Snow Heart by Arvalee Knight Read Free Book Online Page B

run off before I get my pleasure.”
    Nieves stood up. “Why are you doing this to me?” She had spoken so bravely but it slowly began to fade away. Gently she cooed, “Let me go, please.” She walked over to the kontatsu where Alric sat neatly at the end, facing her.
    He smirked with devilish arrogance.
    “Tell me why,” Nieves whispered. She plopped down onto the zabuton pillow adjacent to him. “Alric, tell me why you won’t let me go?”
    Alric simply took hold of his cup and walked away.
    Never in her life had she felt so inferior. Chained down like a dog and soon to be beaten for nothing at all. She couldn’t understand it.
    Why did he hate her so?
    Nieves lifted her eyes to the most beautiful flower she had ever seen. It was just beginning to bloom. At that moment it was stuck in a tear drop shape much larger than her hand.
    “Such a beautiful flower.” Nieves reached up to stroke the smooth pedals.
    Alric’s hand caught hers. His warmth pressed against the back of her body while his breathing tickled her nape. “I wouldn’t touch that,” he suggested in a mellow tone.
    Nieves moved her head to peer over her shoulder.
    Alric was sitting neatly behind her, a leg propped up and another leg stretched out on the other side of her. His thumb surreptitiously took in the softness of the top of her hand. “We wouldn’t want such delicate skin to get scathed.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    He moved his free hand to the table where a small narrow drawer had been hidden. He pulled out a small rectangular prism and lifted the lid. Never once did his right hand let go of Nieves’s.
    “What’s that?” asked Nieves who was again over looked.
    He pulled from the drawer a pair of tweezers. “Take this,” Alric told her.
    Nieves shakily took hold of the metal.
    “Now,” Alric said, taking hold of her hand. “Gather the piece of meat.” He lowered her hand to pinch the cube of white with the metal. Alric moved that hand over to the plant, drawing it closer very slowly.
    In a quick flash of energy, the flower bloomed open to a snake like creature that snapped up the white meat like a gingerbread man.
    Nieves gave a screech, tossing the tweezers in nowhere in particular.
    Just as quick as it opened, the flower was closing.
    “What is it?” asked Nieves.
    Alric reached across the floor for the tweezers. “It is a species similar to the Venus flytrap.” His thumb continued to rub her skin while feeding the plant another chunk of meat. He wanted desperately to dig his nails into her skin, to feel the warm blood that might soak his fingers.
    Nieves was highly intrigued with the plant’s fast reflexes.
    “It must do what it can to survive,” Alric stated. “In the wild it would devour any creature that settled upon it. Including birds.”
    “Birds?” asked Nieves excitedly. “Is that why I can’t touch it?”
    Alric tucked away the box and tweezers into the drawer. He made no effort to reply; it was something Nieves was getting used to.
    He slid his right hand down her arm while standing. “I’m going for a walk.” He didn’t tell that to her any more than he was telling that to himself.
    “Let me go,” Nieves called out. “Let me walk with you, at least.”
    Alric looked over his shoulder at her. “Where will you go when you are free?”
    “My sister… she’ll take me in.”
    Alric’s sinister smile made her stomach cringe. “She’s dead.”
    “I didn’t mean what I said,” Nieves argued. “She is my sister… I know somewhere in her heart she is still alive. I just know it. Let me go to Erika!”
    “She’s dead,” Alric repeated. “I killed her.”
    Nieves’ eyes widened with shock. Her words were like air and inaudible to the entire world. Alric had dealt a blow right to her heart—a wicked arrow piercing deep and true. “Erika…”
    Alric smiled at the girl’s pain and left quite happy with himself. His day had suddenly become rather bright.
     
    †
    “She’s so