Page 140 of Cinder
I push up on my palms but the pain in my head is blinding.
Wincing, I squeeze my eyes shut and suck in a heavy breath.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Luca growls impatiently, hauling me to my feet.
I grit my teeth as pain rockets through my body. My head. My limbs. My skin. My teeth. They all hurt.
Once I’m stable on my feet, I shake his hand from my arm. “I can walk on my own.”
I glance around me. I’m still in the cellar, but the lights are off. That’s when I remember the person lying in the bed. I turn to look, but Luca stops me.
“The door is this way,” he says, shoving me forward. I catch sight of the bed, but I can’t see who is on it. I can hear breathing, but I can’t tell if it’s male or female.
“Where are we going?”
My mouth is dry. My throat sore. I don’t know what drug they gave me, but it’s slowed everything down.
“It’s time to pretty yourself up for your new husband. See, I’ve had time to think. Viktor has been very patient with me. So I am rewarding him with both my sisters.”
Luca shoves me out the door and up the stairs. I’m still dazed from whatever I was drugged with, and my body feels heavy and sluggish, my coordination non-existent.
“Now move it,” he growls.
I slip and catch my shins on the steps and fall down. But Luca hoists me to my feet like I’m a ragdoll.
“No point delaying the inevitable,” he says, pushing me up the steps and into the marble hallway leading to the foyer.
“Where is Lucretia?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be joining her very shortly. Viktor simply needed some time alone with her.”
“No.” The word leaves me in a harsh breath.
He’s just saying it to torture me.
Lucretia is fine.
But what if she isn’t?
“I’m going to be sick,” I rasp.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Luca snaps. “It’s time for Cinderella to get ready for the ball. Your husband is expecting you all clean and shiny and wrapped in a bow. Not reeking of puke and snot.”
I have to kill him now.
Before he hands me over to Viktor.
But I’m too dizzy and nauseated.
I think about the crystal ashtray sitting on the marble side table near the stairs.
It’s my only hope.
I decide to distract him.
“He’s going to kill you,” I say.
My words echo around the cavernous foyer and bring Luca to a standstill.
