Page 34 of Venomous Heart
“I said no!” Ava shouted, turning around to face the boy. Uril stared at her, the hurt obvious in his golden eyes. “You don’t understand, it’s dangerous.”
Maybe she should tell him. Maybe the truth was better than a lie. But how could she tell a twelve-year-old boy that a monster was waiting outside, ready to tie him to a vivisection table and open him up while he screamed?
What kind of new nightmares would invade his already nightmarish life?
Maybe hiding the horrific truth from him was causing more harm than good, but as his golden eyes fixed on her, they were full of what made Uril truly afraid. Full of the fear that she would find something in Arlen that he couldn’t give her. That she would leave him behind for a better life.
As if she could. It would be like cutting out her own heart.
If she told Uril about the Gene Protection Council, it would terrify him. His heart was fragile; he still hadn’t recovered from the shock of the attack by Will Harl and the others. More fear, more shock, could push him down a downward spiral he might never recover from. And she was still nowhere close to retrieving the Exo-Heart. Telling him that a furious Mantrilla was just waiting to discover him to drag him into a chamber of horrors wasn’t going to result in anything but hurt for him.
And Uril had lived through enough hurt to last him a lifetime.
“You know what? I don’t think it’s safe for me either.” Ava told him the half-truth in a soothing voice and when his sulking expression vanished to be replaced by concern, then fear, she had to add, “It’s just hard to explain right now, but you have to trust me. Everything is going to be okay.”
Uril still looked at her with that stubborn streak he had, but he finally nodded. “You look nice.” He crossed his arms over his slender chest. “But you can’t wear your medical uniform at your own wedding.”
“Mating,” Ava corrected him. Like it mattered what they called it. It was a claim, an ownership, something she had strived to avoid all her life. Her throat suddenly closed up and her voice broke. “Not wedding, it’s a mating.”
“Well, if I can’t be there, then at least I want to know what you’ll look like.”
He turned his back to Ava and went all the way to the imposing closet against the wall beside her bed made of carved wood and encrusted in shiny stones. A closet chosen by someone who liked to dress her up like a doll.
Her closet, filled with her clothes. Clothes from another life, when she was living under Knut’s thumb like a pampered pet.
My own little pet.
Knut’s voice slithered in her ears as Uril opened the doors, revealing a shimmering array of fabric. The sight of each one sliced through Ava’s heart like a blade made of velvet.
“Don’t.” Ava wanted to turn her back to it, but she couldn’t. “I don’t want to wear any of them.”
But Edmila had already joined Uril, and the girl was rummaging through the content, giggling and shrieking at every gown like it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Because it probably was.
As pretty as a doll. You really are the best of toys, my dearest.
Again, Knut’s voice slithered inside Ava’s mind as Edmila pulled a flowing silver and purple gown from the closet. As Ava’s eyes locked onto the glimmering, precious silk, embroidered with strands of pure silver, a flood of emotions came back to her, along with the memory of that hateful dress.
She was sixteen and standing in front of a long mirror, staring at her own reflection like it was that of a stranger. Behind her, the man she had come to consider her father stood with critical, self-satisfied appraisal on his thin face.
“Perfect.” Knut ran the tip of a long finger along the curve of her shoulder and Ava shivered. “Just the way I made you.”
“I don’t want to do this.” Ava’s voice shook as Knut’s dark purple eyes flashed, his pupils restricting to fine lines, a sure sign of displeasure in his usually polished face. “Please don’t make me.”
“I want to remember you just the way you are now,” Knut whispered the words against her ear.
Before she was broken, that was what he meant. Because by then, she had figured out why he had taken such a keen interest in her. Why he made sure she was educated by the best tutors in the Ring, why she always ate the best food when the others ate the gray sludge of the food ration pouches. Why he insisted she was always perfectly coiffed, perfectly dressed.
Because she was his. He’d never intended to sell her to anyone. He had designed every inch of her body, from her pointed ears to the width of her hips, to her flaming red hair.
She was nothing but a doll made by design. The ultimate caprice of a fabulously rich and powerful man. A life created just so he could play with her like a cat with a mouse.
And once her mind was broken, he would finally claim that body he had designed with all the devious sickness he hid behind his closed bedroom door.
On that day, Ava would cease to be a person.
“You can paint me if you want.” Ava lifted her chin and Knut’s smile broadened at her challenge. “I won’t beg you. Ever”
“Oh, yes you will.” Knut spoke like he tasted something sweet on his tongue. “One day, you will beg me.”
