LOGINOLIVIALocking the door was a real dick move, I thought while I pressed my foot against the wall beside it, cupping the handle with both hands and pulling with my entire weight.“Come on!” I bit down, pulled harder, and felt something akin to a creak before I landed on my ass. That door was deadbolted. There’s no way I couldn’t open a goddamn door unless it was some fortified prison cell meant to keep people from entering. Or exiting…shit.The sun had set, Nathaniel hadn’t returned, and I hadn’t eaten in hours, so I was grumpy as all hell. On the golden hook in the corner hung my dress. Throughout my time in solitude, I occasionally slipped a peek every now and then. It was just as beautiful no matter how many times I saw it.Maybe just one more peek. I tiptoed across the floor like it was a secret what hid in there. Reaching for the zipper, already smiling, someone knocked on the door and nearly gave me a heart attack. My back hit the bedpost when, like a startled cat, I jumped acros
NATHANIELI wanted to press Olivia on what plans Isla had for her, but there wasn’t time when we arrived back home. After delivering both the dress and my wife to our room, I reluctantly locked the door on my way out. Couldn’t have her wandering around the halls or getting into more trouble than she already was. All my family needed was one more indication that she was a descendant of the Grace line to commence the trials. A series of events meant to cause excruciating pain, test a person’s sanity in ways that, if you weren’t a Grace, you wouldn’t survive. I’ll be damned if anything happened to her. Hell, I’d rather do the fucking trials myself to spare her.All I could do was hope that she didn’t put her trust in Isla. I'd known the girl my whole life; she’s loyal to a fault and fiercely protective —she’s also a sly snake with poison in her fangs, which she’s not opposed to using on those she doesn’t like. If, by some fucked up chance of fate, Olivia chose to trust her, it’d be my fa
OLIVIAEver since we exited the car, I’d felt like a rag doll being pulled in every which way. Down the packed streets on the busiest side of town, in and out of boutiques with the gaudiest dresses I’d seen in my twenty-two years of life. In a few of them, Nathaniel asked the store clerks if they had anything green, to which they showed him every piece they had with flecks of green in them, clearly desperate to sell him something.One of the girls beamed in the last place we visited. She asked if it was for the Emerald Gala, to which she received a growl that had her scurrying out the back to grab one of everything they had that could suit the occasion. Emerald Gala- never heard of it, but something told me that it wasn’t a quiet evening without the Lockhearts…“Here, put it on.” We were in our fifth boutique of the day, and the poor girl who was helping us out was sweating from her head. A pile of dresses was folded over her arms, all of which Nathaniel had dismissed. All but one. Th
OLIVIAOkay, that was moronic. We shouldn’t have done what we did last night, and I was paying the price today, when walking to the bathroom proved rougher than a week’s worth of combat training.It was just something in how he positioned himself in front of me last night. Like a wall prepared to capture the flying arrows and vicious howls. Unbothered. Stable. Unyielding.Nathaniel was gone when I woke up. Off to kill someone, no doubt, probably alongside that equally sadistic brother of his. This family had always been known as the devil’s henchmen, reaping souls like they were flowers in a garden.Instead of leaving the room to face his family of demons, I opted to stay in bed for a few more hours.It kept slipping my mind that I was now officially and undeniably married to him. Which, in a way, couldn’t have worked out better.Though what we did last night could never happen again, I couldn’t risk things getting more complicated than they already were.The Lockhearts were already o
NATHANIELI didn’t leave the room that night, nor did the subject of our earlier conversation arise. No clarity was offered from either side; we simply sat in silence, in fear of what the other would say.Fear, what a fucking joke.Since when was I afraid?That answer I had: since I met her. On her eighteenth birthday, fucking her raw in my room at the Inn. Watching the fire burn in her eyes when my identity was found out.Never in my life had I found a fire to match my own, a deep seated fucked up psyche that would overlook logic in the face of what was right. Now we had different opinions there, on what was right, brought up on different ideologies. Nevertheless, we were the same, equally unafraid, equally defiant, and equally fucked up in the head.Sun shone in through the parted curtains. I hadn’t slept a wink last night, shifting my head only to watch her eyes flutter behind their lids when she dreamt. Now she’s in the bathroom, the shower’s running, and I was replaying the same
NATHANIELThe guards stood stoically, awaiting my wife to accompany them. Fuck that. Each time Olivia tried to move, I choked the blood flow in her hand. No more gentle warnings; if she didn’t fucking stop moving soon, I’d throw her in the closet and lock the doors. Maybe I’d join her in there, ignoring the world around us while I forced my parents to listen to her moans. They’re fucking delicious; they were the sound I fell asleep to each night.Bickering and nagging from all directions— Olivia tugging my arm like it was a fucking chew toy— the walls were drawing in, and a pounding headache began in the back before it traveled down my neck.”Enough!” Trinkets on the shelves trembled in their spots when I raised my voice. Luckily, it did what it was supposed to; it got my family to shut up. ”What is this about? Tell us here because she’s not going anywhere with you.” Despite the fierce glare from the girl standing behind me, I could feel her erratic pulse under the grip on her wrist.
OLIVIAThe girls straightened up, some more than others. My girls looked at each other, a deep-seated disgust piercing each glare.One step was all it took for my heart to stop.Don’t come here, go to the siren…please. A pair of blue eyes that would’ve pulled any man under the surface of the water
OLIVIAA loud gasp echoed over my shoulder. Widened eyes stared at me when I turned, and the older gentleman was looking around as though to catch someone he could snitch to as he clutched his damn pearls. What a child.Nathaniel shot his hand out, resting it on the man’s chest.”Just a joke,” he t
OLIVIABy the time a fifth man came up to me, my cheeks were hurting, my stomach was fluttering, full of butterflies that never died. It seemed like the night would never end, and to be honest, I hoped that it wouldn’t.For the first time in my life, I wasn’t anxious or stressed. The talk was stimu
OLIVIABeing a Red Sparrow did come with many perks. You were treated as royalty. Black, sleek cars drove up the border of our pack. Gathering outside the shriveled-down church, men dressed in all black stepped out, threw nasty glances around the state of our village, to which their leaders were re







