Ashes (Web of Desire #3) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,79

Beyond his broad shoulders, I could see that the doors to our suite were left agape.

With my feet bare, Andros was easily a foot taller than I. He cupped my cheeks, pulling my face upward as his lips met mine in an unusual display of affection. His next words came in the language I was just beginning to understand, yet his meaning was clear.

I didn’t love this man. Most of the time I didn’t even like him. However, in that one moment, I felt his joy, the excitement and elation. Though every word wasn’t clear, he asked me to confirm Dr. Kotov’s findings.

“Detka, da?”

I nodded my head, a sincere smile coming to my lips. “Da.” Yes, I was carrying his baby. There had been no one else since before Ruby’s birth. I still didn’t understand why he’d orchestrated that.

Andros’s arms flung about as if he could fly.

I’d truly never seen him show any emotion other than anger, and in this moment, that emotion was the farthest from his mind.

Adrik and Sasha stood like statues, their feet spread and hands behind their back. It was as if even in the intimacy of our suite, they were at military parade rest.

“Vne,” Andros ordered, saying the word over and over, sending his men away.

That evening was nearly six weeks ago, and his joy hadn’t subsided. I wasn’t certain what it would mean to give him a child, and I worried that it wouldn’t be a boy as he proclaimed. We would learn once the pregnancy reached twenty weeks. Then again, Andros had a way of getting what he wanted.

Now, with Adrik at my side, I had been summoned to do the one job I detested. I’d asked Andros to relieve me of the position, especially while pregnant. This morning he’d gone out of town and not mentioned that I’d be called upon. This afternoon Adrik informed me that there were two women I was to prepare.

I wanted to protest and say no; however, even in my current state, my status was significantly lower than Andros’s second-in-command. Therefore, I did as I had done and dressed as I had been previously instructed. Thankfully, my midsection hadn’t yet enlarged to the point of needing maternity clothes, a luxury I hadn’t had with Ruby until the very end.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up to Adrik’s gaze. Instead of compassion for my nausea, I saw something closer to impatience.

With a nod, I stood taller. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

As we approached the door to the room where the women were always left, Adrik instructed me to present them in the usual hall in an hour.

“An hour?”

“There are only two,” he replied dismissively. “And then you can rest. Mr. Ivanov would want that.”

Only two.

Only two women who would be raped, used, and killed.

Two women who wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.

I nodded as Adrik opened the door.

At that second, a surge of unease raced through my circulation. Something wasn’t right.

Not that there was anything right about the situation.

The woman before me wasn’t drugged as they usually were. She was blonde and nude, sitting with her knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs. Her gaze narrowed as I entered. A quick turn of my head confirmed the door to the dressing room was uncustomarily ajar.

“Hello, I’m Madeline,” I said, looking at the woman against the wall. When she didn’t respond, I continued, “Are you alone?” I thought Adrik had said there were two.

A few steps toward the dressing room and I stilled. The lights reflected unusually from the floor, sending prisms of light and colors over the dull tile. I barely registered what I was seeing when a second woman also with blonde hair came rushing from the dressing room.

It wasn’t until after I’d been stabbed that I realized she’d been holding a large shard of the broken mirror. My hands went to my side as the deep crimson flow covered my fingers.

Another stab and another.

I couldn’t move away or even comprehend.

The woman from the wall had joined the assault. Without a shard she plummeted me with her fists.

The pain barely registered.

Instead, I believe it was shock flooding my waning circulation as the women shouted. The words were not any I recognized. They weren’t English or Russian. I didn’t understand what they were saying as my knees gave out and I crumpled to the floor.

Darkness covered the room like ink dripping over a page. Once white and clean, the ink, capable of recording words, was instead thick