Their low screams—a crying whistle infiltrates every square inch of this floor while they burn. One body part at a time, I left them in a pile and lit a match for Elise to see. Because she’s here—hidden—and I’m going to enjoy the day she’s caught.
Not today, though. Today is for my bride.
“My King, we have Consuelos and Diana at the warehouse. Should I proceed?” Captain Bron asks from beside me. He’s a retired general I placed here to protect Gabriella after she was born. “Everyone is waiting on your orders.”
“Not yet.” Taking in a deep breath, I let her enthralling scent dominate my senses. It prickles, excitement flooding through my system. She’s running. “First, I need to pick up my bride.”
He nods in understanding, a smile on his face. “We’ve all missed her.”
“I know.”
35
Gabriella
I’m running.
Scared out of my mind and running toward God knows where with no destination in sight. I can’t stop, either. Not when nightmares are real and the man I’d fallen in love with is the devil incarnate.
He’d never hurt me.
My subconscious knows this, but I can’t control this fear. Can’t stop questioning every interaction and every touch and the soft look in his eyes whenever I laughed. The anger when I cried.
I saw all those emotions. They weren’t pretend or fake; Theo cares but he’s also—
The dead bodies. The snake. The dream.
“Why did you do this to me?” I ask out loud, a small minuscule part of me hoping for an answer, but there isn’t one. To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t found me yet with all the noise I’m making, but I also don’t hesitate to toss a chair behind me when it’s in my way after making it to the lobby. There’s fire and smoke and this pungent scent that’s a bit sickly sweet. “Need to get out.”
Where is the exit? The smoke is dense, but after taking a right turn, I find the main entrance door. It’s open and pulling some of the smoke out which I follow, nearly dropping to my knees when I can breathe in clean air again.
The entrance has cars blocking the area, some pointing toward the door with others staggered about, their doors half opened. And I find one still turned on, it’s lights blazing through the night sky.
I run toward it.
Run because the devil himself is behind me, but as I grow near, my attention is pulled to the side.
“How can this be real?” Two heads snap up and look over. One black and one white. A cobra and a python. They’re choking the life out of the guard who nearly cracked my skull during my arrest; his face is nearly blue, and blood dribbles from his mouth.
His expression is one of horror, of helplessness, and I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for him.
Not after what they did to me.
The python tightens his grip around the officer’s neck and something breaks, the light in the man’s eyes vanishing. They don’t stop, though. If anything, they’re even madder, hissing and biting, and when I finally meet the eyes of the cobra, my world stops.
“Marcia, your brother is going to kill you. Get down from that tree.”
“But, Gabriella,” she whines, using a tone that makes me cringe from her perch on a low branch. She’s one of the few people I’ve forbidden from using my title.
I see her family as my own.
“Don’t ‘Gabriella’ me.” My brow arches and Marcia looks down, a bit contrite. “You have a date tonight with those lessons, and there’s no getting out of it.”
“But shape-shifting is hard.”
“Life is hard, kid.”
At that she scoffs, her jet-black hair rustled by the wind. “Tero doesn’t struggle like I do, Gabby. And by the way, you’re only three years older than me.”
My response is a roll of my eyes and a tap to my watch. “That’s because he studies and takes his lessons seriously.”
“You’re not letting me off the hook…are you?”
“Not on your life, my friend. Not on your life.”
Reality slams back into me when the man is tossed aside and hits another car, the alarm going off. What I saw, what I felt looking at that girl, was friendship. Affection, and my hands clench as the need to reach out and touch the cobra becomes nearly unbearable.
What the fuck?
I take a step forward. My feet carry me without my permission.
“Pretty girl, this isn’t considered running away.” My head whips back, and I find Theodore standing against a pillar near the entrance watching me. “Or are you done fighting something your heart is secretly yearning for? We are your home, Gabriella. We are your family.”
“Please let me go,” I beg, his words hitting harder than the memory.
“I’ve waited a century for you.” His sad expression hits me in the chest, and I get a pang—this pain that comes every once in a while—that nearly doubles me over. “You have sixty seconds left, Gabriella. Make them count, because once I have my hands on you…I’ll never let you go.”
“I’m not who you think I am.” You are. A voice whispers in my head. My eyes snap to the cobra, and I know it’s her. She’s speaking to me. I’ve missed you so much, Gabby. We’ve all needed you. “Make it stop. Make it all stop.”
“Be specific, sweetheart.”
My eyes flick to his, the tears in my eyes making him a bit blurry. I try to wipe them away, but more fall. “The voices. These thoughts.”
“I can’t control your subconscious, Gabriella. This is all you.”
Remember me. Remember your family.
“I’m nothing but an orphan who paints and—”
“You are and will always be a queen. My Queen.”
We were walking through the castle’s corridor; Tero was to my left and Marcia to my right, much like they’ve done since I came to live here, my ever-present shadows, and I know Theodore cares for them too. He wouldn’t trust them to be around me otherwise. He wouldn’t have brought them to live here under his protection
