Page 24 of The October Trials

He chuckles. “Dead? Yes, she is. Archon sacrificed her on my eighteenth birthday. Said she fulfilled her role. She likes to stick around, though, so it’s like she’s still here with me.”

The hallway tilts.

I stare at him, waiting for the punchline. His annoying smirk to tell me he’s joking.

What the fuck. What. the. fuck.

I talked to a dead woman, a ghost. She seemed so real. She, she—

My breath quickens, pressing harder against the wall. “All of you. You’re completely fucking deranged.”

One gloved hand comes up, fingers tracing the edge of my jaw. “I told you before we started the night that you haven’t seen sick yet. Do you take me for a liar, little bird? Now… tell me how you got free.”

“Your dad,” I gasp as his hand comes to wrap around my throat. All of this is too much. “He… called me in to tell me something, then just left me in the hallway, so I ran.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” His tongue traces over his teeth—his sickeningly beautiful white teeth—as he seems to piece together something in his head.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“My father doesn’t just do things. That means you fell into his trap. He wanted you to meet mother.”

“Please,” I whisper, looking up at him with the biggest, doe-eyed stare I can muster. “Just let me go. I won’t tell anyone about tonight. I-I’ll even scream for you again.”

I’m not above playing into his fetishes to get what I want.

“No!” I scream, kicking wildly as he starts dragging me down the hallway toward the dining room. “Let me go! Let me out of this fucking wretched mansion!”

He doesn’t even slow down. His grip is bruising, unrelenting. A sob breaks from me because I already know he’s not going to stop. He’s never going to let me go.

“I thought you were becoming a nice guy,” I choke out between gasps. “You ate that girl’s leg for me!”

Cage stops so abruptly I nearly stumble. He turns, towering over me. “Nice guy?” He laughs. “Don’t start insulting me now, little bird.”

Screw him. I lash out fast, aiming my knee straight for his balls. He shifts at the last second, and my knee glances off his thigh instead. Before I can try again, his hand shoots out and wraps around my throat.

Hard.

So hard I’m choking.

I can’t breathe.

He’s about to kill me.

He slams me back against the wall, letting go at the last second. The fuzzy black dots in my vision slowly start to seep away. My head spins. I claw at his wrist, gasping, feet barely touching the ground.

“Mother likes you,” he continues, voice dropping. “She doesn’t show herself to just anyone. Means she approves. Means she thinks you’d look beautiful bleeding for me. Don’t make me have to kill you and feed you to her.”

Tears burn down my cheeks as I stare into the dark voids of his eyes.

They’re almost black now, like something evil has taken over.

Nausea rolls through me, but beneath it, a traitorous heat simmers low in my belly. The same heat that betrays me whenever I’m close to him. I hate it. I hate him.

Cage’s thumb brushes over the frantic pulse in my throat like he’s memorizing it. Then he slowly lowers me until my feet touch the floor again, though his hand never leaves my neck.

“Good girl,” he murmurs. “Keep being good, and maybe you’ll survive the night.”

He starts dragging me toward the dining room again, his grip shifting to the back of my neck. Guiding me forward like a disobedient pet.