Keep Your Enemies Closer

A Rescue of Injury and Glass

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Gladys." The word was a sob and as Reyna looked at her fiancee, there was nothing left of the man she'd known within him. Not a trace in those eyes, in that malicious smile that still inhabited his face, contorting it into something purely sinister. She almost fell to her knees, bile rising in her throat. Oh, she was going to be sick. Donovan just rolled back his shoulders. "I'm not a monster, Reyna." He hissed, his tone animalistic, predatory. His gaze crawled over her skin and there it was - the bile. "No." She got out with some effort. "You're just a very bad man." Reyna's throat tightened. Fabian had never specified why he had wanted to leave - was this it? Had he known what his best friend had been committing all this time? And he hadn't told her? She shook her head, the betrayal stinging. Her cheeks flushed as she almost doubled over on the railing. How many times had she been lied to? She thought she had found real friends, a real life, real relationships, that had taught her how to live - but here they were, teaching her true despair. 

"And you're not a bad woman?" He countered. "You lied to me."

Reyna let out a disbelieving laugh. "Are you serious right now? You're going to kill me - because I lied? Did Gladys-" she fought to keep going, "Julie, Mimoza, Valentina lie?" She paused. "Are you going to kill me for it? Do you have a right to?"

Donovan prowled closer so he was towering over her, pushing her back against the railing. The wind bit against her face, blowing her hair back. There was no one in the gardens, no one to scream to. No one who would listen to her anyway. Who would believe the words of an enemy over the Prince? No. Powerful men always won. She whipped her around wildly, searching for any possible escape and found none. She had no weapon, nothing to defend herself with. "They were lying cheats." He said, as if it was an explanation. 

"Do you have mummy issues or something? Is that why you want to possess all these women so badly?" When he didn't reply, Reyna tipped her head back and roared, a maniac sort of laughter she couldn't contain. It leaked out of her, all her emotions packed into that frenzied sound, making her body shake. "Of course." She said between laughter. His hands dug sharper into her wrists in warning and when she met his gaze, it was one of unrestrained hate. So different from the man who had told her he loved her a couple days ago. It seemed like a lovely dream, a fantasy, compared to this incomprehensible nightmare. All of a sudden, so fast she couldn't react, he pulled the pin from her pocket and held it up to the gathering light. "What's this?" He spoke to himself, running a hand over the black eyes. Donovan studied it, turning it over in his hands as he inspected it. Reyna held her breath, praying he didn't realise its symbol. 

She hadn't given Donovan credit for his intelligence as his eyes lit up a moment later. "Oh," he murmured, pocketing the pin. "I see. Did you think." He asked, pushing her further against the railing that she had a dangerous chance of losing her balance and falling. "You could kill me and get away with it? That is what this was. All of it. A lie. Tell me," he said, voice low, "am I overreacting, Reyna?" She was left tongue tied. He now had a justified reason for killing her - could get away with it off the hook.

Everly would agree with it when she heard. Everyone would. Fear was a song in her eardrums as she stammered, "I was going to leave. Today."

"Is that why you have a pack?" She nodded, still trying to search in vain for any sort of weapon. "I'm glad I found this out before the wedding day." Donovan remarked, disgust on his face as he looked at her. "Your true colours, at last." It was like a knife had been shoved into her gut and rotated slowly, drawing out the agony as she bled on the floor. "I loved you, you know." She croaked, the only piece of honesty she could offer that could sway his hands wrapping around her throat. "I had to take a wife so I told you what you wanted to hear." He replied coolly, and there it was again, the twisting knife. "You were so beautiful. That was a lie too."