Page 68 of Servitude to Serpents

I perk up. “Yes?”

“Perhaps busy yourself elsewhere today.”

“Please, I—"

“This is boring work; I’ll gather you at dinner.”

Tears burst to my eyes, already brimming, wetting my lashes. “I don’t want to.”

He pauses, his jaw hardening as he swallows like something left a foul taste in his mouth. “I didn’t ask what you wanted. Go. Now.”

I think that thing was me.

I shove up from my seat, willing my tears to stay at bay as I rush from the room, and that night, I eat alone.

Siren by Kailee Morgue

My long, sheer maxi skirt flows behind me as I pace the halls outside of the armory, heart pounding in my chest as I jerk rapidly between fits of crying and numbness. There's something very, terribly wrong. Something happening inside me doesn’t feel right. I need him to fix it.

How doesn’t he understand that? Why can’t I find the right words, assembled in the right order, to tell him? At this rate, I doubt he’d care if I did.

He could make it better so easily, this stupid, gnawing, sickening feeling in my mind. He always gets me before work. I always attend to him. Why didn’t he get me? Why is today different? I stop in front of the door, willing myself to knock this time, to actuallydo it. My eyes slide to the keypad; I know he’s in there.

I could open the door,

He might even punish me.

Then, he can’t choose not to answer.

Again.

“Don’t you have chores to attend to?”

I jump, slamming my hands behind my back like a child who just got caught with their grubby palms in a cookie jar. Stuart scowls at me from down the hall.

“I had a question for—"

“I understand your vision isn’t perfect, but surely you can see he doesn’t want to be bothered today.”

“Yes, but—"

“Remove yourself, or I will remove you. Do you understand?”

Panic wells in my chest. “You aren’t allowed to touch me.”

The smirk on the man's aged face is enough to make a chill run up my spine.Viper. He looks every bit it. “Who do you think sent me down here?”

My eyes dart back to the door, my hands fisting so hard, my knuckles pop. “I want—"

“Last warning.”

I sniffle, nodding in dismissal as I walk past the stern older man, wondering how that smirk would look with a hole in his face. This time, I don’t hate myself for the thought. I don’t scold the darkness away, no chastising from a long-dead woman echoing my disobedience in my mind. My breath comes out quicker, and I scream, not outwardly of course, but it bubbles inside me all the same. By the time night rolls through, the adjustment I kept assuring myself would come doesn’t. I haven’t seen him, not once today.

My restlessness wins like I knew it would as I toss the covers off, stalking out of his bedroom, being sure to glare at the wide-closed doors of his office, at the light filtering underneath along with faint music that sounds familiar, judging by the blips of it I get as I pass. Jerking the doors of my wardrobe open harder than necessary, I rifle through the perfectly organized drawers, finding a random pair of stockings as I quickly strip myself of everything else. Cold sweat breaks out over my hairline as I jerk them on, praying the door to his office isn’t locked. I don’t give myself a chance to rethink anything as I peek out into the hall, making sure my back is flush with the wall, checking for any signs of Stuart, who has taken to stalking around up here versus whatever halls he typically haunts. I almost smile.I can feel the urge, at least, remembering how I’d sneak around the halls of Tyson Manor, gathering up all the weird, old people candy that was always laid in crystal dishes that never emptied. I’d run back to our rooms, laying our spoils out over Renee’s bed.

But this isn’t that, and I’m not a little girl anymore.

I’m a woman.

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