Page 58 of Tainted Serenity

“Are you fucking with me?” I demand, my fingers tightly holding onto his pathetic lab coat, but he doesn’t cower. He’s dressed in what resembles a doctor’s attire, and it dawns on me that he must be the very doctor everyone has been talking about.

“What? No! I’m telling the truth.”

Despite the shock of discovering that he is my brother, the betrayal and confusion that comes with that, my thoughts are consumed by Naya, and an overpowering need to see her again takes over. I have to know if she is okay, especially after Arthur found out about the two of us at the ball. He had me stripped to that torture machine again for hours upon hours the day after, but it was all worth it. Fuck Arthur and his rules.

I put the knife inside my pocket again, giving the man before me a determined nod. He’s a stranger to me now after all the years apart, and fuck if that doesn’t hurt despite the betrayal I still feel.

Casting me a gleeful and amused glance, he turns and makes his way toward a staircase that leads to the floor below. We descend the stairs in silence, only our footsteps creaking against the wooden floor as we walk. I can’t help but eye him warily when he walks in front of me, a suspicious glint in my eyes, despite knowing I have to trust him for only a few minutes until I know my little doll is safe.

It’s apparent he feels something for her in the way he uttered her name with a flicker of vulnerability, and because of that, a lingering emotion swims under the surface of my blood. It’s not rage, it’s something more potent; dangerous, and I can’t describe it.

The corridor we pass through is as desolate as all the other corridors in this castle, yet there is something more eerie about this one that makes apprehension fill my body with prickling unease. The air is less warm here, and it is almost as if a gust of wind washes over my arms, causing goosebumps to skitter across my skin.

“It’s just over here,” he utters the words in a whisper, keeping his tone low.

Within a few steps, we reach a door, and every muscle in my body is on edge, waiting for a moment when he will strike. He opens the door slightly, motioning for me to walk in first.

“You first,” I say as I cross my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes at him.

No way am I going to enter first if he’s up to something else. I watch his eyes roll before he opens the door ajar, the squeaking hinges enough to grate on my ears.

No one could have prepared me for how it would feel to see my doll again after over a week without each other. It feels like forever since the last time I saw her, especially when I haven’t had the chance to revel in her presence for months before that. My heart does a weird double flip, and I try to suppress it, not allowing the inner teenager in me to come forward and play when I’m an adult.

She stands there, beautiful as a goddess in a dress that hugs her curves. It’s in the colors of baby pink, reaching right below her knees in a beautiful manner, and desire fills my body.

She’s so fucking gorgeous.

“Daxton?” she questions as she hears the door opening further.

I look at the man before me with a bewildered look, my eyebrows raised as I silently question him; but he doesn’t elaborate on the fact that she didn’t call him Cody, which is his birth name.

Turning around, Naya stops the motion of scratching her wrist harshly, an act that makes me want to approach her and spank her ass raw for hurting herself. She looks into my eyes, making me drown all over again.

For moments on end, we stand there as none of us moves. As if the mere fact of blinking would make the other disappear entirely. The monster inside me screams, the demons punish me for not having her right in my arms, but seeing her there has rendered me motionless.

Her eyes then fall upon Daxton and me, standing beside each other, and understanding falls over her as she staggers back, bracing herself for what lies ahead. A sharp gasp tears from her throat, and in my periphery, I see Daxton scratching his neck uncomfortably. I remain frozen, still unable to process the sheer absurdity of the situation.

“What the fuck?” she questions.

As she peers into my eyes, she discerns the turmoil hiding within them. Her heart aches for me, and a chilling realization descends on her. The man who she trusted, who tended to her as her doctor, is in fact, my brother. The weight of the truth dawns on both of us, threatening to unravel the fractured parts of my past.

Like a bleeding wound, everything I have endured comes flooding at me; each scar of my past vividly resurfaces. From constantly changing foster homes to the harrowing days of life on the streets while protecting my brother, to the time he killed our parents, and I took the blame. Later on, ending up at Dankworth Institute until I was thrust into this dollhouse and forced to become a puppet for Arthur.

All of that washes over me, leaving me bleeding to death from the untended wound in my inner child, tearing me apart until there is nothing left but flesh and bone.

Chapter 24

Grey

Daxton stands uncomfortably besideme, his muscles tense while his posture is stiff. It is as if he doesn’t know how to act, and there is apprehension within me, wanting him out of my sight.

“I will leave you to it,” he finally says after an oppressive silence.

Before his heavy footsteps enter the corridor outside, the door creaks shut behind him. That’s enough to break me out of the spell that bewitched me, and I’m stalking toward Naya like a predator hunting for its prey, needing her close to me as I shift my sole focus on her and not my shitty brother.

“I told you that you wouldn’t get rid of me,” I state with a smirk tugging at the corner of my lips.

A breath expands her chest as she returns the smile, making her eyes crinkle slightly. If relief were a physical being, Naya would be the definition of it right now. When I reach her, it doesn’t take long before I have her in my arms, breathing her in as that sweet smell I have come to associate with her fills my nostrils.

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