Page 107 of Vengeful Princess

I didn’t want to look at the man sitting in the chair. He frightened me. But Dad scared me more, and I knew if I didn’t do what he asked, he’d hurt me again. Like last time.

So I pointed the gun, like he’d taught me. Verity’s face popped into my head. She slept in the attic, far away from my room on the first floor, but when Dad was away, I liked to sneak up there.

When I shared a bed with my sister, we both slept better. The nightmares didn’t come.

She was all alone when I wasn’t with her. If I didn’t do this, Dad might hurt Verity. I had to protect my baby sister. She needed me.

The thought of Dad hurting her was enough to break the paralysis. I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger. The kick-back sent my small body flying backwards and my head slammed into the concrete floor.

The gunshot had been way louder than I expected. My ears rang, and for a few long moments, I couldn’t hear a thing. Slowly, my hearing returned. Screams bounced off the walls, making my head ache, then came a second gunshot, followed by blissful silence.

When I finally pried my eyes open, the man on the chair was dead with half his head missing.

I sat up and vomited all over the floor.

“Good girl,” Dad said with a broad grin. “You hit him in the jaw. Not quite enough to kill him, but a decent shot. Better than I expected.” He yanked me to my feet. “We can work on that, though.”

My bedroom was cool, but my skin felt overheated. Fear and self-loathing battled for supremacy. The man tied to the chair stared at me, his eyes blank. There was nothing but a gaping hole where his mouth and nose had been. Blood and brain tissue leaked out.

I screamed and flailed, trying desperately to crawl away from him. Then the corpse winked at me and laughed. How could it laugh? It had no mouth.

Pretty bird, it whispered. I’ll find you, pretty bird.

An arm snaked around my waist as I kicked out. A fresh woodsy scent tickled my nose, driving away the vile stench of spilled blood and vomit.

Pine trees after heavy rain. Moss and heather. Snowfall.

I wasn’t in that room. I wasn’t that scared little girl anymore.

“Thea, you’re safe,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear.Milo. “Nobody can hurt you here.”

My body relaxed. This was my college bedroom. The door lock was secure. Torrance couldn’t reach me.

I was safe.

Milo’s arm tightened around my waist, and I melted against him.

I was safe.

If I said it ten times, would that make it true?

My sleep-brain assured me it would, so I muttered the phrase ten times, and on the tenth repetition, I slipped back into a dreamless sleep.

My eyes snapped open. The sky had lightened outside, but I could still feel a large, overly hot male body pressed against me. I frowned. Milo always vanished before dawn, so it couldn’t be him.

I wasn’t dumb. I knew he crept into my room most nights. Sometimes his presence woke me. Other times it didn’t, and the only reason I knew he’d visited me on those nights was an indent in the pillow beside my head, along with a lingering sense of peace.

Shoving the remnants of my nightmare away, my attention focused on the man wrapped around me. I knew it wasn’t Milo. Milo always smelled of damp forests and pine. This man smelled of bergamot and black pepper.

My brain made the connection.Kyril.

When I reached for the knife under my pillow and came up empty, he chuckled.

“Don’t bother, my vicious littlekotenok, I moved it.”

“What are you doing in my bed?”

He shuffled closer, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. The bastard was naked. Or virtually naked, with nothing but a pair of cotton boxers separating us. Not that they hid much. His cock was rock hard and very much awake.

---