Page 55 of Hellebore

I dial my father’s number and put it on speaker.

“Drystan.” His voice instantly floods me with rage.

“Leave Hellebore,” I warn, voice low and lethal.

“What?” He sounds genuinely confused.

“I have nothing to say to you. We had a deal. Hellebore is off limits. If I want to see you, I will tell you when and where.” My grip tightens on the wheel. “I promise you, Father… if you step foot on my property again, they will never find your body.”

A long, heavy silence stretches between us.

“Son… I just wanted to see you.” His voice cracks slightly. He’s nervous.

“Leave.”

I hang up.

I check the cameras at the mansion. He’s standing outside the gates with his two bodyguards, gesturing wildly, throwing a pathetic tantrum.

What the fuck did he expect? He ignored me for six years while I rotted in that cage. Sent money through strangers. That was it. Part of me always believed he hoped I would die in there.

But I didn’t, I became something worse. Stronger. Smarter. Hungrier.

I adapted, and I knew the only thing I would need when I finally walked out of those gates was her.

I glance to my right, Briar, sleeping peacefully in the seat beside me, black hair spilling across her shoulder, chest rising and falling in slow breaths.

My darkness.

My queen.

Mine.

Chapter Sixteen

BRIAR

Oh shit… my head⁠—

Everything is spinning. My vision is blurred and heavy. I’m lying on something soft and impossibly comfortable, but my body feels wrong—too heavy, too slow. I need to get up. I blink desperately, trying to force the world into focus, but it keeps slipping away.

I push myself upright and the room tilts violently. A wave of dizziness crashes over me.

Big, warm hands wrap around my waist instantly, steadying me.

“Lay down.” His deep voice commands, low and velvet-rough, it slides over my skin.

“Stalker,” I breathe out, voice cracking.

I hear him chuckle, a dark, intimate sound that sends an unwelcome shiver down my spine.

“I have a name.”

He helps me sit up slowly, carefully. A cool, damp cloth is pressed into my hands. “Clean your eyes and rest. You should feel better in a couple of minutes.”

“Where am I?” I ask, pressing the cold cloth to my burning eyes, trying to calm my racing heart.

“Hellebore,” he answers simply.