Page 212 of Owned

It looked like she was laughing. Enjoying his company.

I bit back a curse as she placed her glass on the table with a calm smile.

Lucian’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t press her to drink.

A ripple of something I couldn’t identify passed through me as I watched her pick up the flask of wine and pour him another glass.

A strange sensation.

Like relief.

Lucian motioned to the musicians, and they began to play again as he grabbed Avril’s hand and pulled her back to the dancers.

Her eyes found me in the shadows, and I backed away and turned toward the path that my brothers had taken.

She wanted us to trust her.

But how could I after everything that had happened?

If it had just been the binding spell, I could have forgiven her.

But it wasn’t just that.

Part of me wanted to rush into the garden, throw her over my shoulder, and kill anyone who came close to me.

The other half… wanted her to suffer.

Frustration was the wrong word.

Helpless.

Utterly helpless.

I’d worked so hard to scrape back some sense of myself—some sense of my own power—only to have it taken away in the blink of an eye.

“You gave it away,” the voice whispered.

I screamed into the void of my own mind as the nameless entity that had taken possession of my body smiled and nodded at well-wishers.

The possession was like drowning in molasses—I was aware of every sensation but unable to move my limbs against the thick, suffocating control that had claimed me. My voice was lost in the hollow chamber I was trapped in and echoed back only tomyself while the entity wore my skin like an elegant glove. Their fingers flexed experimentally with each unfamiliar gesture, each calculated laugh—my fingers—my laugh… but not mine.

“Such a beautiful bride,” cooed a woman with a face like wrinkled parchment and eyes that gleamed with malice.

She reached for my hands with spindly fingers adorned with rings that looked like they’d been pried from corpses and gripped them tightly.

My head inclined demurely. “You’re too kind.” My lips formed the words, but it wasn’t me speaking.

“Lucian has chosen well this time,” the woman added with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

This time.The words sliced through me like a blade of ice.

My mother had stood in this same spot, wearing similar finery, accepting identical compliments from the same monsters.

And now she was dead.

Titus seemed convinced that I would be next.

“Do you really think I’d let him kill you?” the voice murmured in my ear.

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