Kyan’s brows arched and Blake snorted an amused laugh like this was all some joke. Saint’s expression became calculating, assessing, like he was thinking through every word I’d just spoken and running it through some algorithm in his head.
“Alright,” Saint agreed and I would have fallen off my chair if I’d been sitting down.
What does he mean ‘alright’?
He strode across the room, taking a notepad and a pen from a drawer before walking back to the table, placing it down and pulling out the chair in front of it.
“Sit,” he commanded and I frowned, not moving an inch. “Sit down, Barbie,” he snarled. “Or would you rather I left you in that coffin for the rest of the afternoon?”
I weighed my options, figuring I didn’t want to die today. I walked over to the seat, eyeing him suspiciously as I dropped down into it. He picked up the pen, holding it out for me and I took it with a frown.
“You may make rules which will ensure you feel comfortable enough to stick to our rules.”
“How generous,” I spat, slamming the pen down on the notepad in refusal.
“That is the most compromising I will be, Plague. So either take the opportunity or don’t, but I will not have you waste another minute of my morning,” he growled.
I stared at Saint, looking from him to Blake whose dark green eyes seemed almost black as he watched me, then to Kyan who was observing this all with vague disinterest.
I turned back to face the notepad, my mind working over this situation. “So if I make rules…what happens if you all break them?” I narrowed my eyes at Saint, knowing he would be the one to enforce my rules if this was allowed.
He considered me for a moment, running his tongue over his teeth and I noticed his canines were sharper than most people’s. Even his genetics had forged him into a predator. “You may punish us as you see fit.”
My eyes widened and Blake and Kyan exchanged a loaded look.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Blake challenged Saint, squaring his shoulders at him.
“Yes,” Saint said immediately. “If you don’t want to be punished, Blake, then don’t break her fucking rules. It’s as simple as that.”
“I can make whatever rules I like?” I narrowed my eyes at Saint.
“So long as they fit with our previous rules, yes,” Saint agreed.
Okay…welcome to mindfuck city, Tatum Rivers. One second you’re in a coffin, the next you’re being given a gift. Although maybe this was more about the fact that Saint didn’t want me rebelling against his rules too forcefully. Of course, I’d never agreed to that. So that was just his assumption. Not my problem.
I lifted the pen and felt the three of them crowding in behind me, their combined breaths on my skin making my skin tingle.
I gazed down at the blank paper before me, poising the pen above it as I wet my lips. This page was an olive branch extended to me by the devil himself. Was it safe to even assume that whatever rules I made up they’d really abide by?
“Why would you let me do this?” I asked, hesitating again as I looked up at Saint on my right. Even if I did fight them all the way to their bedrooms, I didn’t really think the threat was enough to make him give in. So what was his angle?
He laid his palm on the table, making a cage with his body as he leaned in closer. Blake’s hands moved to rest on my shoulders and he shifted my hair aside, making a shiver tumble down my spine. I sensed Kyan boxing me on the other side, suddenly drowning in their shadows as they surrounded me.
“It seems only fair,” Saint said with something of a smile on his face. Only it wasn’t full of light, it was endlessly dark.
Something about writing these rules felt like signing a contract with them. I was agreeing to stay here. And sure, now I wanted to do that for my own reasons. To rain hell down on them for what they’d done to me, but what was that really going to cost me?
I let my eyes fall to the starkly white page again, my heart thumping to a wild beat.
What am I willing to give for my revenge?
My breathing became unsteady and I let my eyes fall closed, reminded of that moment back on Sycamore Beach, penned in by these three dark gods who sought to smite me. Who pushed and bit at me until I bled for them, then they lapped at my wounds, savouring my pain in the same moment they healed me. Things between us were messy and unclear. But the one shining truth I could hold onto was that I would give almost anything to make them suffer the way I had suffered.
I laid pen to paper and opened my eyes, sinking into a dark and disturbingly peaceful place inside me, a plan swirling through my mind and lighting me up like a firework.
Blake leaned forward, resting his mouth to my ear. I couldn’t breathe for a long moment, my thighs squeezing together as electricity danced under my skin. I hated the way my body reacted to him. To all of them. “Let’s see the rules then, Cinders.”
I nodded as he drew away, inhaling deeply as I started writing, a thrill crashing through my body. Because if any of them broke my rules, I would punish them as harshly as they’d punished me, make them face the wrath of a scorned queen and see how they liked the taste of their own vile medicine. This
