Page 64 of Fate of a Faux
The fox stumbles on two legs, pressing his hands against the brick wall. He squeezes his eyes closed the closer I get, until my boots touch his feet. “I’m going to kill you, but first, show me what I want to see...” Drawing out one single nail, I stab it into his temple and my eyes roll to the back of my head.
The room is dim, filled with dark smoke and any time I try to wipe my eyes clean, it fills the space more. Whoever it is they’re protecting is strong, because this fox wouldn’t be enough to block me out. Footsteps echo and I follow the pounding of feet. It’s useless me being here since his mind is guarded by someone even more powerful than a Royal. I’m about to withdraw my fingers when mumbling catches my attention. I try to follow the words, the soft tones. Step after step, their voices grow clearer until a loud piercing scream erupts through my ears.
I pull back, sneering at the fox.
He gives me a sly smirk, before bringing his hand up to his throat, and slicing the sharp end of his nail across his skin. Blood spills from the incision as he falls to the ground.
“Fuck!” I stumble backwards.
“What’d you see!” Vicente asks, searching my eyes. The desperation we all have, to find the killer, can’t damage the process. I can see it from here how fiercely he wants to find the person or persons, as do I.
“Absolutely fucking nothing.”
* * *
London
I'm not sure what the hell those brothers are up to—mainly Knight, if I’m allowed to even call him that in my head—but I know it can't be good. From what I could tell, most of their attention remained on me all through the luncheon.Gauging by the odd and downright murderous expressions I've had pointed my way while we wait around for the man of the hour—or you know, century, whatever—to come back and once again grace us with his presence for the bullshit one-on-one we are apparently mandated to attend.
We're literally walking around the gardens aimlessly, like cattle waiting to be slaughtered.
Oh my god, what if that does happen?
What if they off us one by one until there's only a single girl left standing?
No, that can’t be how this works… right?
I turn to the pink-haired girl who has been trailing Alex’s every step all afternoon, probably plotting her revenge for whatever it is she did to her earlier.
“So, hey, do they kill us if we don’t live up toLord Deveraux’sexpectations?”
The girl’s wide, green eyes snap to mine, and I’ve caught her so off guard she starts laughing.
A small smile spreads across my face. “What, I’m for real. How does this work exactly?”
The girl composes herself, licking her lips as she narrows her eyes at me. After a moment she tips her head. “You don’t want to rip my head off and feed it to the dragons, do you?”
“Dragons?!” My eyes bug. “What the fuck?”
Her mouth pulls to the side. “You’re like...weird.”
I lift a shoulder, looking to the side and what do you know, another glass of Faepagne appears!
“Thank you, Frankie.” I smile at the angry looking gnome, but he just grunts and walks away.
“His name isnotFrankie?”
“Probably not, but when all he did was grunt when I asked him what it was, I told him I was calling him Frankie. I think he secretly likes it.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He keeps coming back.” I smile. “So... will they kill us off one by one like some kind of sacrificial voodoo shit, or what?”
She blinks at me, shaking her head. “I … no. No, they won’t kill us. Excuse me.” She rushes away like I freaked her out, but whatever.
I spin, coming to a halt when none other than Zeke steps up. “Hello again.”
He smirks down at me. “Hello again.”