A Dance Macabre (Perverse City #1)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

GEMINI

Ten weeks earlier

T he smell of fear has a peculiar scent. It coats the night air, sickly sweet like a room full of funereal flowers. My legs and arms are pumping just as hard as my heart as I turn the corner of the maze, and the gleeful anticipation of catching my very own fool has me grinning like one too. The bellows and screams of fate met violently tickle my ear as I try to focus on the frightened sounds closest to me.

Quickening steps.

Harried breath.

Pushing myself against the hedge, the green foliage tickles my neck as I wait.

I can tell she’s close, I’ve been tracking her for the past ten minutes. She’ll appear around the corner soon enough. Slowing down my breaths with a few deep inhales, the smile on my lips never falters as I stay pressed against the maze wall.

I hear her stumble, swearing under her breath, the words racked with the same sweet fear permeating the air. Until, finally , she appears before me like a naive little gazelle under the moonlight. Her long brown hair is matted to her face, brown eyes wild and terror-stricken. She must have been running ever since the hunt began over half an hour ago.

Stepping out of the shadows, I snatch her by the front of her neck with a firm grip of the hand. She screams and tries to fight me off, twisting the upper half of her body away from me as if trying to bolt in the opposite direction. It only makes her lose her footing, and she pitches backward, making us both slam to the ground, me on top.

My greedy laugh only amplifies as she continues to fight me. I let out a few small tsks followed by a dark chuckle. “Don’t think you can escape me now.”

“Get off me, you monster!” she shrieks as I finally manage to pin her legs with mine, my hands slamming her wrists over her head.

Her threat is half-hearted.

We both know it.

But something about her words hanging between us makes me pause.

I quirk my head slightly to the side, sniffing the air.

The absence of something.

My eyes slice to hers. “Say that again.”

Confusion flits across her face, but it’s gone just as fast before she renews her vain attempt to fight me off. “Let me go!”

There it is again …

Or the lack thereof.

I drop my smile as I lift a brow, my grip tightening around her wrists.

“Who are you?” I ask slowly.

She stills under me, her glare burning into me, a small divot forming between her brows. “I–I’m …” she begins to say but then seems to change her mind and starts to struggle under me again. “Let me go!” she repeats.

A shiver forms near the base of my neck. The air grows thick as a sudden apprehension crawls over my heated skin.

This doesn’t feel right.

As I deliberate, I keep her pinned to the dewy grass, the seconds slowly drifting past us like clouds drifting across the pregnant moon.

Finally, I make up my mind. Pushing myself off of her, I jump up to my feet.

She skitters backward on her hands and feet as soon as I release her, frightened but questioning. We stare at each other for a long tense moment before I finally speak. “Two rights, one left, and another right.” My voice holds defeat, but I’m resolved in my decision. I lean a little closer, one hand on my hip while I flick the other in her direction. “Run run run little rabbit before I change my mind,” I sing-song as I curl my lips into a leery grin.

When my words finally sink in, she scrambles to her feet, chest heaving. She barely gives me a parting glance as she turns to escape her fate.

She rounds the corner and disappears into the dark night.

And I am left breathless, the scent of sacrifice still sticking to my skin.

The story continues with Gemini Foley in book 2 of The Perverse City series!

Stay tuned …