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Scarlett. Next to it rested a vase with two red roses. More flowers! Scarlett kicked over the vase, spilling the flowers across the threshold of her room before pulling the box inside. She couldn’t tell if it felt heavy or light. “You want me to open it?” Julian asked. Scarlett shook her head. She didn’t want to open the black box either, but every second she wasted was a second they could be searching for Tella. Carefully she lifted the lid. “What is that?” Julian’s brows formed a sharp V. “It’s my other dress from the shop.” Scarlett released a relieved laugh as she pulled the gown from the
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“Who’s ‘D’?” Julian asked. “I think someone wants me to believe it’s from Donatella.” But Scarlett knew this gift was not from her sister. The mockery of a wedding gown could only be from one person, and the top hat on the note could only mean one thing. Legend.
“I recommend you both stay away from the hatter tonight. You won’t find any good deals in there.”
I’ve never liked the rain; it washes all the magic away.
Even amid so many colors and fine things, this gentleman made a statement. Dressed in a deep red tailcoat and matching cravat, he looked as if he could be a decoration. The type of young man someone invited to a party just because he had a way of looking beautiful and intriguing at once. Underneath his coat, he wore a matching red vest that contrasted with both his dark shirt and snug-fitting trousers, which tucked neatly into tall silver boots. But what drew Scarlett’s attention most was his silk-trimmed top hat.
His face was not the kind a girl easily forgets. Long sideburns fed into a neatly trimmed beard, shaped like a work of art, outlining lips designed for dark whispers and straight white teeth perfect for biting into things.
Julian edged closer, the damp of his coat sending crisp shivers over her arms. He didn’t say a word, but the look he cut toward the other young man was so clearly threatening, Scarlett swore she felt the room shift. The colors in the shop seemed to grow violently brighter.
He was the sort of aristocrat who let others do his hard work.
Julian wrapped a protective arm around Scarlett. “I’d appreciate it if you stopped looking at my fiancée like that.” “That’s funny,” the gentleman said. “All this time, I thought she was my fiancée.”
She heard the man say his name—Count Nicolas d’Arcy—as she felt Julian’s arm tighten around her shoulder.
boo
Every shade of purple flashed in front of her eyes.
Scarlett gripped his hand as her father’s angry words chased from behind. “Do whatever it takes to stop her!” he called.
Her father looked afraid.
Beside him, the count’s expression was concealed by the dark, but while they’d run, Scarlett would have sworn he’d appeared excited by the challenge she’d presented.
She watched Julian take another heavy pull with the oars while more lightning spiderwebbed across the sky. Before meeting him, she’d believed she could be content as long as she married someone who could take care of her, but Julian had brought out a desire for something more. She remembered thinking falling for him would be like falling in love with darkness, but now she imagined he was more like a starry night: the constellations were always there, constant, magnificent guides against the ever-present black.
Aiko must have been telling the truth about the rain washing all the magic away, for the Castillo no longer glowed. It had turned from golden to tarnished. In the courtyard, abandoned tents flapped in the wind, their tuneless beat replacing the vibrant music of the birds from nights before.
“I’m not leaving here without my sister. After what I’ve just done, my father will be even more furious when he finds Tella, and he will take it out on her.” “And what about you? You’ll just keep sacrificing yourself? Marry Nicolas d’Arcy?”
With Julian it wasn’t about protection—she just wanted to be with him. The boy who’d saved her from drowning in more ways than one.
“I don’t want you to regret any of your choices.”
“There are still things you don’t know about me, Crimson.”
that's an understatement
“I’m not afraid of your secrets.” “I wish I could say you shouldn’t be.”
Every touch created colors she had never seen. Colors as soft as velvet and as sharp as sparks that turned into stars.
Nearly all the glowing red beads in both of Castillo Maldito’s hourglasses had tumbled through into the bottom. Like drops of falling rose petals.
“Why does it seem as if you’re always trying to leave the moment I show up?” Governor Dragna appeared at the other end of the neglected garden, followed by the count, whose dark hair dripped water in his eye; no longer did he appear excited by this challenge.
Scarlett had always liked the color gold. It felt hopeful and magical. And for a brief, shining moment she dared to dream that it was. To hope she could outrun her father, create her very own fate. And she almost did. But she could not outrun her fiancé.
“Don’t take another step, or this will get worse.” Governor Dragna wrapped one hand around Scarlett’s throat as he continued pulling her hair.
“Much better, but just so you don’t forget again …” Governor Dragna released Scarlett and punched her in the stomach.
The count clamped a gloved hand over Scarlett’s mouth, muffling her screams as her father slashed his dagger across Julian’s beautiful face. From his jaw, across his cheek, all the way up to below his eye.
She’d probably shown too much emotion as it was.
trauma with a capital t
But for a boy who had started out so selfish, he now seemed determined to keep his ridiculous word and stay with her. He stood stoically as a wounded statue while Scarlett crumbled inside.
“Oh, we’re not sleeping together—at least, not all of us.” Governor Dragna winked and a tremor went through Scarlett. He was looking at her with the type of expression that might have lit up another person’s face before bestowing a gift—but Governor Dragna’s presents were never pleasant.
disgusting
“And your fiancé has paid quite a sum for you. I don’t see why I need to make him wait any longer before enjoying what he’s bought.”
still crazy that he fully believes this guy is the fiancé... like how has he never even met the guy he's basically selling his child to??
This was so far from how she’d imagined things. It was horrid enough that she’d been purchased like a sheep, that a price had been placed on her, saying this was all she was worth.
Scarlett didn’t know if Count d’Arcy was actually worse than her father, but in that moment he felt just as vile.
“If you let this happen”—Scarlett paused to meet the count’s eye, searching for a trace of the young man she’d exchanged so many letters with—“if you use the threat of his punishment to control me, I will never obey or respect you. But if you let him go, if you show some of the humanity I read in your letters, I will be the perfect wife you paid for.”
“Scarlett, I want you to know, this wasn’t how I intended things to be between us. What happened in those tunnels, that wasn’t me.”
But even if he kept her safe from this point on and never lifted a finger against her, no universe existed where Count Nicolas d’Arcy would ever make Scarlett happy. Not when the
Her father could come back and listen on the other side of the door—she’d heard of such deplorable things happening.
ewwwwwwwww ew ew ew ew ew
It was only Scarlett and the count and the bed.
He took off his gloves first, dropping them on the floor. Then he began undoing the buttons of his waistcoat, creating tiny pops that made Scarlett want to retch. She couldn’t do this.
Another pop. The count had moved on to the buttons of his shirt, and he was looking at Scarlett as if he were getting ready to take off her damp gown as well and complete this transaction.
I'm super curious to know the behind the scenes here. He's an actor, and Julian knows that, but Scarlett fully thinks she's about to be assaulted. What was the plan?I know Scarlett has a plan to get herself out, but what if it hadn't worked??? I know it's "just" a game, but where's the line for Legend?
The spray smelled of daisies and urine.
oh my god
“From where I’m standing, it looks as if Legend has done me a favor.”
don't let him hear you say that
“Legend doesn’t do anyone favors.”
exactly
It would scar, and while it did not make him any less handsome, it did make her ill to remember how fragile he’d appeared when he’d tumbled out of the wardrobe.
Your father barely scraped me. I doubt he enjoys it unless his victims remain conscious.”
A line still went from near the corner of his eye to the edge of his jaw. It wasn’t as deep as Scarlett thought, yet she could not ignore the ill feeling she had.
Scarlett could all too clearly imagine how furious her father would be when he woke, and the malicious punishments he would inflict on Tella if he found her before Scarlett. He wouldn’t just kill her; he’d torture her first.
get the man one of those worlds best dad mugs
Too many roses and not enough time.
As Julian’s lips stayed pressed to her temple, his arms wrapped around her as if he wanted to protect her—not possess her or control her. He wouldn’t let her crumble.
