18. Chapter Eighteen Uncharted Waters
Chapter Eighteen: Uncharted Waters
Tess
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he barked, the heat in his glowing red eyes growing more and more furious, causing my limbs to go numb in terror.
I flinched, pulled my arm back, and threw a punch at his face, but he caught it easily, chuckling. With an amused, pitying expression, he let go of me and, with his other hand, swung at a man approaching us from the side, throwing him to the ground.
That’s when I saw the huge crowd closing in from behind him. He snapped his head back to me and locked his crazed eyes on mine.
“What an exciting development that we could have never predicted,” Reaper announced like a deranged children’s show host. “This way!” He captured my wrist and hauled me down the dark hallway. Trembling candelabras barely illuminated the long, winding corridors as he raced us through. I could barely make out any shapes at the speed we were going.
Even if the house didn’t shift and change, leaving us dazed and perplexed, I couldn’t have navigated back.
When we stopped in front of a door, he checked both ways, making sure no one was around to see us.
“They’ll be coming for us.” He swung the door open, holding his hand out for me to go in. “Let’s play a little hide and seek!”
“No way.”
His lips pursed, betraying frustration under that maniacal mask, and he cocked his head as he took a deliberate breath in before answering me. “Ready. Set. Go!”
I stood frozen where I was.
I knew the last thing a woman in danger should do was step behind closed doors with a strange man. And by strange, I meant unhinged crazy. Even if he was also the sexiest-looking brute I’d ever laid eyes on. “Nah-uh. This game is a battle to the death. You think I’m stupid enough to follow you into a private room and close the door?”
“Sweetie, I could have killed you with a backhanded swat before you even noticed me.”
“Rude.”
He rolled his eyes. “Get in before I have to go all Matrix on the crowd. I’m trying to take it easy.” He brushed nonexistent fluff off his sleeves and beamed at me.
My heart pounded, and I was sure I would puke all over him if this lasted much longer. “No way.”
He curled his arm around my shoulders and shoved me into the room, sending me careening to the floor in front of a queen-sized bed draped with a luxurious, dark red velvet bedspread. The thick, rich fabric shimmered in the low light, contrasting sharply with the threadbare, paisley-patterned carpet beneath me. The carpet, once opulent, was now worn thin around the bed, its colors faded and its fibers frayed.
Old Victorian dolls surrounded us.
The walls were lined with shelves filled with creepy, dirty dolls. Their lifeless eyes seemed to follow me, some cracked and milky, others missing entirely. Some had lost limbs, with empty sockets and jagged stumps where arms or legs should have been. Many had toppled over, lying haphazardly on the shelves or the floor, their once-perfect dresses now tattered and stained.
More crowded the bed, each more disturbing than the last. A bald doll with a cracked skull, a scarred doll with one eye permanently shut, and a clown-painted doll with a sinister grin stretched across its face. One doll seemed to be clawing its way to the edge of the bed, its tiny hand outstretched in a desperate bid for freedom. Behind it, another reached out as if to pull it back, its frozen expression one of twisted determination.
A shiver ran through me, the air stagnant with the odor of decay and the unsettling aura of countless glassy eyes watching my every move. The door slammed behind me with a resounding bang, and I spun around just in time to see him throw the lock closed with a metallic click that echoed through the desolate silence.
The room seemed to close in on me, the dolls’ vacant stares growing more intense, their shadows elongating and twisting. The heaviness of the atmosphere made it hard to breathe, and the reality of my situation settled heavily on my shoulders. Every creak of the floorboard, every quiver of the light, seemed amplified in the silence, and my heart pounded in my chest, each beat a reminder of the danger I was now in .
He rubbed his hands together and then reached out for me. “Cozy!”
I glared at him, knocking his hand away. “Stay away from me.” Scrambling to my feet, I rushed to the door, craving a safe space, alone, to regroup.
He chuckled. “Now who’s rude? You’re welcome... Uh, nope.” He grasped my top and yanked me back from the door, causing me to stumble and almost collapse to the floor again. But I caught myself and squared up to him, hands on my hips.
As if I could fight this titan.
“What the fuck, dude?”
Seizing both my arms, he spun me around until his back was to the door.
Guarding it, evidently.
Suddenly, he was very serious. “You won’t last two minutes out there, girl. What the fuck are you doing here?”
His tone seemed strangely protective. It threw me off at first, but I assumed I’d misunderstood because of the turmoil, and raised an eyebrow. “Same thing everyone else is doing.”
He crossed his arms, which only gave an even beefier appearance, but his eyes were clearing. “So… dying? Yeah, I can see that. Why?”
For a moment, I just stared at him, trying to tease out his point. Was he just trying to disorient me so he could catch me off guard and break my neck? It didn’t seem that way. I let my arms down but didn’t take my eyes off him. “Why are you here?”
His expression remained impassive. Inscrutable, like he didn’t give a shit about anything, but here he was, acting like my own father never bothered to when I was in danger. “That’s my own business. ”
“Oh is that right?” I didn’t need that kind of misogynist attention from anyone. I was here to end my oppression with Ivan, and that was it.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Right. Because you’re a man .”
He pulled his head back, angry bewilderment clouding his features. He blinked, and his eyes were back to their normal warm honey hue. “No. What? No, of course not.”
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of his excuse. But he had nothing else to say. “Are you sure about that?”
He let out a long, slow breath. “It has nothing to do with that. But fine, you’re right; we all have our reasons to be here.” He had that right. I nodded, and he continued. “I propose an alliance.”
I laughed, and the veins in his neck pulsed right along with his jaw. His biceps tensed, too, but those were the only tells that he was at all affected by my flippant response. He was trying really hard to hide it.
“What’s so funny?” he spat.
I raised my chin. “You think I’m stupid.”
“What are you talking about?”
My heart pounded. If Reaper got tired of me, he looked like he could rip my throat out with his bare hands. “I know what you’re up to.”
With a subtle shift, there was a sardonic tinge to his slight grin. “Ahhh... Oh no. It’s over, then. Why don’t you tell me? What am I up to?”
“I know how this shit works. First, you gain my trust and then turn around and slit my throat.” I didn’t feel like that was true, but it had to be. This banter between us felt like just that. Friendly banter. And it felt right. Like, really right. But I couldn’t trust that. I couldn’t trust anyone or anything in this place .
He huffed. “Please. I don’t need an alliance with you. I’m offering mine.”
Trying to shake off the strange comfort I felt when I knew I shouldn’t, I forced a laugh. “Oh yeah? Out of the goodness of your heart?”
His mouth turned downward in frustration. “Yep.”
He was probably right. Who was I kidding? I was a liability to him here. All the bravado whooshed out of me with that realization. My heart raced like a dying moth fluttering along the window sill. “Why!?”
He threw his hands in the air and let them slap against his legs. “You know what? I don’t fucking know. Forget it.” Stepping aside, he nodded for me to go ahead and leave.
I took a step forward, and he just gave me this resigned, apathetic frown.
Although I knew it might have been a trick, I couldn’t just stand in front of Mr. Protective Sex Incarnate, either.
I needed a moment to compose myself.
Even if it meant fighting my way through a bunch of murderous fiends on the way there.
I swallowed, readying for whatever waited behind that door for me.
“Okay. Fine. Good luck,” I rasped.