Page 4 of Slay Me

A tall, raven-haired man looms behind her, his slate-gray eyes not missing anything as he guards her.

The woman opens her hand, and a copper penny dangles from a chain she holds.

My heart stops, emotion churning in my gut. I thought I’d lost it that day in the alley. That I’d never see the trinket again. I glance over at the Ringmaster, who is watching me intently. With his eyes on me, I’m confident enough to cross the distance and stop just on this side of the barrier separating us from them.

“Where did you find that?” I question, eyeing the necklace in her hand.

She gives me a mysterious smile. “It belongs to you, does it not?”

Her voice is soft, but the power radiating from her tingles across my skin, making me even more wary. Someone with this much power should be off leading a House, not here in No Man’s Land.

Her focus shifts to the Ringmaster. “Just as you currently belong to him.”

The man at her side is now focused purely on the Ringmaster, but I don’t miss the way his hand hovers beside the woman’s arm as if he’d step between her and danger in a heartbeat. What love must one feel to be willing to trade their life for someone else's?

The Ringmaster’s glare hardens, his face morphing to an expression just short of deadly. I know that wrapping this conversation up quickly is in my best interest, but I cannot even begin to fathom how she came across my necklace, nor how she knew it was mine. And I am desperate to know the answers to both of those questions.

I turn back to find her leaning toward me, her eyes boring into me, the power I feel around her only growing stronger. “Don’t be afraid,” she says, her voice even softer as she holds the necklace out to me. “Take back what you lost.”

The weight of her words settles on my shoulders as though she’s telling me to take back more than just the necklace. But I shake off the thought. Nothing more belongs to me. My freedom is gone, my life owned. This heirloom is all I have to take. To possess.

Reaching out, I close my hand around the penny.

She releases it, a smile touching her lips as she gently exhales, and I’m surprised to realize she was holding her breath. Then, she glances up at the man beside her, the trust in her eyes far too pure to belong in a place like No Man’s Land.

The pair quickly turns away, heading into the crowd. Within seconds, they’ll disappear, so I take a chance to call out softly, uncertain if she’ll hear me. “Who are you?”

The woman pauses. She glances back across her shoulder. “I’m Emmaline.”

With one final smile, she and the man with her disappear into the crowd. I stare down at the penny in my hand, joy surging through me.

“Who was that?”

I stiffen, the Ringmaster’s presence behind me both unwelcome and secure. I’m at war with myself when I’m around him. A battle raging within my mind, knowing I should be terrified of him even if my body is more than willing to trust him with the last remaining pieces of my soul.

Chapter2

Liv

“Ithink you might have actually gotten some of my hair,” Jenny complains as she plops down in the chair beside Thomas. She sets her plate down and groans. The bright orange strands are braided down her back, her almond-shaped eyes narrowing as she pouts. Though it doesn’t last long. The moment Thomas looks at her, she lights up, her pout turning into a smile.

“I’m sorry, love,” Thomas replies then presses a kiss to her temple. He’s basically the exact opposite of her—his hair a dark black, eyes bright yellow. “It’s not my fault your ass is delectable even in animal form.”

“First of all, ewww.” Fiona shivers. “Second, you two are so adorable it makes me sick.”

“Isn’t that just a repeat of your earlier declaration?”

Fiona glares over at Harriss, a djinn sitting at the table beside us. His bald head shines beneath the bright lights, and the look he gives the berserker is so heated I’m surprised it doesn’t melt the table between them.

“How about you mind your business?” she snaps.

Harriss rolls his pale eyes. “You are so predictable.”

She flings her dagger, and it buries into the table right by his hand. “See that coming?”

Wordlessly, he plucks it from the wood and tosses it back onto our table. “I don’t have to see it to know how you’re going to respond.”

When he first arrived, I’d been surprised to see the two of them hitting it off. Especially given Fiona’s dislike of—well—anyone but me. They’d become a thing pretty quickly, but then that thing turned into her chasing a naked Harriss through the third floor of our apartment building after catching him in bed with Valentina.

---