“Does this look like the face of a man who knows what the fuck you’re talking about?” Levi mutters before pointing toward the massive staircase just outside the living room. “Start walking.”
Well, shit. There goes my shower.
26
The tension rolling off the three brothers is like nothing I’ve ever felt before and having them at my back makes me feel sick. They follow me upstairs, twisting through hallways and retracing my steps, but I’m disoriented by the million different paths to take.
“You’re full of shit,” Levi grunts behind me. “There is no fucking woman in a coffin.”
“I swear,” I spit back at him, glancing over my shoulder to show him the heated anger swirling in my gaze at being questioned. “I’m just … lost. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight when I came running through here. Besides, how don’t you know about this? Didn’t you just follow me straight out?”
“No,” he mutters. “I saw you from the hallway window and had no choice but to break through the bastard. That’s reinforced glass. I almost broke my fucking wrists trying to get through it.”
My brows furrow and I find myself looking back at him again. “Oh, I uhh … I just figured.”
Marcus groans. “Really? Did you pay no attention to the fact that you came back in through a different window?”
“No,” I snap. “I was a little preoccupied with the fact that I’d just been fucked on the roof after nearly falling to my death.”
The boys mutter behind me and I do my best at trying to ignore them when I finally come to a familiar staircase. I start winding my way up it and the further I go, the more the tension in the room rises. “What?” I question, glancing back and seeing the hard expression in Roman’s eyes. “I thought you guys knew everything that was in this place. Have you never been up here before?”
Roman shakes his head. “Never had a need to before. As far as we were concerned, it was all empty.”
“So, that little nagging voice inside your head that pulls at your curiosity never once pushed you to come looking up here? Not even a little?”
His gaze narrows and he looks at me as though I’m speaking right out of my ass. “Little nagging voice inside your head?” he questions. “Shit, and you think we’re the ones who’ve gone insane. That’s not normal, Empress. You need to get that shit checked out.”
“Oh sure,” I grumble. “Why don’t you book an appointment with the doctor? Oh wait. You killed him.”
“Fucking hell,” Levi mutters under his breath, more than done with the long-ass night we’ve all had to endure, his tone suggesting that whatever comes out of his mouth next is about to be some kind of verbal smackdown. “Why didn’t anyone warn me how fucking hilarious you are?”
I scoff, dragging my gaze back toward the long hallway ahead of me. “Because they’re probably too busy laughing at what a joke you are.”
A hand curls around the back of my neck and before I get a chance to even gasp, my back is pressed up against the wall. “Watch it,” he growls. “My patience is wearing thin.”
“Do you need me to help you with that?” I murmur, dropping my tone low and pushing my tits up to press against his wide chest. “I have a few … tricks that I’m sure could ease your frustrations. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll blow your fucking mind.”
Marcus grunts behind us, rubbing at the raw skin at the back of his neck. “Unless you want my fucking handprint plastered across your perky ass, I suggest you get on with it. If there’s a fucking shrine up in here, then I want to know about it.”
I shove Levi off me and am surprised when he steps back without question. I don’t think anything more of it and continue down the hallway, a strange hollowness appearing in the pit of my stomach at having to walk into that fucked-up little coffin room again. “I’d hardly call it a shrine,” I tell them. “It’s more like a creepy tomb.”
“I don’t give a shit what you want to call it,” Roman says. “I need to see it.”
I grumble under my breath and I can practically feel them rolling their eyes at my back. Silence falls around us as we keep making our way further up toward the very top of the castle and when I finally come to the very last staircase that leads to the old wooden door, I find myself pausing in the middle of the hallway.
“Is that it?” Marcus asks, stepping in beside me and nodding to the door up ahead.
“Yeah,” I murmur, glancing up into his dark eyes. “Please don’t make me go in there. It’s … it’s just fucked up, okay? I don’t want to see it again.”