The Enchanting Rapture (#1)

Chapter 24

Annika

She immediately regretted stepping out of the castle, right into the unforgiving arms of danger. Fear skirted into her chest, coming to a full stop, cackling in her ear with promises of awful things.

The guard's bodies were pale and she noticed how their necks were angled awkwardly, hinting at their untimely death. Only a person of skill could perform such a difficult execution. The thought did nothing to calm herself.

"They didn't have to die... " Annika said, knowing her words were falling on deaf ears.

The woman took a step forward and Annika stepped back, feeling absolutely threatened. The supposed servant so effortlessly became someone of suffocating arrogance, someone so sure of themselves.

"You are frightened," she commented as she slightly tilted her head to the side in assessment, "but not nearly as much as most usually are. I assumed you'd piss yourself from just seeing a dead body."

Annika's temper came out of hiding in one raging jump. "Not my first, and definitely not my last," she pointed out. A loud crash of thunder sounded out, rumbling and wild, like her thumping heart beat.

"So, where did Soren find someone so pretty? A brothel? A barn?" She spit out, easy to belittle Annika with few words.

"Who are you?" Annika finally questioned.

The woman laughed as though Annika had said something uncontrollably hilarious. "Well," she pouted, "I'm surprised he hasn't at least mentioned me... I'm Malani, his dear sister."

Ice ran through her veins, riping at her skin with wintry slashes, worsening her already colossal fear. Suddenly, she saw as freezing sleet began to fall. The thunder never ceased as a background noise.

Malani pointed a finger. "Ah, so he has said a word or two about me? That is just terrific!"

Annika's hair became heavier with water. "What do you want?"

Malani walked closer with swinging hips that did not look charismatic but appeared threatening. There was an evil gleam to her cruel grin that made Annika's stomach twist. "Don't I have a right as a sister to see what creature has captured my brother's heart? But really, what makes you so different?"

"I don't know," Annika responded flatly, trying her best not to seem so cowardly.

Malani took a dagger out, tapping it it against her own jaw. "Your beauty, I suppose, is one factor." Annika gasped in surprise when Malani moved rapidly, shoving her against the castle's outside wall. Her lips trembled as the woman pressed the blade against her neck, tearing just enough for blood to drip. The cut was nothing but a threat that was strongly understood.

"Are you good in bed? Well, of course, because he's been with many," her eyes narrowed, "you must be absolutely magnificent." The blade trailed down her chest intrusively. "One wonders just what you do that please him so?"

Annika looked away with her cheek laying on the rough surface. "Just stop." She wasn't pleading, only voicing how wrong Malani was.

Her lips pressed harshly onto her ear. "You want me to stop?" Her voice sliced through Annika's eardrum, "why should I?" Lightening lit up the sky in one grand flash.

Malani's other hand pulled at the tie that kept the robe in place, exposing Annika who was now involuntarily shaking. The gross touching caused other memories to bombard her head. She didn't want those horrific things to ever happen to her again.

"Your body is lovely, I'll give you that, except for those god awful scars. He must have found you at a brothel. I bet he paid a fortune for a prize like you. I just wonder when he'll get tired of you?"