explain what that means.

I pretend to eat, stealthily stashing some bread in my pocket to Hansel my way around this place. Luckily, the dining hall is on the ground level, and I managed to spot a few doors that might lead to the outside. Now it’s only a matter of laying a breadcrumb trail to my room that I can follow later to trace my way back here.

The questions continue, and I give them the most outrageous and fake answers I can think of. I still don’t know why they need to sacrifice me at some point—who knows what type of ritual they want to achieve with my blood—but I’m not about to stick around and find out.

My first red flag should have been the fact that so little of Akkaya is the same as what I read about. But I still harbored the hope that my idols were upstanding people—which clearly, they are not.

God, whoever wrote those books must have been heavily biased. How could someone describe Damien as a hero when he’s nothing but a murderous psycho who also cheats on his wife?

Unacceptable.

I may not know how to get back home on my own, but I’d rather take my chances by myself far away from them.

“Thank you for this lovely dinner and for everything you’ve done for me so far,” I murmur appreciatively as I get up from the table. “You have no idea how much I appreciate your help?—”

“Nonsense,” Damien cuts me off—he has a habit of doing that to women. “We are thrilled to meet someone from another world after having heard so much of their existence. Your tales alone are priceless.”

I incline my head, forcing my lips in a deferent smile.

“The servant will see you to your room. Have a good night, Barbara,” Jocelyn tells me dismissively.

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