Page 140 of Sharpest Court

“Stop!” I shouted. “Please stop!”

Marge slumped instantly, wheezing.

Erik was standing before me now, his features knife-sharp. “Guilt is a self-inflicted torture, Alissa. Let me free you from it. Give me what I want.”

Something warm slicked my wrist. I’d cut myself pulling against the manacles. “I can’t,” I gasped out.

Erik sighed. Marge screamed again.

“I don’t have the answers!” I cried. Marge’s shriek ended on a sob, and Erik raised his brows in encouragement to continue. “I don’t know why the compass doesn’t work,” I blurted. “I swear it.”

“You were its keeper for weeks. Do you expect me to believe that you didn’t tamper with it in that time? That you didn’t wish to destroy it?”

“I wanted to,” I admitted. “But I couldn’t.”

“Then why can I not use it, even after joining it with its sibling? Why is this creature’s power still wasting away in her veins?”

“I—I don’t know. I—”

A knock on the door cut me off.

“Enter,” Erik called, his narrowed gaze never leaving my face.

The door whined open behind me. “We must depart, Your Majesty.”

My stomach swooped.

“I am not finished here,” he ground out.

“My apologies, but the winds are changing. We must depart now or wait until sundown.”

Erik drew a tight inhale, considering. He must have glimpsed my fresh panic because he asked quietly, voice darkening, “Were you awaiting rescue? Were you waiting for him?”

I gulped, not trusting my voice to carry the lie.

He moved closer, until the hot air of my heavy breathing crowded the little space between us. “Tell me something,” he murmured. “Does he know what you did to your Hunter friend? That you nearly killed the boy you grew up with out of spite?”

I trembled, my tears spilling over as I thought of how I’d choked Garret in the parlor. How I’d heard him begging and had still wanted him dead.

“Does he know what you did to General Holden during the battle?” Erik continued softly. “Does he know what you did to that sympathizer at the Opal all those years ago?” He drew even nearer, our mouths now inches apart. “Does he know every part of you,” he whispered, the air drifting over my lips, “the way I do?”

You’re beautiful, Keil had told me once. Every part of you.

Those words now twisted in me like blades as Erik laid out my darkest deeds with the tenderness of a lover.

My wet, shivering silence must have been answer enough because Erik smirked in bleak satisfaction.

“It’s a shame we can’t stay.” His eyes traveled down me again. “I would have taken great pleasure in cutting him open in front of you.” I flinched as his knuckle brushed my cheek, swiping up a tear before lingering in a cool, casual caress. “No matter.” He stepped back, a vicious twinkle in his eyes. “It’ll be something to look forward to.”

I felt the last spark of hope snuff out inside me as he turned to the guard.

“Prepare to move out,” he said.

The door shut and my heartbeat ratcheted up, my wounded wrist throbbing. I’d needed to remain here long enough for the others to find me.

But I was already out of time.

“We’ll have to continue this later,” Erik said, ambling back to Marge. He sheathed his crescent blade and drew a smaller, double-edged knife from his belt.