Page 23 of Hupotasso
Juliette died that night too, the night Isabel died, since she’d came last in the challenge. I hadn’t minded her, and I’m actually looking forward to telling her family good things about her. Once again I’m reminded, though, that Falcon killed her without ever even taking her on a one-on-one date. She hadn’t really even been given a chance.
And Mila, poor Mila had confessed to him that she was a virgin and that had been her downfall.
I shudder.
That episode had certainly made for good viewing. Tom had edited it to make it seem Falcon was becoming besotted with her, which was ridiculous, and it made her death all the more shocking. Even from where I sat, knowing he hadn’t spent much time with her and that she hadn’t come back from that date, evenIwas drawn in by the drama of that episode.
I shake my head and keep reading down my list, tearing up when I see the next name; Tamara. She had no family for me to visit, yet she was someone I could happily and honestly have spoken about for a long, long time. She’d been my best friend on the set, besides Yin.
Swallowing hard, I shake my head and move on to the Parisian, Marie. She’d annoyed the hell out of me and I’d tried not to spend too much time in the same room as her, but that didn’t mean I wanted her dead. When I’d asked Falcon about her during our quiet times together before the final ceremony he’d told me I ‘didn’t want to know’ how he’d ended her. He said he’d been angry and regretted how that had played out. On the showit simply showed a tiny bit of their discussion in the back of a limousine and then him lowering her body to the seat.
But his face had been terrifying.
The audience then saw him march to the apartment and return with me over his shoulder. Thankfully, they hadn’t seen him spanking me, or any footage of our earlier altercation when he’d pulled me from my bath. I guess even Tom knew none of that could ever air.
I shake my head as I think back on that night. If I’d just decided then and there to leave, nothing could have stopped me. I had the Life Token. But I’d held on because it was too late; I’d already fallen in love with him.
I shift uncomfortably on my seat, my ass still bruised from his latest spanking. It wasn’t as if he’d promised never to hit me again. Quite the contrary. I only had myself to blame for marrying a violent man.
I try not to think of the aftermath of our last altercation, the sex, passionate at first, then tender. How he’d whispered to me to ‘open my eyes’ as my body pulsed around him, and held my gaze as he shuddered to his conclusion. But afterwards he’d left without a word again as though nothing had happened, and we were just strangers.
Sighing, I consider the last names before me. The final challenge had seen Neve murdered by Giselle, and Pasha ostensibly destroyed by me, although Yin and I knew the truth of that.
I tally the total number of deaths and who caused them, and gasp.
Falcon may not have eaten everyone like he did the first time he appeared on the show, but he still killed more than most bachelors do. In all, he’d dispatched fourteen contestants — half the entrants. Giselle had killed four, and four had been taken out by other contestants.
‘He and Giselle really had been a match made in Heaven, or Hell, depending on your thoughts on murder.’
Still, it made my job of touring the families of the dead contestants a lot easier than most royal wives had found it in the past. After all, I’d only technically killed one person, and even that was a lie. Other royal wives who’d won The Games and secured their seats had been just as bloodthirsty as Giselle, if not more so.
I frown as I consider this thought. Now that I’ve survived The Games and lived them a second time watching them as a viewer, one thing is glaringly, blindingly obvious.
I didn’t belong.
So how the hell did I end up on the show? And how on God’s green earth had I won? My skin goosebumps as a thought occurs to me, one that I’ve dismissed time and again. One that I’ve sworn black and blue isn’t true.
‘Could Falcon actually be right? Could I have been deliberately placed in The Games? Am I under some vampire’s control and I don’t even realise it?’
“Oh fuck.”
18
I toy with my meal as my mother, Wolf, and my brother make small talk, but look up annoyed as Mother laughs and calls my name.
She rarely laughs at anything Viper says.
“What?”
“Falcon, darling, Viper has asked you the same question three times now, but you’re away with the fairies, it seems.”
“I have a lot on my mind,” I mutter.
‘Fucking understatement.’
For weeks now I’ve been mulling over my disagreement with Jag over Sophie’s request. His reaction is still playing on my mind, as is the progression of my plan to destroy Spider — I need Jag to have my back if I’m to succeed. And try as I might to stop it, in between my plans I’m plagued by constant flashes of my wife, naked, flushed from my attentions and entwined in rich fabrics on the floor of the ballroom, her eyes telling me she’s leaving.
“I can’t think what’s on your mind now The Games is done,” Viper sniggers, “unless you’re missing the little redhead who stole your heart. Love-sick Falcon — I never thought I’d see the day.”
