Page 68 of The Trick

“Very good, I’ll see you both later,” Glinda says, sounding relieved to be excused from where her crazy son is playing yet another game.

“Yeah, me too,” Delilah chimes in, sounding relieved.

They both mumble amongst themselves as they leave us alone.

Without saying a word, Maddox lowers his finger from my lips, dragging it down my chin, and gliding it to my neck until it stops at my sternum.

“Do you trust me?” he says, monotone and not at all trustworthy.

My tongue swipes at my lips. “No.”

“Good.” His finger that rests at my sternum crawls down my abdomen, crossing my hips to where it then slithers its way to my hand, as he guides me to the huge hole in the ground.

With his tall stature blocking the way, it’s difficult to see past him. However, from what I can see, it looks like there is a sea offlickering lights ahead.

“Watch your step,” he says, pausing our connected stride to where we now stand in front of a tall wooden ladder thatleads to a deep hole in the ground.

“What is this?”

“Follow me,” he says, leading the way to the ladder. Pivoting, he lowers himself into the ground.

Eager to see what the hell he has up his sleeve now, I follow him.

As I move down the ladder, I feel his large hand against my bottom as he helps guide me to the flattened ground.

“Maddox, was this your plan all along? To marry me and then bury me alive?” I say like I’m joking, but with us,anything is possible.

Placing the remote back in his pocket, he pats the small leather compartment that rests on his thigh harness. His large fingers struggle to navigate inside the confined space as he wriggles them around for a few seconds before slipping them out with two rings now in his possession.

“I didn’t wait all this time. Play all our games. Stalk you. Kill for you, to have our moment for other eyes to see. I wanted this moment to be just us and what better place to seal our love for each other than with just you and I in the ground that someday we will be buried in…together.”

I should have known.

“This is the most fucked up wedding I’ve ever attended.” I purposely pause, watching the arrogance in his face fall to dust. His pierced brow falls into a sullen bout of disappointment. I move closer to him until my hand rests on his cheek. Shifting to my tip toes, I bring my lips close enough to his that my breath teases his skin, but not close enough for a kiss. “Thank you,” I breathe. “I’ve always hated how weddings are these big productions, when all that it should be about are the people crazy enough to want to share their lives together.”

His split tongue breaks the barrier of his lips, slithering its way into my mouth. Teasingly, I press my teeth onto his tongue, causing him to moan andpull me closer.

“We are bat shit crazy, so why wouldn’t we add this to the list,” he says playfully.

Bringing the rings into focus he reaches for the smallest of all the pocketknives he usually keeps on him. Though in all our time together, I’ve never seen him use this one.

“My dad gifted this to me, on the last birthday I had with him alive. I never felt that anything was worthy of using it. But now, to have your blood drawn with my favorite knife, I couldn’t think of any better way to seal our bond to each other.”

I move my palm upward, flattening it so he can make his cut.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to say my vows,” his voice cracks and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he’s nervous.

“Aw, you have vows prepared?”

“It’s our wedding, Blair, why wouldn’t I?” he asks, dumbfounded.

He presses the button of the pocketknife, and just as the sharpened steel springs forward, he looks to me, lowering the blade to my palm. The crisp October air stings against the small cut. It’s not deep, but it's enough to draw blood to fill the ring. He continues with careful precision as he recites his vows.

“Nothing in this world scares me more than you. I’m afraid of what you are capable of, what you bring out in me and I’m also afraid of living without you. Nothing confuses me more or makes me angrier than you can. Sure, I could have had a pleasant life if it wasn’t for you, but I would have been bored, unfilled, and more of a monster then I already am. With you, my darkness has a home and I’m glad that in my shadows, you are able to be who you truly are, sinfully perfect.” He seals his unexpected words with a kiss at my lips and for the first time, in all the years I’ve known him, I experience a tenderness I’ve never felt in his presence. It makes me feel honored. People like Maddox, people like us, we don’t often show people the real us. It’s too vulnerable, it feels like a loss of power but the fact that he can be the monster I crave while baring his heart to me, it’s more than words can describe.

He closes the top of the vial, sealing my blood into his ring. This is so romantic. I’m no stranger to the whole blood ritual thing. We’ve been doing this for years, every anniversary, though it’s usually in a locket, like the one he attached to my harness, but never on a ring.

Opening his palm, he readies his hand for me to cut into so I can repeat the same process for my ring.

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