Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Chapter Nine
Charlotte
I woke up alone, and surrounded by debris. Ripped sheets, gutted pillows, strewn goose feathers, and the remains of both bedside lamps smashed on the carpet. The only thing whole and intact was the phone lying on the ripped-up pillow beside me. Slowly, I picked it up... and nothing.
No hyper-charged, sensory reaction hit me. The potion was finally out of my system.
That aphrodisiac would make a killing earthside. Gone would be the days of women faking orgasms to get a boring bout of sex over with. With that stuff, their partner didn’t even have to be good at it, they’d just have to look at them too hard, and they’d be screaming their pleasure.
But unfortunately for me, Ronin was good at sex— No, he was fan-fucking-tastic at it. The guy made me come so many times the night before, I stopped counting around the time I lost my voice, and stopped trying to fight him off when it became clear my back-scratching, hair-pulling, and spankings were sending the opposite message.
I wouldn’t lie, there were about half a dozen moments the night before when I thought about giving in and telling Ronin I belonged to him, just to get him to let me sleep. Too bad for me my voice was long gone by that point.
“Urghh...” I peeled myself off, wincing at the hickeys, bruises, and marks scattered all over my skin like a Jackson Pollock. Who the hell was I kidding? Ronin turned my body into his masterpiece and even signed his name. How much more his possession could I be?
“Could’ve at least used your face magic to heal me up before you took off, asshole.” I kept grumbling to myself as I trudged across the room, grabbed some clothes out of Ronin’s wardrobe, dressed, and then crossed over to my room.
Adora was in the middle of her bed, curled up and sleeping like a lamb.
I left her be while I picked out some real clothes, and headed for the shower. There was still an hour before class started. That would give me plenty of time to go down, grab our breakfast, and bring it back up for us to eat before Dora had to get ready.
That plan set, I stepped into the shower and let the hot water soothe my muscles. Focusing on getting the feeling in my limbs back distracted me from all the thoughts swirling around in my head—
—for all of three minutes.
“Ah, so this love isn’t even a love you chose? It was forced on you by the death of your parents. Would you even be here if your parents were still alive, Charlotte Hunter? If little Adora was dragged to hell on their watch and not yours, wouldn’t you have expected them to be the ones risking vampire bites and burning stakes to rescue her, not you? Wouldn’t you reject love’s demands?”
Me and my loofah stilled as those words clanged around in my brain. And it wasn’t because Ronin’s taunts stirred up the selfishness and resentment in me that he was hoping for. No, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, because I couldn’t stop asking myself what would’ve happened if that accident hadn’t taken Mom and Dad?
What if when Dora was dragged to hell, she was at home with Mom and Dad, and I was off living my life in New York as had always been the plan. Would my parents... have gone after her?
Would my mother have? After telling me a horrific, heartbreaking story of a child she never loved and never wanted? Wouldn’t she have waved “toodles!” to Dora as the demons dragged her away? Wouldn’t she have feigned ignorance while Dad, the police, and I searched for her on a planet she was no longer on?
Ronin grilled me about the meaning of love and family, but he shouldn’t have. I knew so much less about that than I realized.
Now thoroughly depressed on top of everything else, I climbed out of the shower, dressed in a simple goddess-style, sapphire gown, and did my hair up in a bun. On the way to the mess hall, I searched again for Tristan’s contact but nothing came up on DeadDrop.
It would seem he blocked me.
A tear rolled down my cheek. I understood Tristan had his own problems to deal with, he couldn’t afford to take on mine, but I still didn’t get why he cut off all contact with me? Couldn’t we still talk even if he didn’t help me protect Dora or track down the hallows? I mean, I thought... we were friends.
I snorted, roughly wiping my cheek. “Of course I was wrong about that. Hasn’t everyone been telling me the same thing since I came to this burnt-out husk? There is no such thing as a friend in hell.”
My phone went off.
“Morning, honey. What’s got you down?”