Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins
Chapter Twenty-Six
They say love is a battlefield, but they forget to warn you about the landmines you walk through unknowingly. ~Lena
Days passed me by in utter silence. No one came to check on me or even to see if I still lived. Music hummed softly through the bedroom. Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You replayed for the fifth time in the last hour. Feathers drifted in the air from the subtle movement I made, remnants of the once glorious bed that was no more than torn shreds of cloth and feathers.
Sitting up, I frowned at the disarray of the ruined room. I’d lost my ever-loving shit by day three and had gone on a rampage. Nothing stood in one piece inside the bedroom, closet, or bathroom except the bedframe and one dresser.
The tinkle of Luna’s bell chimed, and I turned my attention to where she sat, batting her paw at the feathers. Behind her lay a pile of Lucian’s clothing I’d wrecked, ripping through them with my claws while laughing at the image of him discovering his beloved suits, nothing more than shreds of material. The satisfaction, imagining the look on his face, lasted for a mere moment before the silence reminded me he’d have to return to even notice what I’d done to them.
Slipping from the remnants of the bed, I peered around the room, growling as a fresh wave of anger and frustration entered me. The toy Lucian left implanted within me hadn’t buzzed since the first night of being locked away to let me know he remembered me or that he was thinking about me. In my fit of rage, I’d thrown it at the door, where it was currently embedded into the wood.
“Let me out! Lucian! Spyder! I know you’re there, assholes!” I snarled, even though I couldn’t sense them. I couldn’t feel anyone or even hear the heartbeats of the guards usually positioned outside the doors.
The first time Lucian had locked me in the room, their presence had offered comfort, knowing he hadn’t forgotten about me. This time, there was only the sound of soft music playing outside the room. Inside there was only silence, eerie, soul-crushing silence that broke me apart, a little more with every loud click of the minute hand on the broken grandfather clock I’d pushed over, shattering oak that was probably older than the ground on which I stood.
I slid my fingers over the smooth surface of the dresser. I started to lift it, fully intending to send it flying at the door next. The drawer opened, and my gaze lowered to a photo of my family. My heart clenched as warm tears burned behind my eyes, pricking them as the tears threatened to fall. Picking up the picture, I gazed at it as the music stalled, and I was plunged into complete silence.
It was an older photo of us taken before Joshua had gone to basic training. In the portrait, we looked normal, happy even, unless you looked closer. Had we ever been normal? No, it had just been an illusion that we’d swallowed up because that’s how we’d wanted to appear. Joshua’s face appeared haunted, and my eyes were focused on something to the left in the picture.
Whatever I’d been staring at, it was beyond the focus of the camera. Behind Kendra was a light that almost looked like a spirit or orb of magic. My mother’s smile was fake and didn’t reach her eyes in the slightest. My grandmother—well, she was staring ahead with a fearless smile and expression, as if she knew the horrors that would befall us, fully intending to meet them head-on.
Setting the picture on the dresser, I reached into the drawer, withdrawing the backpack I’d left behind inside this club when I’d died. Dumping the contents on the floor, I lowered to the ground, picking up a photo of a dark-haired woman, the same bitch I’d put into my grave.
She’d offered my soul to me in exchange for Lucian’s seal. I had sacrificed my life and my son’s life for this seal, and she wasn’t getting it. When I refused her offer, she countered by trying to force me to accompany her to retrieve a special box that she said only I could touch.
I’d already been through hell, and I wasn’t stupid enough to trust some stranger who offered to help me. I’d learned my lesson about trusting anyone by then. Smiling, I recalled the look of rage in her sky-blue eyes as Joshua and I tackled her. I’d used her waist-length hair to tie her up while Joshua fetched the chains, wrapping them around her body before tossing her inside the coffin in my grave. She’d wanted a box, just not the one she’d gotten.
Next, I picked up Joshua’s car keys, which were the only things left of his Chevy Chevelle after I’d wrecked it. Lucian and Spyder had gone back to salvage it for me, but it had been a total loss.
Frowning, I remembered Joshua telling me who he really was and what was going to happen soon. I’d laughed at him so hard, even though my ribs were broken, I’d fucking laughed at him, trying to convince me he wasn’t Benjamin and that either Kendra or I would die soon.
Tossing the keys onto the dresser, I retrieved another set of keys belonging to my old apartment. How simple life had been back then. I had no idea what horrors awaited me at home.
My biggest worry was blending in and turning in assignments on time without using my magic. I’d spread my proverbial wings, and I’d never even made it off the ground. How naïve was I to think I could return, awaken my magic, and just fucking live my life?
I placed them beside the other keys, fishing around the drawer for more mementos of my past. Brushing my hand over a leather pouch, I plucked it out, frowning at it before scrunching up my nose and tossing it aside.
Reaching forward, I ran my fingers over my family portrait, fighting the swelling of my throat as their laughter echoed inside my head. Turning in place, I chucked the pouch at the wall, screaming in frustration at the life I’d been ungrateful of having.
I’d been blind to the beauty of my life and the pureness of my family’s love. I had craved more without ever realizing magic was pulling me backward. Lucian had already begun dragging his pieces back to cast the dice.
He’d started this game to find Katarina, which had also drawn me home. I’d never been free of the magic that had terrified me because I’d been born to it from the beginning; me to the darkness, and Kendra to the light.
My attention slid to the pouch that dropped to the floor, expelling its contents. Swallowing past the knot in my throat, I eyed the silver charm that rolled across the hardwood before settling at my feet.
Kneeling, I picked it up and frowned. It was the charm I’d pushed into my purse inside the abbey that came from Luna’s old collar, and it sparkled in the light. Holding it in my palm, I moved around the side of the bed, sitting on the hard wooden surface of the bedframe.
Opening it, I pulled out a tiny note before setting the charm on the bed beside me. Chewing my lip, I unrolled the parchment, and as I did so, it glowed with magic as it expanded. Narrowing my eyes on the masculine scrawled words covering the thin piece of vellum, I recognized the handwriting.
In a world filled with darkness, you are the light that I seek. There is no sun without your smile, nor night without you in it, Magdalena. I know you won’t understand why I must do this, but I cannot fathom the thought of a world in which you are harmed because of me. I’d rather set you free than live knowing you’re no longer alive. Forgive me. I never expected a creature like you, and now that I have you, I cannot bear the knowledge that I have to take away everything you love. You will hate me for this. But once the pieces were set into motion, they could not be undone. Please know that with the darkness, you were the most beautiful light that shone from within. ~LB
I wrinkled my forehead, exhaling slowly as my chest puffed out. What the fuck? How had I not remembered to read his note, one I’d known he had placed into Luna’s collar? Luna chased a feather in front of me, and her collar jangled as she rushed by, pursuing it blindly.
I kneeled on the floor before Luna, where she had caught and was playing with her prey, and I stared at her diamond-studded collar. The asshole really was spoiling my cat. I undid the clasp, watching as she gave chase to the next feather in line. Opening the charm that dangled from the collar, another note appeared. It, too, had been spelled and was glowing as it enlarged to its normal size. I slid my gaze over the writing, swallowing past tears that ran from my eyes.
You are my home in which I wish to plant roots and grow. You were a surprise that somehow snuck up on me. You sunk your talons into my heart, melting the ice that encased it, protecting it from those who had hurt me. You are my warmth. You are a storm that threatens to upturn my world and leave me in tattered ashes. When you’re with me, I am grounded, and that terrifies me the most. When you’re in my arms, my world is right. No one has ever made me feel the things I do with you. One day, you will see beyond the walls of your mortal limitations that still hold you captive, realizing that words are nothing. Sentiments and promises can easily be whispered, but what I feel for you isn’t something that can be said out loud. It’s wordless, selfless, and so much deeper than words could ever reach. You are my world and my everything.~LB
I read the messages together and then read them several more times. Tears blinded my sight, blurring the words while I fought the sobs threatening to escape.
He loved me. Lucian Blackstone loved me and had felt that way before I’d ever whispered those words to him inside that bedroom, which seemed like centuries ago.
That sadistic prick loved me, and he’d forced me to realize it on my own! He’d expected me to take the subtle hints and see beyond the mortal way I’d been raised. The idiot had left me flopping on the ground, trying to grasp on to a lifeline when he’d loved me the whole time!
I’d been forced to watch memories of Lucian telling Katarina that he loved her, and that had told my subconscious that he was capable of saying it.
In those dreams, though, he whispered those words while murdering her. There’d always been a catch in his voice past the first initial time he’d killed her. In that one lifetime, he’d loved her. He had been returning to tell her how he felt, and she’d been running away because she’d betrayed him to the coven.
The sound of the doorknob turning captured my attention, ripping me from my mind. I stood, staring at the doorway as Lucian stepped through it, silently peering around at my wreckage. The temperature inside the room dropped noticeably, and Luna bounced into the closet, drawing his attention to his wardrobe, which lay shredded in a pile.
“Woman,” he snarled.
“You’re an asshole!” I shouted, grabbing the nearest object to throw at his head. He moved, ducking seconds before it would have hit him. He stepped closer, his face not giving away the anger he felt. The tic in his jaw hammered, alerting me to his fury even though nothing else screamed danger. I grabbed the leather pouch, throwing it at him, and he reached up, catching it before he roared.
“You ruined my suits?” he snapped, his chest heaving as he tossed the bag aside, stalking toward me. The look in his pretty stare was almost comical, if there wasn’t pure rage burning inside them.
“Every single fucking one of them!” I screamed back, smiling as I folded my arms across my chest. “You chained me to the fucking bed, dick!”
His attention moved from the pile of ruined clothes to my body. Silently, he took in my sheer nude panties and the tight camisole top I’d tied on the side where his stupid chain was attached.
I hadn’t bothered putting anything on while in lockdown inside a room that no one else even bothered to enter.
I grabbed for the next item, but he lunged, snatching the chain fastened to the cuff. The tic in his jaw hammered again, and the room erupted in raw, unfiltered power, causing my skin to prickle with awareness.
“You want to do this, little one?” He yanked the chain, sending my body forward without warning. “Let’s fucking do it, witch,” he grumbled in a multi-layered voice that made my thighs clench together.
The tracker embedded in the door hummed, and I grinned as Lucian followed the sound with his eyes, then growled. “I didn’t give you permission to remove the device.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to keep it inside me for days while you left me locked in a room. It’s unsanitary.” He watched me through a heated stare that slid to my panties as I snatched the clock that he’d tossed aside and sent it sailing for his head. It impaled the wall beside him, causing his anger to spike.
“Is that all you got, Lena?”
I grabbed for the chain he held, pulling on it as I growled in frustration while he stared at me with knowing eyes. “You’re a fucking prick. You think you can lock me up?” I let my wings unfurl, and they tore the shirt from my body. His eyes lowered to my breasts, a wicked smile spreading over his full, luscious mouth. “I am not your fucking pet, asshole. I will not be locked up, do you hear me? You cannot cage me!”
“You’re caged right now, aren’t you? You sat inside this room like a good little bitch for me. If I wanted you caged, Lena, you’ll be fucking caged. If I wish for you to be on your knees sucking my cock while you choke on it, you will fucking take it. If I want your body spread out on the bed so that you’re available for me to fuck, you will be. You’re in my world, not yours. Your world is gone. I know because I’m the asshole who watched it fucking crumble and lit the match, ensuring it burned to ashes.”
I flew at him, slapping his beautiful face as unchecked tears trailed down my cheeks. A sob ripped from my throat brokenly. I reached up, shredding his shirt to reveal his impressive body. Lucian grabbed my wrists, slamming me against the wall, hard. Sheetrock cracked beneath my back, poking against my spine as Lucian glared down at me.
“You think you can actually hurt me? You can’t. You don’t seem to grasp the gravity of what is coming for you. You believe yourself to be free, but you’re not. You haven’t been free since the moment you walked into my club and kicked Linda out, sealing your fate with mine. I told you that if you chose to stay, you would be with me forever. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could fuck you out of my system. You’re not the kind of girl that could ever be replaced because you’re a fucking addiction that hums through me like a drug.”
“I never agreed to be your fucking pet, Blackstone,” I snapped back. His hand lifted, curling around my throat as he smirked down at me devilishly.
“I never asked you to be a fucking pet, Magdalena. I asked you to be on your best behavior for one fucking night. I was dealing with shit that you set into motion by agreeing to the terms of the fucking Goddess of Night and the God of the Underworld. I was protecting you, and you were too busy running headlong into fucking danger.”
“Five days! You left me here for five fucking days on my own,” I returned, pushing him away from my body.
He slammed against me, laughing wickedly as I growled from between his massive frame and the wall. I gripped his suit, glaring at him as we both breathed heavily.
“You’re immortal, and five days is nothing when you have eternity,” he snapped. Recapturing my hands with one of his, he pressed his forehead against mine. “Get the fuck over it, Lena.”
“Get over it?” I snarled, fighting against the hold he had on me.
Deep, rich laughter bubbled from his chest as he used his other hand to press against my core. My chest rose and fell from the utter frustration I felt.
“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” he asked softly.
“You assume I should respond to shit as an immortal, but I have only been one for a few fucking minutes, Lucian. You expect me to trust you, but you won’t trust me. Trust is built on a foundation, and mine is crumbling.”
“So build it back stronger. You’re not weak, Lena. You’ve never been weak. You never stay down, ever. You get back up because it’s ingrained into the very fiber of who you are. A man’s world starts with a woman because she’s a solid foundation. She is a home which he returns, knowing it is a safe place to rest his weary bones. Anything you give her, she strengthens. She may shake your world up and break your foundation, but only because she needs to rebuild it to fit herself beside the man she’s chosen. That is what you are to me.”
“I know,” I whispered, leaning my head against his chest as a sob escaped me. “I know what I am to you. I know because I feel the same about you. You’re my forevermore, Blackstone. You’re my light in the darkness and the storm which rages around me. You’re my comfort and my safety. You make me whole.”
He released my hands, cupping my face, forcing my gaze to meet his. My stomach tightened, finding his eyes bare of his shields. He nodded slowly, slamming his mouth against mine, causing a sob to escape my throat. The kiss was earth-shatteringly beautiful, as if we’d never get another one in this lifetime.
Lucian lifted me, turning me toward the bed, then paused, tearing his lips from mine to look at what remained of the mattress and covers. A dark eyebrow rose with a silent accusation burning in his pretty stare.
“It offended me.”
“Apparently,” he grunted in frustration. Tilting his head, he peered around the room, then dropped me and smiled. “The floor it is, Lena. Get on your fucking knees, and suck.”
“Gods, you’re so romantic, asshole.”
“You’re in trouble, Lena. You disobeyed me, and now I’m going to punish you for it. On second thought, get your ass on that ruined bed. Lie on your back and open that pretty mouth of yours.”
