The Chateau (Chateau 1)

But I pushed the thought away. I had to survive.

I had to survive…for my sister.

At dinnertime, the guard entered my cabin with a tray of food. He obviously thought tonight would be the night I would cave. If Bethany hadn’t given me the food, he would have been right.

He pulled up the chair again.

I lay on the bed and didn’t get up, pretending to be too weak to sit up.

He set the tray on the edge of the bed. He sat there in silence, as if he expected me to sit upright and inhale the food. He’d counted his eggs before they hatched.

I turned over and faced the other wall.

He was still.

I didn’t want him to figure out that someone was slipping me food, so I had to be weak instead of defiant, too weak to give him a smartass comment.

He rose to his feet, and then a loud crash sounded.

Because he threw the tray against the wall.

I jolted slightly but tried not to react.

He stormed out and left.

His anger was a blessing, because he probably regretted throwing that tray at the wall so there would be food on the floor, but he had too much pride to pick it up. He left it behind.

And bought me some time.

When I got to work the next day, I felt strong again, because of all the calories I’d been able to ingest. I didn’t hesitate to pick up all the food off the floor and eat it, because Bethany’s food made me feel better, but my hunger hadn’t been completely satisfied. Though, I still pretended to be tired.

Bethany stood at the table, working on her first box.

I stood beside her, doing my best not to get emotional, to give our game away. Bethany had shown me kindness in a world where kindness didn’t exist. She made me want to live during the times when I thought living was pointless torture. “Thank you.” I ripped off the tape on the box and folded down the sides.

“We got you, girl.” She lifted the box and carried it away.

I stalled for a bit, masking the emotion on my face, and then turned around and got to work.

The guard stood over us to make sure I didn’t take Bethany’s food.

He was paying attention to the obvious, when he should be paying attention to the less obvious. I could tell he wasn’t the smartest guy in the world. He was probably the dullest tool in this shed.

There was a sudden change in energy all around us, like something was happening, something was coming.

I lifted my gaze to look at the other side of the clearing because all the guards faced that way, as if they expected something too. The girls knew better than to turn around in their seats to get a look, but the ones facing that direction stopped eating.

A man emerged into the clearing, flanked by two guards.

I immediately knew he was the boss.

Not because of his black bomber jacket with gray fur down the front. Not because he was in black jeans and boots. Not because he was accompanied by two guards who seemed to act as his personal entourage.

It was because he showed his face.

With short brown hair, dark eyes, and a thick shadow on his jawline, his face was completely visible to every single person there. His lips were pressed into a straight line, and his eyes seemed innately hostile even though he didn’t speak a word. He stopped and looked at the body hanging from the noose, the snow beneath her a faint pink because the blood had dripped onto the ground, like a snow cone in summer. He shifted his gaze to us, watched us with those angry eyes, his gaze moving around the entire area like he wanted to look at every single one of us, commit our faces to memory, to survey his kingdom.

My blood immediately boiled.

This was the guy. This was the reason I was here.

Because of him.

The guards didn’t speak to him.

The boss moved farther past the tables, examining our trays like he was curious about our lunch. His eyes scanned a few more times before he turned back the way he came, getting a different angle of the clearing.

He stared right at my sister.

I knew that was exactly what he was staring at because of her reaction.

She held his gaze for a moment, terrified, and then dropped her eyes, breathing hard.

He continued his stare, on the exact same spot, like he didn’t want to look away.

I’d seen men stare at my sister enough times to read that look.

No.

He eventually turned away and crossed the clearing, escorted by his men.

He stepped into one of the cabins, the one Magnus usually walked into.

Once he was gone, the silence in the clearing remained, like we didn’t know what to do with ourselves after what we’d seen. Then the girls started to eat again, the sound of forks scratching against trays, of chewing mouths, filling the area once more.