Page 47 of Venomous Lust
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Hazel
The door closed and Hazel was alone with Khal again. The sound of the lock clicking reverberated inside her skull as she swam in the thick ooze of her fear.
I will never get to Earth. I will never see Sally again. I will never get to make things right.
The thoughts circled inside her skull like caged animals, and Hazel was trapped in the middle. Emotions coiled somewhere deep in her chest, boiling to the surface in acid and ashes, flowing out of her pores in tides of molten pain.
All this suffering had been for nothing. Knut had won in the end.
She was vaguely aware of Khal moving toward her, his handsome, well-carved face twisted with worry. She tried to smile, tried to appease him, but her lips refused to move. Something hard met her knees as pain shot—real and physical this time—through her hands and legs. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized she had fallen.
“I’ll never see Sally again,” Hazel said in a daze. Warm hands closed around her shoulders and a sob traveled up her throat. The sound broke out despite her best attempt to keep it in, pathetic and female. Weak. “I’ll never get to tell her how sorry I am. She will never know that I tried. I tried to make things right. I tried so hard…”
She was swallowed in her grief, unable to continue. It was like losing Sally all over again, having that hope ripped from her hands.
“What are you talking about?” Khal spoke in low, reassuring tones, but Hazel knew better. Sally would rather spit in her face than hug her. “Your sister awaits you on Earth.”
Hazel shook her head, tears streaming freely down her face.
“I will die with her hating me.”
Khal stayed silent, his hands still on her shoulders. She could feel his confusion, his lack of understanding. She had to tell him, tell him why her twin sister hated her so much. And when he understood what a terrible person she was, she would lose him, too.
“You will not die. You will never be in danger, ever again.” Khal kept going, his large palms now rubbing her back. He was trying to reassure her, he probably thought she was simply scared of dying. “I will send you and Celaith back aboard the Myrador. The automatic pilot will bring you both straight to my brothers on Eokim. You will be able to send a communication to your sister on Earth. She will be ecstatic to see you.”
Hazel chuckled, but the sound was more like the breaking of a dry stick. Hollow and sterile. Devoid of life. Khal thought she was distraught because she was scared for her own life. Because she was scared she would never get to stride into the sunset with her sister, happy as only twins could be. How wrong he was. Hazel would never be striding into the sunset arm in arm with her sister, she was never going to be embraced. Her only hope had been that, after all these years, Sally would tolerate seeing her close by, would let her watch from a distance.
And that maybe, just maybe, after years and years had passed, she would forgive Hazel for ruining her life.
“Sally is not waiting for me.” Hazel shook her head, tears burning her eyelids, then tracing long trails of salty guilt down her cheeks. “She hates me. She would rather curse my name than hand me some bread if I were starving.”
Pain shot through her as Hazel spoke the words that Sally had shouted at her the last time they’d been together.
I hate you. I will hate you till the day I die.
That was what Sally had said. What Sally had meant as Knut had had his Ilarian guard drag her away to sell her in Hazel’s place. And she had been right—Hazel had been the cause of it all, and all because she couldn’t keep her damned mouth shut.
“I assure you, she doesn’t.” Khal spoke with the confidence only an Eok warrior could have. Only one who had never betrayed could feel. “She will welcome you with open arms.”
“No, she won’t.” His large hand closed around her chin and Khal forced her to lift her head. His deep, Prussian blue eyes stared at her, full of a gut-wrenching concern. All her life, ever since Sally had been ripped from her, Hazel had longed for love. Longed for someone to care for her. To have someone like Khal, so perfect, so strong, express a devotion so total. It seemed wrong. It felt like a fraud.
Hazel was the fraud. She didn’t deserve Khal’s care, Khal’s attention.
“I’m the reason Sally was sold in the first place.” The words left her lips and Hazel watched Khal as his expression turned to one of shock. Afraid of losing her courage, Hazel continued her confession. “When we were little, maybe four or five years old, Knut sold off our mother. I barely remember her. We never saw her again. So, when we grew up, it was only Sally and me. We knew we would be okay as long as we had each other.”
The weight of the past came crashing down, and Hazel was swallowed by it.
“Then, when I turned eighteen, Knut came for me. He took me away from Sally and brought me to his mansion.” Hazel shivered at the memory of that day. “That’s when I met the Duke. He was an Avonie, tall and prissy, the same as Knut. He told me I belonged to him now, that he was my new owner. When he tried to touch me, I fought back. I kicked and bit, I threw all the insults I knew at him. He was shocked, repulsed by my lack of manners. He said he wasn’t paying a fortune for a savage animal. He asked Knut for a reimbursement, telling him I was a disgraceful female.”
Hazel fell silent. She still remembered what she had felt that day. How good it had felt to kick, scratch and shout at the Avonie Duke. What a triumph she’d thought she had accomplished when the Duke had refused to pay for her. She had been such a fool.
“He rejected you.” Khal finished her thought. “But Knut is not one to take defeat so easily.”
“No, he’s not.” Hazel shook her head. “He had me thrown in a dark, cold room. I stayed there for days, with no food, little water. He tried to break me, but he couldn’t. I still have no idea how long he kept me there. When he finally let me out, he told me that the Duke wasn’t interested in buying me anymore.”
She swallowed the hard lump that had formed in her throat.
