Claimed by the Prince of Darkness novel Chapter 224

Chapter 224: The Escape

Hours passed like seconds, though Ruelle couldn’t say for sure. Not in this room. Not in the dim, wavering circle of the lantern’s light, where time seemed to have stopped moving altogether.

Ezekiel had taken a seat on the opposite chair and he watched her without blinking. The weight of his gaze was a physical thing, pressing against her skin, crawling over her face and her hands and her throat. It was taxing on her mind in a way she hadn’t known a gaze could be. She couldn’t relax.

And every time her eyes met his, the more empty they looked. As if she were looking at a person who didn’t have a soul.

"Are you sleepy, Ruelle?" Ezekiel asked. There was a barely hidden eagerness in his voice, of a man waiting to carry her to bed.

"No," she said, and the word came out flatter than she intended. She forced herself to meet his eyes. "But I want to relieve myself."

It was true. The pressure had been building for what felt like hours, a dull, insistent ache low in her body. But it was also an excuse to be away from that unblinking stare, from the suffocating weight of his attention while she wanted to see the place she was held captive.

But Ezekiel only continued to stare at her. He then smiled and replied, "Of course, let me help you there."

She saw him stand up before making his way to her. When he went to pick her up, she said, "I want to walk myself. It’s not like I can do much in my current state."

"I love you, but I don’t trust you enough to free your legs," Ezekiel answered with a smile. "How can I trust you?"

For someone who killed people, he had absurd demands. She pleaded, "Please. The least I can ask is for my dignity to be maintained."

Ezekiel’s lips twisted in thought. He then said, "Okay. Let us hope you don’t break that trust and do something stupid, Ruelle. It would make me very upset." The threat under the soft words was clear.

Ruelle gave a nod and soon he freed her legs from the binds that were tied. Then he took her arm and led her out of the room. The corridor was dark, darker than the room they’d left behind, as lanterns didn’t burn here. She couldn’t help but pick the stench coming from somewhere and she asked once again,

"Where is this place?"

"Can you believe it is a place I found when I was a child?" she heard him ask, his voice filling the narrow corridor as light began to enter. It seemed like this was underground where he had brought her. "The vampires liked to chase me around. I found this place when I was running from them one night. It was my solace and peace here, a place I liked to come and spend time in. I have very fond memories of it. And I cannot wait to tell you about each and every one of them," he added.

As they walked on, the stench grew worse. Ruelle raised her bound wrists, coming up to cover her nose and mouth. The smell was thick now, unavoidable.

"Did others come here?" she asked.

"You mean the women whom I killed?" Ezekiel didn’t hide the fact, as if he had decided to drop the whole gentleman facade. "Yes, I brought them here. But none could match you. Won’t you ask why?"

She would not give him the satisfaction. She would not open her mouth and invite more of his sick, twisted thoughts into the space between them. But even as she held her silence, her mind raced.

Ezekiel’s grip on her arm tightened. He said, "Let me show you."

He dragged her in another direction, and the smell hit her full force now. Entering a room, she caught sight of a woman’s body, lying on the table.

"Who—who is that?"

"I don’t know," Ezekiel chuckled.

He picked up a lantern, and when the light fell, the full horror of the scene laid itself bare before her. The woman’s chest had been cracked wide open to reveal the ribcage. The inside of it looked empty and dry.

"If you had come to me, this wouldn’t have happened, Ruelle. Choosing Lucian Slater when I was right there. I was going mad, and I had to take my anger out on someone," Ezekiel paused as his eyes found hers. "I didn’t want to hurt you."

The despicable things this person was capable of... Ruelle was not only revolted but scared of what he could do. She took a step back and then another in horror. No matter what she would say, nothing would enter his head. Taking a deep breath to calm herself and said,

"I don’t like anyone being harmed or killed...."

"Of course, Ruelle," Ezekiel returned to her side with a smile. "Now that you are with me, I have no need to find one who looks like you. Besides, you are going to listen to me, right?"

"Yes..." Ruelle answered, while her eyes fell on the sharp instruments on the side table.

He didn’t take her outside the underground space. Instead, he led her to another room and then stepped outside to wait for her, leaving her alone for the first time in hours.

Her eyes swept the room with desperation, but there was nothing worth grabbing. But seeing there was water, she used it on the ground to send a message through teleportation she had learned, but the chain she had used refused to disappear as if she held no witch ability at all.

Once she was done, he brought her back to the first room. Ezekiel knelt to bind her legs again.

"If you really loved me, why didn’t you stop the marriage?" she questioned, while hoping to find a way to reach her goal right now.

What she needed was for him to leave, to go somewhere, anywhere, for long enough that she could move, could work, could find some crack in the careful cage he’d kept her in. If she couldn’t reason with him, she would distract him. If she couldn’t distract him, she would manage him. Whatever it took.

Ezekiel’s hands paused on the rope. He remarked,

"I regret not stopping the wedding. I was too shocked. There were council ministers there that day, witnessing the wedding. I couldn’t just refuse. But now it doesn’t even matter." He looked up at her. "I even told you."

"When?" Ruelle asked, and she kept her voice soft, humouring him.

"The night before the wedding." Ezekiel’s voice had gone quiet with slight hurt. "I told you how I couldn’t wait to marry you. But you ran away."

Before he could tighten the rope, she uttered, "I cannot be with a person who is married."

If she asked only for a marriage annulment, he would promise it but delay it, thought Ruelle. And right now she needed immediate results.

She couldn’t agree too quickly as he had watched her for too long. He knew she wouldn’t ask for Caroline’s death without flinching. So she gave him something closer to the truth, something he could twist on his own.

Ezekiel’s jaw tightened, and for a moment the old fury flickered behind his eyes. He spat, "It is all Megan Belmont’s fault. Your stepmother could never see anyone happy." She noticed him let go of the rope as he stood up and asked, "What then? The only way to resolve it is to kill Caroline. But I doubt you would like it."

Ruelle let the silence stretch, because the conclusion he gave was what she was expecting from him. Her lips pursed for a moment before she turned her face away to make sure he didn’t pick anything. She said at last,

"She’s caused me much pain as have the other people. I have done everything I could as family, I have loved and cared for them. But in the end all I got was distrust..."

"I know you have suffered," Ezekiel placed his hand on hers and she tried hard not to pull away.

"Now I think that... if she didn’t exist, no one would have to die. You wouldn’t have been compelled to kill others, and we would have been married," Ruelle whispered, the words acidic in her mouth.

If Ruelle had learned anything from the dead woman with the open chest, it was that Ezekiel would not stop on his own. The only way out was through his delusion.

Ezekiel’s head tilted, the motion was slow, almost birdlike. He then asked, "If I kill her, will you marry me?"

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