Page 104 of The Masks and the Dancer (Their Obsession 2)

CHAPTER23

CHRISTY

“You’re here,” Thirteen says, frowning as I enter her bedroom on unsteady legs. “I was just about to head back to Leon’s suite. Konrad’s room is ready for him.”

“I know, Leon’s there with him now,” I murmur.

“Is everything okay…?”

Her voice trails off as she takes a good look at me. Shock widens her eyes as her gaze rakes over the bruises scattered across the bare skin of my arms, finally resting on my split and swollen lip. I haven’t seen the state of my back, and right now my dress is covering the worst of it, but I’m pretty sure it’s covered in cuts and grazes from the rough stone of the cave wall despite the water washing away all of the blood in our swim back to the other side of the lake.

“What happened?!”

I shake my head, the words on my lips lost beneath the sudden, overwhelming emotions that flood my system and force my knees to buckle beneath me just as Six steps out of Thirteen’s bathroom.

“That tonic has really helped to ease my period pains, thanks Thir—What on Earth?” she exclaims, rushing forward at the same time Thirteen does.

Six is cursing under her breath as they both help me to my feet and guide me to Thirteen’s bed. I fall into the warmth of Six’s body, grateful for her softness as she eases me onto the mattress.

“Did Konrad do this? Was it Leon? What hurts the most?” Thirteen asks in quick succession, her eyes wild with worry as she crouches before me, her fingers skimming over my skin.

“No. It wasn’t like that,” I mutter, shaking my head.

She huffs out a breath, giving me a concerned look as she rushes over to her potions lined up across the counter on the other side of the room. She picks up bottle after bottle, placing them back down as she searches for something specific. Half a minute later she finds what she’s looking for and grabs a clear bottle filled with a pale pink, sparkling liquid. I watch her in a daze as she pours it into a mug then adds a pinch of herbs from one jar and a dash of crushed petals from another before striding back over to me and placing it into my shaking hands.

“Drink this. It’ll help with the pain,” she says, before grabbing a jar of skin cream from the table beside the bed.

“I don’t feel any pain,” I reply, watching her as she unscrews the lid and starts applying the cream to my bruises.

“Perhaps not yet, but you will,” she says quietly, jerking her chin to the mug I’m holding. “It has a sedative effect, too. You need sleep.”

I follow her instructions robotically and take a sip of the drink, tasting elderberries and something flowery that I can’t quite put my finger on as she applies the cream to the bruises on my arms before wiping the excess on her pinafore and screwing the lid back on the jar. She places it on the floor by her feet, looking up at me.

“What happened?” she asks, resting her hands on my knee.

“We fucked,” I blurt out.

“You fucked?” Six asks. I hear the doubt in her voice, the concern. She sees a victim, not someone who is capable of murder, even if that’s something that hasn’t actually happened yet.

“Yes. I just fucked Konrad.”

“Was that something you wanted?” Thirteen asks softly.

“Yes...”

My voice trails off as I contemplate the truth of that fact. It was so much more than fucking, so much more. I’d started out wanting to find a way into their hearts so I could break them like they broke me, but after what I witnessed tonight, the love Leon has for his brother, the way Konrad fought so hard against his demons made something inside of me shift. I felt it happen, and honestly, I don’t know what to do with that, especially knowing what’s coming. What Ican’tchange.

I’m going to kill them.

Thirteen chews on her lip before tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear and gently tipping my chin up. “Did you use protection?”

I shake my head, it hadn’t even occurred to me. Not before I offered myself up to Konrad, not during and certainly not after. “No, I…” My voice trails off as I give her a helpless look. “The last thing I need is a baby.”

Thirteen squeezes my hand and gets to her feet once more. “I have something that can help with that,” she says as she grabs a little silver tin from the shelf above the counter and takes out a small brown pill. “It works similarly to the morning after pill. It’s potent, and you will get cramps and bleed for the next couple of days, but it’s perfectly safe, okay?”

“Okay,” I say, taking it from her and using the last mouthful of the drink to wash it down. “Thank you.”

“I also have something that I can give you to stop you getting pregnant. All of the Numbers take it,” Thirteen says, flicking her gaze to Six.

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