Page 82 of Gilded Curses

Orin pondered this before releasing her. She hadn’t screamed when she discovered him decapitating Sheree. She could have alerted everyone he was here but hadn’t.

He didn’t trust her and would make sure she didn’t try anything stupid, but she was right; he had no other way out of this room. It was her or nothing, and he hadn’t come this far to have it all fall apart now.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

“If you try anything, I’ll kill you,” he vowed.

“I know.”

“Stay here.”

He kept an eye on her as he walked around the bed and toward the drape-covered windows on the other side. When he pulled back a small sliver of the curtain, he discovered a set of balcony doors and a line of guards twenty feet beyond them.

Carefully, he settled the drape back into place and turned toward Alda. “Are they always out there in such number?”

“Yes. There are many in this realm who want all the Elites dead, but especially Sheree and Desmond. I’ll help you kill every single one of them.”

“They’re not married, but are they a couple?”

“I’m not sure I’d call them that. They enjoy unleashing their cruelty on others and having sex with each other, but they also thoroughly enjoy watching each other torment, abuse, and rape others. They get off on it.”

Orin couldn’t imagine watching another man with Sahira; the idea made him so furious he had to shut it off before he completely lost control during a time when emotions were his worst enemy.

“They don’t love each other,” he said.

She scoffed. “I’m pretty sure they hate each other, but they like that too.”

They didn’t speak as Orin studied the room and the countless paintings of the same young girl lining the walls here.

“You love the witch,” Alda stated.

Orin’s eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms over his chest. His stump was starting to throb, but he paid it little attention as he studied the woman across from him.

“You don’t have to admit it,” she said. “I see it in the way you look at her.”

“You’re awfully watchful.”

“It’s what they’ve trained us to do here. We watch, wait, and rush in whenever we’re needed. If we don’t, we pay the price.”

Orin didn’t say anything as he glanced from her to the clock and back again. He wasn’t going to confirm her assessment of his relationship with Sahira, but he wouldn’t deny it either.

He waved his finger at the wall. “What’s with all the paintings of the girl?”

Alda glanced around as if she were seeing them for the first time. “That’s Sheree’s daughter.”

“Where is she?”

“Dead. She died at six, or, I should say, she was murdered at six. They say that’s why Sheree convinced the other Elites to create the spell that kept us here. It’s said a warlock murdered her daughter while searching for the gold the dagadon possess.”

“Do you believe it?”

“It’s one of the few things I do believe about her. Whether or not it was for her gold, I don’t know, but her daughter was murdered. On more than one occasion, I found her weeping as she knelt before a painting. I never let her know I was there; she would have beaten, imprisoned, or killed me if she had known, but her anguish was real.”

Orin felt a tug of sympathy for the beautiful child in the portraits. She had a mischievous smile, and the twinkle in her eyes radiated playfulness and innocence.

He felt no sympathy for her bitch of a mother. He didn’t have children and had never expected to have them, but he’d like to one day have them with Sahira.

If someone murdered one of those children, it would break his heart, and he’d hunt the offender to the ends of the realms to destroy them. But he wouldn’t use his sorrow and rage as an excuse to lock others away and turn them into playthings.