A Castle of Sand (A Shade of Vampire #3)(62)

Lucas pushed the door open and led me into a large courtroom. A lone figure could be seen in the middle of it. He was seated on a tall black throne, made up of what looked like human skulls. At the sight of me, he stood on his feet, his dark eyes lighting up as he licked his lips.

I immediately assumed that he was Borys Maslen. He didn’t look like I thought he would. I’d expected him to look like the Novaks. He had muddy brown hair, and a stocky, wide, muscular physique. He looked like he could crush me with his bare hands if he wanted to.

“So this is my Sofia.” He smiled as Lucas pushed me forward, forcing me to approach the throne. “It’s about time you came to me, my dear betrothed.”

“I’m not your betrothed,” I spat out. The notion was sickening.

“Actually, Sofia,” a feminine voice came out through the deep burgundy curtains behind Borys’ throne, “you are his betrothed.” A beautiful woman emerged from behind the curtains and it was clear to see who she was. Ingrid Maslen.

Tears began to flow down my eyes at the sight of her. Gregor was telling the truth. It’s my mother.

“She looks so happy to see you, Ingrid.” Borys tilted his head to the side.

I couldn’t even bear looking at him. My eyes were glued on my mother as questions began to flood my mind. “Mom?”

“Yes, Sofia.” She smiled at me. “It’s me. Your mother. I gave you to Borys a long time ago. You are rightfully his.”

I had no idea how to cope with all the information being thrown my way, but two things I was still certain about: my mother was indeed crazy and there was no way that I belonged to Borys.

I managed to pry my eyes away from Ingrid, or whatever she called herself nowadays, and look at the man who was claiming me as his. I felt nothing but disgust toward him. I gathered all the courage I could muster and smirked at him. “You’re too late.” I raised my hand and showed them the ring Derek had given me. “I’m already married to Derek Novak.”

It wasn’t a difficult lie to tell, because it was almost true. Derek was already my fiancé and it was him whom I belonged with.

Borys’ face colored into a deep, beet red. He lunged forward, until he was standing right in front of me, grabbing my jaw. “You lie!” he accused.

I kept the smirk on my face. “You can check if you want. He’s already taken me to his bed. Many times.” At least that part was true. I could almost sense the surprise coming from Lucas. I wondered why he thought Derek would never take me to his bed and realized that Lucas knew that I was different from the beginning, knew that Derek never touched me while I was initially at The Shade.

To my surprise, Borys took out his frustration on Lucas. He let go of my jaw and threw Lucas against a wall. “How dare your brother touch what is mine! First, he takes Vivienne away from me, now he has soiled my betrothed!”

I winced when he grabbed a clump of Lucas’ hair and hit him right across the face.

“Borys, my dear, that’s enough.” Ingrid sounded almost bored. “You’re scaring my daughter.”

Borys hit Lucas one more time before turning his attention toward me once again. He grabbed my waist and pulled my body against his, yanking me like a rag doll. His free hand began groping me roughly as he pressed his lips against my cheek. I screamed with pain and terror when his claws came out of the hand that was touching my thigh, sinking into my skin as he scratched my thigh upward and drew blood.

Once satisfied that he had drawn enough blood, he used both his arms to wrap around me so tightly it felt as if he wanted to crush my ribs. He whispered into my ear, “Derek might’ve already had you before I could, but I still want you, Sofia Claremont. Don’t worry. I’m going to make him pay for what he did to you, for taking you away from me. Once I make a widow out of you, you’re going to be mine, Sofia—just as you were always meant to be.”

He then let go of me and pushed me to the ground. Delight sparked in his eyes when he saw the blood trickling down my thighs. I knew then that I was facing one sadistic man, and I could only shudder to think of all the horrors that Vivienne had to go through under his rule.

“Heal your daughter,” he instructed Ingrid. “I’ll see to it that everyone prepares for my wedding.” A spark of glee showed in his eyes. “We have to make sure that Derek Novak gets an invitation.”

CHAPTER 45: BEN

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I felt was a sharp pain in the right side of my head. I tried to remember what had just happened, and could recall Gregor Novak hitting me on the head with a hard object. After that, everything was a daze. I sat up, feeling slightly dizzy, and noticed that I was lying on a couch, my wrists cuffed behind my back.

I looked around the room and immediately saw Sofia, sitting over the edge of a large bed, her hand cuffed to the bed’s railings. It was clear to see from the tear stains on her cheeks and her swollen eyes that she’d been crying.

“Sofia? What happened? Where are we?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. Lucas says that we’re in Egypt, a place called The Oasis.”

I drew a breath. The Oasis was the stuff of legends. It’d been one of the hunters’ main quests to find it, because it was rumored to be the Maslen coven’s hideout. I wondered then why on earth Gregor and Claudia would bring us to the Maslens. That’s when what Sofia had said fully registered in my mind. That would mean they’d been working with Lucas all along, and Lucas had been working with the Maslens?