Page 22 of Fated Blood

“Oh, is that so?” Angelica tuts, walking out of Sebastian’s cage, locking it, and back into mine. She leans against the wall, covering the hole with her dress so Sebastian can’t see inside. “My dear, you’re looking so weak… Only one person to hold you here? How sad…”

“Don’t touch Sebastian!” I snarl.

She laughs again. “My my, you have a beautiful body. No wonder Seb’s cock is so hard for you…” She walks forward, taking control of me from the monster behind me. “Are you watching, Sebby?” she croons.

I thrash against her as she pushes me to my knees. I’m not strong enough to fight her. If it had been a week or so earlier this would have been a fight, but I’m starving. Too weak to defend myself. Angelica strokes my face almost lovingly, and I flinch away from her.

“Get your hands off her, Angelica. She’s right, I’m hers and she’s mine!” Sebastian roars through the hole.

I realize I can see his whole face. I smile slightly, this is not how I wanted to see him up close and personal for the first time.

“Claiming each other, are we?” She laughs, running her fingers through my hair until she’s got all of it between her fists and she yanks hard.

“Like I said, ironic!” Her son laughs, and she tilts her head toward him.

“Not the irony I was going for, but the revenge is even more sweet than I imagined.”

“What are you talking about, Angelica?” Sebastian demands.

My heart stops beating.

No. Please…no…

“Well, when I put her next to you down here, I had a plan. You two surprised me, though.”

“Stop speaking in riddles and just spit it out, Angelica!” Sebastian snarls.

“No…” I plead, my voice just above a whisper.

Angelica and her son both look at me in surprise, eyes wide and jaws dropped.

“Oh, how precious, he doesn’t know?” Angelica asks, her voice laced with poison.

“Please?” I beg, tears welling up in my eyes.

“This is rich! How poetic!” Angelica clasps her hands in front of her face and her eyes sparkle with delight.

“Go to hell, Angelica…” Sebastian growls.

“That’s what I had planned for you, dear!” She smiles, turns on her heel, and bends at the waist so she can peer at him through the hole. “Didn’t you think it was weird that I never repaired this hole? How easy it was to create? There was a reason, and it wasn’t for you to finger fuck Fayla.”

“Please, don’t!” I almost scream it, my body getting weaker and weaker as she comes closer to revealing my secret.

“Then what was it for?” Distrust has entered Sebastian’s voice, caution. “Why doesn’t Fayla want me to know?”

“Don’t you see it? The family resemblance?” Angelica comes back to me, snatching me and dragging me on my knees until my face is next to the hole. She grips my chin, turning my head from side to side. “Long, black hair, silver blue eyes…ethereal beauty…”

“Family…resemblance…” Sebastian's eyes are on mine, and my vision blurs with tears.

“I brought her down here to kill you, Sebastian,” Angelica tells him. I watch him slowly shake his head from side to side. “Hunger would overtake her, riddling her with a need she could never hope to fight. Her strength was supposed to get through this wall. She was supposed to attack you.Drain you.The princess’s first kill was supposed to be the death of one of her oldest enemies…but this is so much better!”

“Two for one!” her son chimes in, and they both laugh.

Sebastian is looking at me, his face blank, his green eyes gone black as his eyes dilate and retract so fast I can’t keep up. Slowly, his face tightens, his features contort. Anger peels his lips past his teeth and he screams at me through the hole. Rage has overtaken him, betrayal propelling his body. I’m not surprised when his hand flies through the hole and wraps around my neck in anger.

“You knew! This whole time!” he roars, his voice full of accusation.

“No!” I choke out.

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