Page 93 of Behind the Shadows
Seconds later, he barreled into my house. He grabbed my shoulders. “You’re okay? You’re not hurt?”
I glanced around. “Where’s Dog?”
“In the car with the window down. He’ll stay put until I call him.”
“Follow me.” There was no way to explain what happened, because I wasn’t even sure.
We reached my bedroom, and I pointed to the bathroom. “The tub.”
I followed him and waited for him to assess the situation.
“What the fuck?” Kip shot me a look. “Well, Draco looks dead, but why is his stomach moving?”
“I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I tucked my tail between my legs and called you.”
Kip crouched beside the tub, his face grim. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t gag. Just stared like he’d seen this kind of thing before.
His fingers brushed along the seam of Draco’s abdomen. “Stitched.”
“What?” I choked, still frozen near the doorway.
“Stitched shut. Clean. Surgical.”
Draco’s torso twitched again—his stomach bulged, skin rippling like something was crawling beneath it. I slapped a hand over my mouth, bile burning the back of my throat.
“What is that?” My voice cracked. “Why is he still moving?”
Kip exhaled hard through his nose. “Snakes.”
My knees buckled. I clutched the doorframe like it could anchor me to reality. “You’re not serious.”
“They’re alive.” Kip didn’t look away from the horror in front of us. “He sedated them. Probably kept them chilled to slow their heartbeat. Then sewed them inside while they were unconscious and before they woke up inside him.”
I staggered back, bile burning its way up my throat. “That’s not—how is that even possible?”
“It doesn’t need to be possible,” Kip said flatly. “It needs to be theatrical. Symbolic.”
My gaze shifted to the small white slip of paper pinned to Draco’s shirt. Neat handwriting. Precise. Stained with a single drop of blood.
I forced myself to look.
You’re welcome. —Dad.
The words hit me harder than the corpse.
My stomach clenched. “He did this for me.”
Kip stood, his expression unreadable. “He did this for himself.”
“He killed Draco because he hurt me.”
“He killed him because Draco touched what the Pied Piper thinks he owns.”
My chest rose and fell too fast. “But he sold me. He gave me to those monsters.”
Kip turned to look at me fully. “And in his mind? That made you.”
I blinked at him, stunned.
