Page 27 of The Harbinger
“Aren’t you hungry?”
He walked ahead without a glance, once again testing to see if I’d listen. And like the good little captive I was, I slid off the barstool and found him waiting in the hall.
“In my home, I have rules.” He stuck out his thumb as though he were hitchhiking. “Do not go upstairs to the third floor,” he raised his pointer finger, “do not go in my office,” his middle finger came next, “and do not leave the grounds. You may swim at your leisure and help yourself to the books, but do not bother the staff. They are here to work.”
A pool?
Why couldn’t I speak to the staff?
“What’s on the third floor?” I craned my neck as we walked through the foyer, imagining cobwebs and broken furniture like in the movie Beauty and the Beast. Although he’d reserved an entire wing for his murdering of staff who were cursed as furniture.
Sacha sighed and pointed to the right as we walked down a long corridor. “This is the indoor pool. You’ll use this one on cooler days.” He pointed to a door on the left across from it. “This is the gym.”
“And if I were to leave the grounds?”
What were the consequences of breaking such rules?
Sacha turned on his heel, and I plowed into him, my face smacking against his hard chest. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck before I could distance myself.
“You may not remember your social etiquette, but I do.” His minty breath caressed my lashes as he drew me closer. “Cross the lines, and it’ll be my pleasure to help you remember them.”
Fire scoured my insides, flowing through my veins like molten lava, warming my cheeks.
Sacha brushed his knuckle against my chin, sending violent shivers down my legs. “Would you like that,milaya? Do you want me to teach you everything you’ve forgotten?”
My heart thundered in my chest as the pressure worked up to my ears. I pressed my heel into the ground and leaned backward, but my body didn’t move in his grasp. “It was…” Just a question, I wanted to say, but my tongue sat heavily against my teeth.
Sacha’s grip tightened on the nape of my neck. “It was, what,milaya?”
“Nothing.” A copper tang overwhelmed my mouth as I chewed on my inner lip, his nearness overriding my sensibilities.
Sacha’s dark scrutiny burned into me with a fiery heat that made me imagine demons crawling from his sockets and devouring my very soul.
I shivered, and he released me as though I were the one who cast him a scorching glare, then continued through the corridor.
His shoulders swayed with his gait, and I held back a moment, staring at his muscular back covered by his suit jacket that led up to a crisp collar, accentuating his tapered hairline.
He was a good-looking man—a very good-looking man. But something sinister hid within him, and who knew if I’d survive if he unleashed it.
Sacha opened the door that led to the outside and ushered me through. “These are the gardens.” He cleared his throat. “If you’d like your space, I’ll have Catherine clear one for you. Your boundaries are at the end of the fruit trees. Do not go beyond them.”
I spun around slowly, soaking in the green beauty surrounding me.
“This is… breathtaking.”
Brown sandy paths cut razor-sharp walkways through lush green patches of garden space.
In the center of the spacious flower garden, there was a statue of a naked man with a sword raised above his head, the pointed end ready to cut off the head of the exposed woman pressed beneath him. Her mouth gaped in horror as her death drew near, and watery red blood spilled from the gash in her throat. He pulled at her scaly hair, and his foot pressed into her back as she reached out in desperation.
“Is this Perseus slaying—”
“Medusa. Yes.”
“Medusa? She’s so beautiful.”
I stepped closer, entranced by the liquid seeping from her vicious wound. Who would want such a graphic centerpiece in their garden filled with beauty and light?
Sacha stepped up beside me, tucking his hand into his pocket. “She was a monster until the Greeks changed her to look like modern women. Now she represents erotic desire that only results in violence and death.”