Page 18 of Tarnished Queen

I inhale sharply, and Nikolai smirks. His mouth is a cruel slash. “There it is. Did I get through to you at last? Fuck knows your skull is thick.”

Nikolai grabs my arm and leads me down the hallway to the right. It’s in the opposite direction of my room. I want to ask where we’re going, but I know he won’t answer.

He hates me. He well and truly hates me.

And even as my heart breaks, the only thing I can think to ask is, “What about Elise?”

We’re near the end of the hall. I imagine a hidden passageway opening up into a dungeon that lurks below the house. It would be just like Nikolai Zhukova to have a secret torture chamber below his house. He’ll throw me down there and get rid of the key. He joked about it once—and who’s to say it wasn’t really a joke at all?

“What about her?”

“Did she find you like I told her to?” My lip trembles, and I do my best to keep it firm. “When she escaped from Xena’s car, I told her to find you. I said… I said you’d take care of her.”

“Looks like you lied to her, too, then.”

Panic flares up in me, a sudden geyser of fear. I rip my arm out of his grip and back away. “I have to find her. She’s out there by herself, and I have to find her.”

“No, you need to start cooperating.”

“I’ll cooperate! I will. I’ll cooperate and be your prisoner for as long as you want… if you find Elise.”

Nikolai barks out a laugh. “You are not in a position to be making deals, Belle. You’re already my prisoner.”

“Please,” I rasp. “Elise is everything to me. She’s all I have.”

Nikolai turns away and unlocks a normal-looking door behind me. The room behind is so dark I can’t make out what it is, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be as nice as my last room in his house.

He points. “Walk in.”

He’s right: I’m not in a position to make deals. But maybe if I cooperate—if I show him how easy life with me as a prisoner could be—maybe he’ll agree to help.

I step into the dark and turn to face him. The hallway light creates a halo around his dark hair. He looks like an angel of death glaring down at me.

“So?” I ask desperately. “Will you find her?”

“You betrayed me, Belle. You lied, and now, my best friend is dead.”

I choke back a sob. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t mean shit to me,” he says. “You know what will make me feel better? Revenge.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I want an eye for an eye. The most important person in my world is gone… and now, you’ll know just what that feels like.”

A scream rips out of my throat, but Nikolai is too fast. He slams the door shut as I hurl myself against it, pounding my fists on the wood until my knuckles bleed.

7

BELLE

I don’t know if I’ve been locked in this room for hours or days. The window has been boarded over with a huge piece of plywood with screws as thick as my thumb, so there’s no light and no clock in sight. The only way I’ve been able to mark the passage of time is with the ebb and flow of my hunger.

I was given a cup of ice chips in the hospital, but I haven’t eaten a proper meal since Nikolai and I went to lunch after the doctor’s appointment. My stomach growls and grumbles, begging for food, and I’m so desperate for someone to talk to that I talk back.

“I know,” I tell it. “But he won’t let me starve, right? He cares about the baby.”

The truth stings.

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