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It did not sound human. It sounded like crushed glass, hoarse and ugly, scraping raw and bloody against my vocal cords. The physical pain of using my voice was blinding, burning my throat like swallowed fire. I had not meant to speak. The sound simply ripped its way out of my body.Killian froze completely.His eyes widened for a fraction of a second. The shock of hearing my voice actually broke his composure. He stared at my mouth, completely taken off guard, the silence in the room suddenly stretching out into something vast and deadly.His gray eyes went dead cold."What did you say."My panic turned entirely feral."No." I backed away, coughing violently as the word shredded my vocal cords a second time. "No. I will not marry you.""You will marry me," he stated. He took a slow, heavy step toward me.I spun around and lunged for the bedroom door.I did not make it two steps. Killian caught me around
One week had passed since I shattered the glass in the dusty room.The cut on my right heel had closed into a tight, pulling scar, but the pain of it was nothing compared to the suffocating atmosphere that had taken over the mansion. I had not seen Killian lose his temper again. He had barely looked at me at all. Instead, a dark, calculated energy had settled into the walls of the house.I could feel it in my bones. An unknown, creeping dread that made the hairs on my arms stand up every time a door opened.The number of guards outside my bedroom window had doubled. Black vehicles arrived and departed at all hours of the night, crunching heavily over the gravel drive. The maids moved much faster than before. They kept their eyes glued to the floor, whispering rapidly in Russian when they brought my food, falling completely silent the second I looked in their direction.Then came the deliveries.I stood by the tall window and watched men i
The thought repeated itself in an endless loop inside my head. The look on his face in that dusty room had been absolute murder. I had crossed a line I did not even know existed, and the cold, terrifying reality was that nobody in this house would stop him from doing whatever he wanted to me.I pressed my face into my knees, trying to force oxygen into my burning lungs.A sharp, stinging pain finally registered in my right foot.I lifted my head and looked down. Bright red blood was welling up from the heel of my foot, dripping steadily onto the pristine white rug beneath me. The jagged piece of glass was still wedged deep in the flesh.Before I could even reach for it, a loud, metallic click echoed across the room.The lock turned from the outside.The door handle pushed downward.The heavy door swung open, revealing the empty hallway behind it.I froze completely. I tucked my chin down, hiding my face against
The eastern corridor of the second floor was a dead end.Killian had told me I could move freely through the house, so long as I stayed away from the exterior doors. For two days I had kept to the main spaces. The library. The morning room. But the mansion was massive, and the silence inside my own head had driven me to walk farther today, pushing into hallways I had never seen before.The carpet in this wing was worn thin down the center. The air felt colder. A single wall sconce burned low at the far end, casting long shadows against the dark wallpaper. At the very end of the curved passage, tucked awkwardly into the corner, a heavy wooden door stood slightly ajar.I stopped.A thin strip of pale daylight leaked through the gap.I pushed the door open with my fingertips. The hinges gave a low, metallic groan.The room was small and choked with dust. Heavy curtains were drawn across a single window. Stacks of sealed cardboard bo
He leaned in. His chest brushed against my thin nightgown."You play beautifully," he whispered.His low, gravelly voice vibrated against the shell of my ear, sending a hard shiver straight down my spine.Then he gripped my jaw, tilted my head up, and crushed his mouth down on mine.It was a punishing, breathless kiss. His lips parted mine instantly. His tongue swept into my mouth, deep and claiming, stealing all the oxygen from my lungs. His large hand slid to the back of my neck, holding my head perfectly still while he consumed me. I gripped the edge of the piano, my knuckles turning white. The kiss was so heavy, so completely overwhelming, my vision went dark at the edges.He broke the kiss, leaving me gasping for air.Before I could recover, his hot, wet mouth dragged down to the side of my neck.His breathing was incredibly heavy now, harsh and ragged against my bare skin. He sucked a hard mark into the juncture of my shoulder, biting down gently on the muscle before soothing th
The mansion was completely silent at two in the morning.I was entirely alone in the bedroom. Killian had not come upstairs tonight. I did not know where he was, and I did not ask. For the first time in days, the massive bed was empty except for me, but I still could not sleep. I had spent the last hour staring at the dark ceiling, listening to the faint sound of rain hitting the glass. Finally, I pushed the heavy blankets off, slipped out of bed, and left the room.I wandered the long corridors of the second floor. The guards at the stairs ignored me. They had orders to let me roam the house as long as I did not go near the exterior doors.I ended up in the west drawing room.I discovered this room three days ago. It was a space nobody seemed to use, filled with furniture draped in shadows and tall windows overlooking the back gardens. Right in the center of it sat a massive black grand piano.It had not been here when I was forced to work as a maid. It was new. The polished wood cau
The light finally won.It pierced through my eyelids even when they were closed, a searing white lance that felt like it was cooking my brain inside my skull.I didn't know how long I'd been standing. My legs weren't legs anymore. They were columns that had stopped holding weight, nerves screaming s
I stared at her. Here? In the hallway?"Strip!" she shrieked, raising her hand. "Or I will call the guards to cut the clothes off you!"I stripped with shaking hands.Pulled off the wet t-shirt. Stepped out of the sweatpants. I stood in the cold hallway in my underwear, my arms wrapping around my br
The floor was clean.My hand was ruined.It was nine in the morning.I'd been scrubbing for an hour with my left hand while my right hand throbbed with a pulse so violent it felt like a second heart beating in my palm. Every heartbeat sent fresh waves of fire radiating up my arm.The adrenaline that
The water shut off.Silence rushed back into the bathroom, broken only by the harsh, wet gasps tearing from my throat.I sat on the tiled floor of the shower, my back pressed against the cold wall, my legs drawn up to my chest. My wet hair hung in heavy ropes around my face, dripping pink water onto







