Page 13 of Temptation
“My darling daughter,” Judah crooned and pulled me closer to him, holding my hand in his. “You look so beautiful like this. So ready for the future I’ve been building for the two of you.”
“You didn’t build shit for me,” I bit out. “You destroyed me.”
“Skylar!” Dylan warned and stepped next to Judah. All the worries, all the fear that was sliding up my neck, disappeared, replaced by a white-hot anger.
“No, it’s okay,” Judah placated him. “It’s okay for her to be angry. After all,” he squeezed my hand, “she had no idea about this world.”
No, but I knew about monsters. I knew about sleepless nights and wickedness hiding in the corners of our house. I knew about pretty faces and poisonous tongues, and I knew what a demon looked like.
“Shall we begin now?” Judah asked, smirking at me. He loved this game where he controlled everything I said. Where he destroyed everything I had, but I could play the game.
I could play his fucking game if that’s what he wanted.
Instead of fighting it, instead of trying to pull away, I came closer to him, smiling, letting him think that the drugs I had in my system were enough to placate me.
But they never were.
I gripped his hand when he tried to pull away, and when the worry took hold of his facial features, I wrapped my other arm around his neck and hugged him to me, holding his other hand in mine between us.
They wanted to control me? Fine. I could show them how good I could be. I could feed them lies just how they fed me, and in return, I would take everything from them.
I pressed my lips against his ear, careful so that Dylan wouldn’t hear. Judah’s entire body went rigid—he wasn’t used to this. He wasn’t used to me initiating contact between the two of us, but things were about to change.
“I like it when things burn, Daddy.” I grinned and bit down on his earlobe. I could feel his hardness against me. I could hear him panting like a fucking dog while I kneaded the muscles at the back of his neck. “And I’m gonna enjoy watching you burn.”
I pressed a kiss to his cheek and pulled back to look at his face.
The smug smirk he wore earlier was completely gone, replaced by fear swimming in his eyes.
“Let the fucking games begin, Daddy.” I laughed and lowered my head, kissing his hand.
The sharp intake of breath was the only indication that his usually cold composure was gone, but none of the other people could see it. Not even Dylan.
“Right.” He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away from my grasp. He wrapped his robe closer around him, covering an obvious bulge in his pants. “Dylan.” Judah barked, and Dylan turned to him and like an obedient dog, Dylan came closer to him with love shining in his eyes.
If only he knew.
Or maybe he did, but he didn’t give a fuck.
I straightened up and looked over the crowd. Fucking statues, all of them. Fucking—
But not all of them.
One lone figure in the last row had their eyes trained on me. I couldn’t see their eyes, but I could feel that gaze like fire kissing my skin.
He or she wore a green mask, just like the color of the forest surrounding Winworth. No matter how hard I tried to shake the familiarity passing between the two of us, I couldn’t.
Was it someone I knew? Was it one of my other friends who stabbed me in the back?
“Skylar!” Dylan thundered, and I turned toward him, shaking off the fog clouding my mind. “Take the dagger, darling.”
I looked down at his outstretched hand and then up, trying to understand what he wanted me to do.
“Take it,” Dylan urged just as Judah walked to the other side of the altar, looking down at Lauren.
With steady hands, I grabbed the dagger from Dylan and turned toward Lauren. She nodded once and looked up toward the ceiling.
I wanted to close my eyes and imagine a different place, a different time. A time when I was happier. A time when violence wasn’t part of my world.
