Page 94 of Gilded Curses

He missed those fingers. Absently, he went to flex his lost hand, but of course, there was nothing to move.

He lowered his arm and settled the stump on his lap. He’d made the right choice when he cut it off and didn’t regret it, but he missed his hand.

Then he spotted the empty spot on top of the fireplace, between someone else’s foot and a finger, and smiled. Desmond had made a place on his mantle for a hand, but Orin ruined it for him.

Good.

When the women finally finished with Desmond, the shower turned on as they cleaned themselves. From what he’d glimpsed before leaving the room, Alda took off her clothes before killing Desmond.

After they finished dressing, they entered the sitting room. Orin rose and returned to Desmond’s bedroom. He checked to make sure Desmond was dead, but the women had left no doubt of that.

He smiled at the man and patted his cheek again before striding into the weapon’s room. With Alda’s help, he strapped as many swords as he could onto his back, gathered a bunch of daggers and knives, and holstered them to his waist.

Occasionally, he would stop and jump around to ensure everything was firmly in place, but none of the weapons made any noise when he moved.

“Are you ready?” he asked after they finished.

“Yes,” Alda said as Aurora nodded.

Orin circled them as he examined them both for any sign of something unusual, but their hair had completely dried, and he didn’t see any sign of what happened here. He stopped before them and leaned back on his heels. “It’s time to go.”

Their white dresses flowed across the ground as they approached the door, and he drew the shadows around him. He followed them and jumped a couple more times to ensure the weapons didn’t rattle, but they’d secured them well.

While Alda and Aurora waited by the door, they searched the room for him, but their eyes didn’t linger on where he stood before flitting away. “Ready?” Alda whispered.

“Ready,” he said from their right, and they both jumped a little.

They quickly covered their shock, and Alda’s shoulders hunched forward in a posture of defeat and exhaustion. She ran her fingers through her hair, messing it up more. Aurora did the same, and they examined each other before Alda opened the door.

Alda stepped aside to let Aurora exit first. As she did so, Orin slipped into the hall.

He kept himself to the side of Aurora so they didn’t accidentally touch when Alda entered the hall and shut the door behind her. Both women walked with their shoulders slouched and their heads bent as they passed the guards.

Some men snickered at the women while others curled their lips in disgust. Orin would bet that these men had been allowed to brutalize these women too, or at least been given other women to torture. Desmond and Sheree liked to keep their pets happy, after all.

Yet, here they were judging Aurora and Alda when the guards had choices, but the only ones they had were survival. It was another way for the guards and Elite to make these women feel worse; he couldn’t wait to destroy these fuckers.

They had no idea what awaited them in the shadows, and he relished every second of knowing those shadows and the servants would soon turn on them.

Keeping close to the women but far enough away that if they stopped, he wouldn’t walk into them, Orin trailed them. Their steps were noiseless on the wooden floor as they remained hunched in defeat.

Though he was hyperaware of his surroundings, his heart pounded out a steady beat, and a sense of calm ascended over him as they traversed the hall. They’d made it twenty feet when one of the guards stepped away from the wall behind him.

“Wait!” the guard commanded.

Orin stopped behind the women, who glanced at each other with furrowed brows. Judging by their reactions, this was something new and not good.

His mind spun as he tried to recall hearing a clatter from the weapons or the slightest noise, but there hadn’t been anything to draw their attention.

“What is that?” the guard who stopped them demanded.

The women looked over themselves and around the hall before turning to the guard. “What is what?” Alda asked.

“That.” The man pointed a finger at Aurora’s dress. “What is that?”

Orin spotted a bead of bright red blood amongst all the white. It was so small most wouldn’t have noticed it, but he would have.

That spot hadn’t been there when he inspected them before leaving the room. So how had it gotten there?