Syfoner: (A Dark Bully Romance) (Gods and Monsters Book 4)

by Klarissa King

  Ava’s face fell and with it, my heart plummeted.

  “I’d go anywhere with you,” she said.

  It was my turn to look surprised.

  “I’m sorry,” she went on. “For everything that’s happened between us. You’ll understand soon why it’s been this way. It had to be like this.”

  “So we’re … good? You’ll still have me as your best, most annoying friend in the world?”

  Ava grinned something mesmerising. “You’re my only friend. And you’re more than you know.”

  The smile I gave back was something grim. “I think I know now.”

  Ava reached out for my hand.

  I drew back, my spine aching from the odd angle. “I haven’t changed that much. No touchies.”

  Her laugh swelled my heart, then she danced her fingers all over me until I was writhing myself away from her.

  This is Ava.

  “Touchies,” she teased between her laughs.

  This is the friend I’ve missed for so long.

  She let off and I managed to sit myself upright, aches hugging my ribs from too many laughs.

  “You should pack some things,” I told her, sobering myself. “I used a pillowcase.”

  She threw a look at her crumpled pillowcases, no doubt stewed in all sorts of disgusting scents after her night with Jasper.

  I tried to throw that thought out of my mind. “Pack only what you can carry. Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Especially not Jasper.”

  The look I pinned her with was severe.

  Ava blinked and her lips parted as if to argue, but I cut her off before she could begin.

  “I don’t trust him, Ava. This … this is just us. Me and you. If his loyalties are where you think they are, he’ll find us. But I can’t take that risk until we know for sure.”

  “But knowing for sure will come too late—we’ll already be gone from the palace.”

  I shrugged. “And if he’s loyal to the one who’s getting us out of here, then he’ll catch up.”

  “Or be caught and tortured,” she argued.

  The truth was, the Prince said he won Jasper in a game of cards. That was enough to plant trees of doubt, not seeds. Because how could Jasper betray the magical bindings of a game?

  His master was Prince Poison, no matter who made him. It was the rule of the cards.

  Ava shook her head. “I can’t leave without him.”

  “You mean you won’t.” My face hardened into a scowl. “You’ll choose him over me.”

  “I’m not standing in your way, Lissa. You can still—”

  “No, I fucking can’t!” I snapped at her. “If I leave you behind, I don’t know if I can live with what will happen to you. You’re the one who told me that it’s not just my life on the line here. So help me help you. Cut him loose.”

  “I love him.” Her voice was small, but it packed a punch that left me speechless. “He loves me, too.”

  “No.” My eyes were itching with unshed tears. I shook my head sadly, pity churning deep in my gut. “No, he doesn’t, Ava. Don’t you see what he’s doing? You’re a pawn. A way to tie me to this palace for good.”

  Fear flickered over her face before she bit down on the insides of her cheeks. She only ever did that when fighting back tears.

  It was my turn to be rejected. I reached out for her hand, she pulled away from me.

  Sometimes, friends just didn’t want to hear the truth. But in times like these, I wasn’t above hurting her for her own good.

  Jasper was a snake, as plain as day. He was planted in her heart for the Prince’s benefit. I knew it in my gut.

  “Choose.” My voice was firm. “Not this moment, but tomorrow night. I’ll come here before I leave. I hope you’ll come with me.”

  She chewed on the inside of her cheek, her pensive gaze hooked onto the door. There was so much in that one long look—a yearning to be free of this place.

  “Please, whatever you do, don’t tell Jasper. Just … give me your decision tomorrow night.”

  I wasn’t sure I could leave without her.

  I clung onto the hope that she’d change her mind before we had to leave. Otherwise, I might have to knock her out cold and find some way to get her to the baths with me.

  And that’s exactly what I will do if she chooses to stay.

  “I have a curfew in these halls,” she said. “They’ll notice a vilas leaving these halls after hours.”

  “If we have to fight our way there, then we will.”

  “Where?”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “You said fight ourselves there. Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see,” I said with a hopeful smile. “Oh, and if you can, get Sarah to sleep through the night. Put something in her drink or … hit her over the head,” I finished with a shrug.

  What was one more death count to my toll?

  “Ok. I’ll do it.”

  “You’ll come with me?”

  She levelled my gaze with a heavy look. “I’ll think about it.”

  My lips fell into a flat line.

  I really hope I don’t have to get violent with her.

  And that’s exactly what would happen if she chose to stay here in the stardust/murder palace.

  I sure as mud wouldn’t have her blood on my hands … figuratively. Not literally.

  I would happily get her blood on my hands if it meant saving her from Jasper and the Prince.

  12

  The Prince came to me that night and it was as if the stars were aligning just for me.

  I needed to fill the last two empty bracelets, and I wore them for him that night.

  It was a goodbye I didn’t know I needed until his familiar, cold mouth was on mine and his hand was gliding down between our bodies.

  Ugh, I almost didn’t want to leave him. Not when his light touch could flood me with so much poison and pleasure at once, giving me what I needed and what I wanted with a single graze of the skin on mine. But if this was the way to end our story, then it was alright with me.

  I savoured every moment of it.

  Welcoming him into me, I arched my back and ran my hands up his spine. At his shoulders, I dug my nails into his skin, luring a soft hiss from him.

  His fingers glided over my slick folds.

  I shuddered under him, my breasts pushing against his hard chest almost painfully.

  The Prince’s mouth trailed down my neck to the sweet spot, and he grazed his teeth along my skin.

  I bucked against him, impatient. Nails digging into his shoulders, I demanded more.

  More touch.

  More poison.

  More God.

  His eyes, once so captivating, seemed hollow as he stared down at me, like no matter how much of this we relished in, he would never feel whole.

  I wondered if it was me I was seeing reflected in the mirror-sheen of his gaze.

  I shut my eyes on the naked truth and tightened my legs around him. His hand left my ready heat.

  The Prince’s grip found my wrists and pinned them down at the sides of my head. The tip of his shaft found my heat and, grazing a cold kiss over my throat, slid into me, thick and long.

  A hiss escaped my clenched teeth. I rolled my head back as if to open myself completely to him.

  I’ll never be whole.

  But I can be full.

  Sweat clung to the air all around us. It glistened along our bodies like stardust.

  I twisted out of grip and threaded my fingers through his, holding onto him as though he was my anchor to the world.

  His thrusts grew more urgent, once long and smooth, now frenzied.

  My body was alive. Nerves sizzled like sparks from a fire all over me. His hand might have left my sweet spot, but he ground against it with every thrust deep inside of me, until my moans turned guttural and I was writhing beneath him.

  In my haven, we found our end.

  He cried out with a final, swift plunge inside of me. My moan wa
s low, exhausted, and I held him as he fell onto me.

  I held him longer than I normally would have. And as I shut my eyes on the patterned ceiling, I thought of rose petals. The rose petals he sprinkled over every gift he sent me, the same I’d packed in the sack under the bed.

  He gave me only the petals. He should have given me the whole rose, thorns and all.

  I would like to have packed a full rose. That would be a true reminder of him. Beautiful, enthralling, prickly, and painful.

  Farewell my Rose Prince.

  13

  Just days out of the dungeons, and I was ready to defy the Prince again. Only this time, if I was caught, there would be no dungeon or second chances. There would only be blood.

  I spent the whole day pacing around my room. I only took breaks from working myself up when Nalla was around.

  When she washed me, I shut my eyes and savoured every moment of it. I let her braid my hair into two strips that fell down my back.

  There would be no Nalla wherever I was going.

  I threw on a black set of undergarments, then let Nalla dress me into a sheer black cloak meant for lounging around the bedchamber in. It was the only black outfit I owned and I figured it made for good shadow stalking. Also, I liked that it was little racy.

  After Nalla left with the empty plates that once held my dinner, I stuffed two red oranges into the sack and one white plum.

  I was packed, some fresh bread wrapped in parchment, ham bound in paper, and clothes stuffed into the bulging sack. The fabric still carried the faint minty crisp smell of the Prince.

  Come dusk, I finally faced the glaring problem I’d been avoiding all day long. Thinking on it too much made my stomach rinse out like clothes before being tossed onto a drying line.

  How do I get out of my room?

  The window was barred from the outside.

  A guard was stationed on the other side of my door, one of the aniels whose name I didn’t know.

  There was no way out.

  I’d prepared for this, but now that the time had come, I felt sick to my churning stomach.

  Nerves tickled my whole body, forcing me to use the privy closet before I could leave.

  Damianos didn’t give me a time to be at the baths. Since he visited me mostly after midnight, that was when I made my move.

  I moved quietly around the bedchamber.

  After I lowered the lumpy sack to the corner of the entrance, I fetched a solid gold candlestick and rounded on the doors. It was heavy enough to bring early kisses of aches to my arm.

  In that moment, I decided to keep the gold stick. If things went sour with Phantom, I could always sell it and have enough coin to run off on my own with Ava.

  Besides, if Ava chose to stay, I needed something to hit her over the head with as well.

  With a deep, steadying breath that shuddered my chest, I reached out and rapped my free hand on the solid wood.

  I stilled, straining to hear the guard on the other side. There was a moment of silence before soft footsteps approached.

  I ducked behind the door before it creaked open.

  Behind the wooden shield, I raised the candlestick up high and held my breath, waiting.

  The guard was motionless in the doorway. I guessed he was looking around for any sign of me.

  I needed him to come in further, to step into my view.

  He stood in the doorway so long that my arm started to ache from holding up the candlestick. Then he stepped further in the room.

  From this angle, I could make out a head of copper hair.

  At least the blood will match.

  The only thought on my mind before I brought the candlestick down on the back of his head.

  The thump was deeper than I expected.

  Cracks broke the sound up into a horrible crunch that twisted my face into a grimace.

  He stumbled forward one step.

  I watched his hand lift, as if to touch the blood now flooding down the back of his head.

  My face pinched as his hand dropped, then his body followed. He crumpled like a sheet thrown onto the floor.

  I wondered if he could survive a caved-in skull being an aniel. But then I found I didn’t care all that much.

  I snatched the sack, heaved it over my shoulder and rushed out of the bedchamber.

  I kept the bloody candlestick in my hand as I rushed through the quiet corridors. This late in the night, the palace felt abandoned. But I knew well enough that aniels and Gods lurked down in the saloon and lower halls.

  I reached the main atrium without bother.

  Now was the hard part.

  Even an hour past midnight, muffled voices crept out of hidden nooks in the atrium. I stuck close to a curtained corner shrouded in shadows for a beat to catch my bearings.

  I glanced up at the glass ceiling, where stars winked down at me as if challenging me. They might have aligned for me last night, but tonight there was a malice in their twinkles that made my gut twist.

  The murmuring voices were drawing nearer.

  Breath held, I ducked behind the heavy curtains and gently lowered the sack to the floor. I gripped onto the candlestick with sweaty hands, body poised for fight.

  Soon, bootsteps came with the voices. Aniels. The foreign language they spoke gave them away.

  Maybe the stars were on my side after all. The aniels walked right by my hiding spot without so much as a glance at the nook I hid in.

  I caught a glimpse of them as they passed. Though I could only see the back of their heads, I recognised that scruffy coat and terrible plait anywhere. Adrik.

  It curled my stomach to know he was up and about. If I was caught… if he caught me…

  I shuddered to think more on it.

  Once their voices were wrapped in distance, I slid out from behind the curtain and looked around the atrium. It was clear.

  I threw the sack over my shoulder, thanking all the practice I had with helping Moritz with full fishing nets, and crept along the wall, ready to jump into another alcove if I had to.

  I made it through the atrium safely.

  I was cutting it close.

  Fear of facing the guard had delayed me. I’d needed more time to build up the courage, but now adrenaline was pumping through my veins, pushing me down corridor after corridor.

  When I reached the top of the stairs that opened to the vilas halls, I skidded to a stop. Some voices slipped out of a room ahead. The door was ajar, piercing the dark corridor with a wedge of dusty yellow light.

  Shadows flickered along the light.

  I inched closer to the open door, back pressed against the wall. At the frame, I paused and strained to listen.

  There were a few vilas in there. Different languages echoed out into the hall, some I recognised from sailors who visited Zwayk from nearby isles, others sounded like languages of the Gods.

  It was risky, but I peered around the frame into the room. Tattered armchairs and musty-looking lounges were plotted around the room without much order. There was a worn-out green table that a few vilas sat at, one of them shuffling a deck of cards. It was like looking into a cheaper version of the God’s saloon.

  Is this where Ava spends all her time?

  Well, she wasn’t in there now.

  I slipped past the door and hoped to go unnoticed. Really, if they were all up this late in the night, they wouldn’t think much of me walking by the room—but I doubt they even noticed, because no one followed me, and there was no hesitation in the noise that came from the room.

  The rest of the vilas halls were quiet. Usually are, since there was an unofficial curfew and all.

  Still, I was out of breath from the panic by the time I reached Ava’s room.

  I pressed my hand against the doorframe and crouched over to slow my breathing. I didn’t want to throw Ava off with how flustered I was. Anything could spook her into staying. And the candlestick was really a last resort.

  Once I reigned in some fear and calmed myself into
regular breaths, I raised the candlestick to rap it against the door.

  But I froze—

  Murmurs crept out from he gap beneath the door.

  I frowned and slowly let my hand drop. It was a deep voice I heard, too deep to be Ava’s or Sarah’s. And Sarah should have been asleep.

  I pressed my ear to the door and listened.

  Not a woman’s voice, that much was obvious. But it was hard to make out what the deep voice was saying.

  “…late.”

  I caught the word like a fish in a bucket.

  “…sure she’s coming?”

  Jasper.

  A choppy breath was yanked out of me.

  I slumped against the doorframe, defeat sinking into my muscles.

  Jasper was in there with her.

  Ava had betrayed me.

  14

  I should have barged into the room and lopped Jasper’s head off with the candlestick. Or at least have gotten the hell out of there.

  But I stayed by the door, listening to my treacherous so-called-friend. She was assuring Jasper the way she used to comfort me.

  “She’s coming.” Her voice was a snatched whisper that I could hardly make out through the rickety door. “She promised she would—we don’t break our promises to each other.”

  Lying bitch.

  She broke her promise to me! She said she wouldn’t tell Jasper, and yet here I was, listening to the knife sink into my back.

  Oh, how I itched to do some damage with the candlestick. Maybe I wouldn’t sell it after all, it would make for a nice souvenir once it wore the blood of a liar and traitor.

  “We can’t wait much longer.” Jasper sounded as impatient as my urge to spill blood.

  “Jasper, just give it time. A few more minutes—she’ll be here. I swear.”

  He made a huffy sound. “Fine,” he agreed. “That’s all, Ava. If she’s not here in a few minutes, I have to tell him.”

  Tell him.

  Tell the Prince all about my escape. Tell him all about what I was up to behind his back.

  My trembling hand gripped tighter around the candlestick. I shut my eyes on the sudden white glare of rage pulsing through me.

  Pulse.

  The rage was so great I could feel it in my toes, my tingling fingertips, in my throbbing mind.