Page 82 of Dolls & Daggers
All my senses are on high alert as we descend into a dimly lit room that smells muggy and fresh all at the same time. When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I spot a washer and dryer against the far wall, the source of the cleanscent.
Another thud sounds from upstairs—closer this time. My grip tightens as I slide my dagger into my palm, eyes snapping to the open doorway.
It’s that moment in a thriller when the music builds, and you know the jump scare is coming—but that knowledge doesn’t make it any less terrifying. Something about this entire situation sends my serial killer Spidey senses into overdrive.
“Dove!” Wren’s sluggish cry from upstairs sends my heart plummeting to my stomach.
What are you doing here, Songbird?
Blue flashes in my peripheral.
I jerk back just in time, slashing my dagger across Robyn’s body as she lunges at me. The blade skims her stomach, slicing fabric and flesh. She shrieks, clutching the wound as blood pools between her fingers. It’s shallow, nowhere near fatal, but enough to drop the giantess onto her ass.
“What did you do to him?” I seethe, straddling her in an instant.
She thrashes beneath me, one arm pushing at myshoulder while the other presses to her bleeding stomach. “If I can’t have him, no one will!”
“Dove!” Wren cries again. A crash follows, and my head whips toward the stairs just in time to see him stumbling down like a newborn foal, unsteady and disoriented.
“Baby, what did she do to you?” I growl, slamming the pommel of my dagger into Robyn’s cheek before shoving off her and rushing to Wren’s side.
He greets me with open arms, sighing in relief the moment his eyes meet mine. “Thank God. I thought she hurt you,” he breathes against my hair.
“Get away from her, Wrenley!” Robyn snarls. “She’s poisoned your mind against me!”
The aggression rips from my throat before I can stop it. I tear from Wren’s grasp, blade poised to sink deep. “You disgusting, despicable?—”
Wren’s arm locks around my waist, yanking me back, but not before my weapon finds purchase, biting into the meat of her calf as she scrambles away.
“Dove, no.” His harsh command mingles with her pained scream.
“Go back upstairs, Songbird. You don’t have to watch me do this.” I twist in his arms, clutching his shirt as I stare up at him, vision blurred with unshed tears. “Let me avenge you.”
“You have no right to call him that!” Robyn sobs,her voice raw and shaking. “He’s mine! My little songbird!”
“Baby, please.” My forehead presses to his chest, my tears soaking his shirt. “She can’t live after what she’s done to you. I know I should’ve asked first, but I?—”
“Stop, Turtle Dove.” Wren’s fingers slip under my chin, tilting my face up. He kisses me softly. Once. Twice. The third time, his tongue sweeps against my lips, and I let him in, letting him ravage me.
Behind us, Robyn sniffs. “Wrenley, how could you?”
“I love you so fucking much for wanting to do this for me,” he murmurs, pulling back just enough for me to see the hazy devotion in his eyes. He sways slightly on his feet.
His fingers smooth my hair back as his deep brown gaze shifts—first to me, then over my head to his mother. I glare at her over my shoulder as he continues, voice steadier than before. “But this is somethingIneed to do.”
“Baby, I already told you—you’re not a killer.” I reach up, cupping his cheek.
Wren smiles. It’s full of so much love and reverence that my heart aches from the force of it.
“Now that I have my angel of death at my side,” he murmurs, “I’m feeling pretty invincible, Turtle Dove.”
“Didyou really come to avenge me, Turtle Dove?” I ask before downing the last of my bottled water.
Whatever my mother drugged me with has my head pounding, and my body still feels weird, like I’m wearing someone else’s skin. I vaguely remember her dragging me into my old bedroom, lifting me onto my bed. I fought the effects as hard as I could but ultimately lost the battle.
Until I heard Dove’s voice.
Like a shimmering light in the haze, her bubbly tone gave me the strength to push against the murky waters trying to keep me under.
