Page 218 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Atlas presses the barrel of the gun to my lips. My blood runs cold, and I want to scream, but I can't even breathe. I look down, at the glistening black, and my knees feel weak. Atlas tightens his hold on me, like he knows. Like he’s trying to hold me up, even though it's his weapon that's freaking me the fuck out. “Be quiet, Ella.”
I inhale. Exhale. I can’t look away from the gun.
Finally, after a moment of my silence, he bends his elbow and aims it back up at the ceiling. I close my eyes, praying for Mav.
“Someone is fucking with us,” Atlas finally says.
“But that would mean someone knows we’re here.” My words are whispered, my eyes still closed.
“Yes,” he agrees, his mouth too close to my skin, just at the base of my neck. “Someone knows we're here.”
But why are they screaming? He said this place was safe. Atlas would know who gets to come and go, him and Cain, if he’s not lying to me.
Which means…
I try to spin around, anger momentarily replacing my fear. “You—”
He presses the gun to the side of my temple.
I don't move.
I don't breathe.
The cool steel has me frozen, his arm still banded around my body. His fingers brush the skin of my hip, my shirt riding up.
“I tried to warn you, Ella.”
I don't dare move an inch, but I want to press my thighs together. I want to run. I want to move. “When?” I whisper, breathing hard. “When did you ever warn me?”
“Little Red Riding Hood. I tried to tell you last night. My dad wanted to push everything up. I don’t know why. But he wants you six feet under.”
I can’t suck in air fast enough. I’m hyperventilating, and my limbs are tingling. “But you were helping me fight. You were…”
He digs his fingers in deeper, and he doesn’t move the gun from my head. “Do you know what the wordscelusmeans, Ella?” I feel his breath on my lips, trembling as I stare up at him.
The scream sounds again.
My knees shake.
“No.” I don’t know how I form the word. I shake my head, and he digs in the gun harder. I manage, somehow, to speak again. “No, Atlas, I don’t—”
“Evil.” He brushes his lips over mine. “Deed.”
My heart gallops too hard in my chest.
“Betrayal, Ella.” He smiles, pulling my bottom lip between his teeth. “It means,” he says, biting down softly, then releasing me. “You cannot be trusted. It means there’s some place you need to go.”
“Liar’s Island.” I gasp it out. “Are you going to…take me? Is it near here? Is it close to Liber? Is the island—”
“Liar’s Island is a safe place. Edith Van Damme owns the island.Youwon’t get to go there, I’m afraid.”
My chest tightens.Edith Van Damme.Elijah’s wife. Why wouldsheown the island?Where the children go to die?Why wouldshekill them? But Atlas said it’ssafe.
“No,” Atlas continues as my lips tremble, trying to think of what to ask, what to say to save my own life. He promised he’d tell me everything, but I didn’t know it would be likethis.“Have you ever heard ofShadow Villa,Ella?”
I wake up on the bed. Prying open heavy eyes, the dream or memory or hallucination is enough to get me moving, despite the fact I feel utterlyspent.Red lights line the room, and I know it’s Atlas’s.
I scan every inch of the space I can see.
