The door clanged shut at my back. I startled at the sound and whipped around. Two more hooded black figures in white masks stood on each side of the door, blocking my exit.
My adrenaline spiked. I scrambled back, only to realize I was on some kind of step.
“Natalie,” Luc’s mother hissed.
A shiver racked my body as I looked back at Luc’s mother. She was already three steps below me, near the chairs and the railing that overlooked I didn’t know what.
“This way.” She motioned me forward with a curt wave of her hand. “Stop dawdling.”
My pulse thundered in my ears. Slowly, I stepped forward. Sounds echoed from below that railing. Chants. Chains rattling. And a low moan I vaguely recognized.
My feet drew to a stop on the bottom step. The sounds increased in intensity. My arms began to shake as I stood there, not wanting to see what was beyond that railing.
Wrapping them around my waist, I held on and slowly rocked from side to side, telling myself everything was going to be okay. That she was just trying to scare me. Luc wasn’t down there. They wouldn’t hurt him.
Cold fingers wrapped around my wrist, and Luc’s mother jerked me forward, right to the edge of the railing.
“I told you Luciano was waiting, dear girl. See for yourself.”
I gasped at the tight grip she had on my wrist, but when I saw into the room below, my eyes flew wide and the blood drained from my face.
It was some kind of ballroom, circular, with blood-red carpeting and enormous columns that rose to the three-story ceiling. Hooded black figures in white masks formed a giant circle in the middle of the space, but that wasn’t what held my attention. That wasn’t what sent bile sliding up my throat.
What horrified me, what made me gag, was recognizing my Luc, chained to some kind of altar in the middle of the vast space, naked and clearly drugged, surrounded by at least ten women in nothing but elaborate feathered masks and sky-high stilettos, all touching and tormenting his bare flesh with their hands.
I jerked back from the hand holding me to the railing. “No. What...? How can you—”
“Oh, that’s no way to treat your hosts.”
Luc’s mother was stronger than she looked. She yanked my hand back to the railing. Before I could try to break free, a large figure moved up on my other side, trapping me between the two of them. A big hand closed around my other wrist—a male hand—and slapped my palm against the railing.
Gasping, I looked up only to realize it was Antonio Salvatici, Luc’s father.
“Took you long enough,” he snapped.
“She was having trouble waking from the sedative,” Luc’s mother answered.
Antonio Salvatici’s gray eyes were as cold as I’d ever seen them. He glared down at me, then huffed and looked back at what was happening below. When he nodded, I shot a look down as well.
A figure in a robe and white mask moved around the naked women, stopped near Luc’s head, and leaned down to whisper something in his ear.
Luc’s stormy grey eyes widened. His handsome and familiar face turned my direction. Then a spotlight flashed in front of me, blinding me.
I slammed my eyes shut and tried to back away from the glare, but Luc’s parents had death grips on my wrists, and there was nowhere for me to go.
Grunts echoed from below, followed by the rattling of chains. “No!” Luc said loudly. “Get her out of here. That wasn’t what we agreed to!”
I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that he was in pain and didn’t want whatever they were doing to him.
“Let me go.” I pulled back on the hands holding me, desperate to get to Luc, to help him. “Let me—”
Something hard and sharp pressed against my inner wrist, sending pain spiraling to my brain. My eyes shot open, and I swallowed a scream.
“Now, now.” Luc’s mother eased the pressure of her nail on my vein. “You have to watch, my dear. That’s your job as the good little wife. Look down there, Natalie. See what’s happening to Luciano all because of you.”
Her free hand closed around the back of my neck and squeezed hard, sending pain up my scalp as she angled my face toward the twisted gathering below.
I blinked rapidly only to realize the women were now using their tongues and hands on Luc, stimulating every part of his bare flesh. My heart stuttered as I focused on his face. His eyes were tightly shut. Every muscle in his body was tense and struggling against the chains. And the agony in his chiseled features...
“You can’t do this to him,” I shrieked, struggling harder against the hands holding my wrists, but still couldn’t break free. “Let him go. Let him go right now.”
“Do you know what that is, Natalie?” Luc’s mother hissed in my ear, ignoring my pleas. “That is a man who does not respect our ancient traditions. That should be you down there, surrounded by the Knights of this House, cleansing you of your peasant bloodline. But instead, it is my son. My selfless son who volunteered to take your place in this ritual. I suppose one could call that true love. I see it as weakness, don’t you, Antonio?”
Luc’s father only grunted at my side, never once looking away from what those women were doing to his son.
His mother clucked her tongue and looked back down at the scene. “Of course, perhaps Luciano wanted this all along. He is a man, after all. And they do have...needs. I wonder how many times he will climax during the ritual. I’m sure you can only make him climax once. These girls are highly trained, however. And much more talented than you.”
My vision blurred. The women below were becoming more aggressive. I struggled harder, was desperate to break free, to rescue him. Luc fought against the chains and tipped his face as far from me as he could. But when he groaned, when I recognized the sound—a mixture of pain and humiliation and a sensation he couldn’t escape—my heart seized, and a primal scream grew inside me, one I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer.
My head grew light. I couldn’t breathe. Felt as if I were in some kind of horror movie as I watched a blonde lift her head from whatever she was doing to Luc, climb up on the altar, and straddle his waist.
I gasped when I realized what was about to happen, and a new sense of horror tightened my lungs.
“Oh God. Stop. Stop this,” I shrieked, fighting harder. “Please. Stop this!”
The room became absolutely silent as the woman lowered herself to his lap. Luc bit his lip and went still as stone. But his eyes were tightly shut, his face turned as far from me as he could turn it. And his straining features, the torment on his face... I knew this wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t what he’d agreed to. It wasn’t pleasurable for him in any way.
“The only person who can stop this is you,” Luc’s father said in a low voice at my side.
The blonde sighed and began to move.
Sickness surged up my throat, and I looked away, struggling not to pass out. “I’ll do it. Whatever you want. Just... stop this insanity. Please.”
“What we want,” Luc’s mother said in a calm voice at my other side, “is for Luciano to take his rightful place with this family and this House, willingly and without protest.”
My stomach pitched all over again. There was no way that would happen. Luc hated his family. He hated what he’d been born into—an ancient patriarchal nobility that had ruled the world from the shadows for almost two thousand years. Most didn’t know it existed, but I’d come to believe these last few months. I’d seen the ugly truth with my own eyes.