Page 60 of Magpie
“You were willful, selfish, and impudent,” he snaps, letting my chin go and storming away from me.
“I know. I am sorry, Alister.” I move to stand behind him and wrap my arms around him. He pulls away from my touch, spinning on me suddenly. Grabbing my shoulders, he pushes me back and slams me against the wall. He pins me there with one arm pressed against my chest, the other hand around my throat, tilting my head back to look at him.
“Do you think I’m a fuckingfool?” he hisses, his grip on my throat tightening. His face is contorted with rage. “Do you think I can be tricked by a bawdy display of flesh and fake smiles?”
He moves the hand around my neck, roughly grabbing my breast and squeezing tightly. I bite my lip to keep from crying out.
“You think displaying yourself like a vulgar feast will erase what you did to me?”
I cast my eyes to the side, unable to hold his deranged gaze.
That only serves to enrage him. He slams his fist against the wall by my head, the glass splintering on impact as he bellows, “Look at me!”
Taking a steadying breath, I slowly turn my face back to his and shed the mask of complacency and adoration. Getting him to drop his guard through false contrition isn’t working, and I’m more than happy to show my true colors. I pour every ounce of hatred I have into my eyes, every last drop of disdain.
He grins at me, a wolfish, devilish smile. “There she is,” he says, stroking my cheek with one of those damned white gloves. I squirm away from his touch, and he chuckles at the motion, before his laugh is abruptly cut off as he pulls me forward by my throat and slams me back against the wall.
I grunt, my head cracking hard against the glass, but I have no time to focus on the pain as he squeezes my throat again. Tighter and tighter, only allowing the barest trickle of air in.
“Do you even realize what you did by leaving me?” he hisses. “You nearly ended this. All of this.”
I grab his wrists, trying to pull his hands off my neck, but my attempts are useless, my arms growing weak as my vision blurs. Just when I am sure I’m going to pass out, he releases me, and I fall to my knees, coughing and gasping for air.
Alister takes several steps back. He yanks his jacket off and tosses it to the ground. I’m still trying to pull in ragged, unsteady breaths as I massage my aching throat. Alister is rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he paces before me, his eyes harsh as they pin me in place.
“You made me a promise that you would stay locked in this house, and never test the bars of that cage,” Alister says, turning and walking to a shelf on the far side of the room. Like the ones in his bedroom, this shelf is full of various crystals, books, jars, and vials, any number of things that Alister uses in his work.
I cannot let him use any spells on me. Pressing my palms flat on the ground, I begin to push myself up, to stand, when I stop.
My palms are stuck on the ground.
No, no, no, no,no.
I tug at my hands, yank at them, biting my lip so hard to keep from shrieking that I feel a sharp prick of pain and blood begins to dribble down my chin. I thrash and struggle as much as I can, and all I result in doing is knocking over one of the telescopes. It rolls gently behind me, clinking against the glass. I whip my head up, looking at Alister as he busies himself at his shelf.
“Let me guess—you’re here to avenge your dead love?” he calls over his shoulder as he pulls various glass jars off the shelf. “Your plan was to, what, seduce me? Wait until I’m asleep and try to stab my heart again?”
“That would be a fairly pointless plan, considering you’re goddamn heartless,” I snap, pulling uselessly at my palms, which remain firmly stuck to the floor.
Alister turns, giving me a bored look. “Was that supposed to hurt my feelings? Really, Magpie, I expected better from you.” He shakes his head as he stirs a series of powders and herbs into a mortar, grinding it down with a pestle. I let out a huff but stop trying to pull my palms up. I know it’s useless. Onlyhecan release me.
“What are you going to do to me?” I snap. “What punishment fits the crime of trying to escape a psychopath?”
He flicks his eyes up to me, annoyance flashing across his face, before he continues grinding the paste. He adds in a few drops of oil and a length of bright red string. The sight of it sends my heart racing. “I’m going to make you keep your word, Magpie,” he says, setting the pestle aside. He picks up the mortar and begins creeping slowly back toward me. I don’t take my eyes off him, but I can’t help trying to scoot back as far as my cemented hands will let me.
Alister barely even glances at me as he swirls his fingers in the mortar. Once they are covered in the deep gray paste, he leans down and draws runes and symbols in a semicircle around me. From one side of the wall to the other, he traces a line of smeared etchings in a half-moon, encompassing me entirely. He stands up, admiring his handiwork before he looks at me with hatred in his eyes and a sneer on his face.
“A pretty cage for a pretty bird.”
All at once, I find I can lift my hands off the floor. I spring up, rushing forward to attack him. I don’t care that I don’t have a plan, I don’t care that he’s stronger than me, I don’t care that—
My chin cracks forcefully against the air in front of my face and sends me rocking back like I’ve been punched. I stumble until I hit the glass wall behind me.
What the fuck?
Alister is standing a few feet in front of me, his hands in his pockets, observing me like I’m an animal in a cage. My eyes slowly trail down to the marks on the floor, tracing a half-circle around me and the glass wall. I step forward, my hand outstretched in front of me, until I hit something solid. Like an invisible wall is in front of me. I slam both of my hands against it, beginning to panic as I search up and down the semicircle, looking for a hole, a chink in the armor. There are none to be found.
Alister steps forward, reaching easily through the transparent barrier and stroking my cheek. I slap his hand away, backing up until I am splayed against the wall.
