Chapter 39 #2
“Unfortunately, all I had to do was smile, and he went…” A darkened look crosses her face. “Never mind. Did you find a game? I’m fucking bored, and you seem to be the only entertaining elemny on this damn ship. Isn’t that funny?”
“Laughable,” I say, twitching a smirk.
Pandora rolls her eyes, but I notice a hint of a smile before she turns away and heads deeper into the bedroom. Without care or grace—something she severely lacks—Pandora flops onto the bed, crosses her legs, presses her hands onto her knees, and leans forward with curiosity. “What are we playing?”
I drop the box on the bed. “Connect Four. Do you know how to play?”
“Yes. You connect four of the colours?”
I sit on the bed, cross my legs, and open the box. “There are rules to this game.” Pandora’s eyes light up a bright brown. “Whoever wins gains the answer to their question or whatever you want done to them.”
“Can I ask for anything?”
“Anything.”
“So, if I want you to fuck off for the day, you would?”
“Yes,” I say, twitching a smile. “Before we start each round, we ask our designated question. I want us to have the motivation to win, and I want to see you squirm. It…excites me.”
“Sick fuck.”
I chuckle. “Sure, Pandora.”
She leans forward and purses her full lips. “Go on. What’s your question?”
“I believe you already know it. What caused you to awaken when we fought in the apartment building?”
Pandora sighs. “Of course, it would be like that. You’re like a dog with a bone. You can’t help but keep persisting.”
“What can I say?” I flip the rack up and divide the colours. “I’m a mutt.” With a beaming grin, Pandora moves closer and places the blue chips in her hand. “And yours?”
She ponders the thought. As she thinks, I line up the red chips, stacking them in threes to buy time.
“What made you hunt me?”
I huff a breath.
“What?” she snaps.
“I would answer that without playing this game. Pick another one that’s not as pathetic as your last.”
Pandora looks sour, as if she’s bitten into a lemon with the rind. “Fine then. If I win, you get to let me interrogate Kate privately, and you aren’t allowed to ask what we were talking about.”
“Done,” I say, and it causes her to blink in bewilderment. “Let’s play.”
I let her go first because it taught me a great deal about her movements. Usually, everyone starts from the middle because it’s easier to gain ground by going across, up, and diagonally. Pandora, though, does not know what she’s doing and slots it in the second from the right.
This is going to be painfully easier than I thought. I should have picked the Battleship game. Poor little lamb will not taste victory tonight.
I slide my piece second from the centre, and we go back and forth, but it doesn’t last long before four red circles line up. Using my finger—before Pandora can slide her blue piece in—I drag it over the four red circles and beam a victorious grin at her.
“Fuck,” she mutters.
“Enlighten me,” I encourage.
Pandora throws me a dagger of a look, one that could gut me like a fish and toss me back in the water for the sharks. Not only would she gut me, but the scales protecting the meat would flake away with every slice of her blade.
This woman is a sore loser.
“Uh, fuck it,” Pandora says, sighing. “When you dragged me towards you and separated my legs, I thought you were going to rape me. I freaked out and screamed.” She shrugs, but the stiffness in her shoulders tells me she’s uncomfortable talking about it. “That’s it.”
It’s not, but it’s a start. There’s a reason she freaked out. My thoughts return to Alad when he tells me Astin knows about Pandora’s dark past. I doubt Astin knew Pandora before the incident at the Kingdom of Crystal.
I set the game up again.
She freaked out that night because someone attempted to rape her, or she was raped. All the signs align with that, and I know Pandora’s not lying. Her rigid, awkward, and jerky movements tell me this is the first time she’s spoken about it to anyone, so she doesn’t know how to hold herself.
“Next question, then.” I hand her the blue coin chips. “You said you never played games growing up. What did your parents do with you instead?”
The tightness around her shoulders eases. It’s a question she will happily answer.
“My question is the same.”
I shake my head. “No. Another. Every question needs to be different.”
She points at me and waggles her finger. “You’re just making up rules as you go, aren’t you?”
“Yes. It’s my game, and you are along for the ride. So, another.”
“If I win, you have to be my servant for the day and do as I say.”
“Done,” I say because I know she will lose.
We play again. It goes on longer, but not because she miraculously got better. No, I enjoy playing with my food and watching her squirm. It satisfies me, quenching my hunger for a hunt.
“Okay,” I say, pointing to the four lines crossing, “answer my question.”
With a roll of her eyes, Pandora says, “I was born into this world without a name. I had to remind myself of that. When I was five, I asked my dad why he didn’t call me anything but ‘daughter,’ and he explained it was because he didn’t want me to have any connections, not even a name.
I didn’t play with dolls like Typha, nor did I have any toys or games in my room.
” She forces a smile. “I was a little girl in a room filled with shadows and empty echoes.”
I cock my head to the side. “Who called you Pandora?”
Pandora rubs her knuckles. “I did when I first started school. I switched between Pandora, Myra, and Averis—but I liked Pandora the most, so I stuck with it.”
I’m unsure of what to say, so I restart the game.
“My question,” I say as I hand her the coin chips, “is not a question this round but more of an action. If I win, I want to see what you’re hiding underneath that shirt.”
Her trembling fingers wrap around her waist, and there’s a guarded look, tight shoulders, and a stiff-backed demeanour rippling from her now. “Okay,” she says, but breathy air leaves her lungs. “If I win, you must show me around the Kingdom of Cloud.”
I arch a brow. “Why?”
“If I am dying soon, I want to at least experience life.”
I smile crookedly, “With the enemy?”
“Do I have anyone else?”
I dip my head in agreement.
I prolong the game because I enjoy her furrowed-brow look of utter seriousness. Compared to the other games, she takes her time with this one and examines each piece before slipping her coin into the slot. Unfortunately, as a beginner, she doesn’t yet have the experience.
The red coin moves across the slot, and I’m ready to checkmate her, but as I look up, I pinch the coin tighter, preventing it from slipping through my fingertips.
Pandora glares at her lap, her long, manicured fingernails burrowing into her flesh until her pasty skin throbs a brilliant red.
She bites her bottom lip, scraping both lipstick and skin.
A blob of blood splits from her lip, and she licks away the iron taste.
Her wavering brown eyes glisten on the verge of tears, and her body jolts in a panic.
I move the coin over one space and slip it into the one beside my checkmate.
Pandora goes next, scanning them until the weary look vanishes and excitement brims across her enchanting face. She slides the coin chip into the slot I left vacant and looks happy—no, it’s a look of relief.
“I win!”
I smile. “I owe you that experience.”
Her hands tighten on her shirt, protecting her insecurities. “Yep! You owe me a date.”
My lip curls, and my eyes widen. “I’d rather fucking choke myself.”
She places the chips back in, and I pack up the game. “I’m thinking you have a choking kink.”
“I do. It’s the most intimate form of death you can give someone.”
“Hah! Is that why you want to choke me? You’re in love with me or something?”
I sigh. “You’re so…I don’t even fucking know anymore, but you’re becoming a hindrance that I want to set free so you can stop irritating me.”
When I look up, her face flushes pink, and she tilts her head to the side, beaming a grin over her victory. It’s hard to look away when she’s like this. Carefree, authentic, arrogant…a beautiful nightmare. One where she will rip my heart out, and I would enjoy every fucking moment of it.
“Goodnight, Pandora.”
Pandora yawns, “See you for our date tomorrow, Prince Reen.”
I’d like to kill her now. At least smother her until she’s knocked out for a few days. She seems like the only one that burrows under my skin, and now she fucking knows it.