Icarus | Z.M.

54 | Castle

Victoria Tomlinson

I could feel myself slowly beginning to regain consciousness.

Echoes of voices surrounded me, everything was a little bit hazy.

There was movement, other people surrounding me, in the room, wherever I was.

I was sitting upright, like I was on a chair, my hands behind my back, restrained so I couldn't move.

A searing pain shot through my head and my eyes strained slightly when I attempted to open them and look around the well lit room. But suddenly there was too much light, and I had to squeeze them closed again.

My hands were tightly bound with what felt like a zip-tie, with no room to even move my hands at all. I could feel the burn from how tightly the tie was around my wrists the more I thought of it.

Slowly I could feel the panic building up inside of me while my mind worked hard to put pieces together. My eyes managed to open again so that I could take in my surroundings.

An office.

Casted over the room was a warm golden glow, coming from the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling above my head. Everything was rich, sophisticated. It reminded me of my dad's office besides the fact that everything in my dad's office was grey, and everything in here was made from reds and golds, being flashy with how much everything cost.

There was a desk in front of me, decorated with more small golden trinkets, documents and files that also reminded me of the ones my dad had sitting on his desk. Documents of people he wanted dead.

I met the eye of the man sitting on the opposite side of the desk.

Midas fucking Samael.

Oh, shit.

He sat proudly in his chair, a gleaming smile on his face, grinning with a few silver teeth alongside the rotting ones. His dark hair was slicked back in the way I recognised it always seemed to be. Despite his smile his eyes were cold, his gaze only filled me with dread. I'd never seen a stare be so terrifying before.

"You don't need to look so scared, Miss. Tomlinson." Midas spoke, his tone slow and smooth as if he was trying to prove he wasn't any sort of threat to me. "I didn't bring you here to hurt you."

I glanced at him, and then around the room again. Behind him were guards, armed with guns, bulletproof vests, helmets on their heads to completely cover their faces. Behind me was the same, on either side of the chair I was sitting on stood two more guards.

It kind of seemed like I was here for him to hurt.

"You see, only the other week you took something from me. Didn't you?" Midas went on, raising his voice a fraction more to get my attention when I had diverted it away from him for a second. There were a few more moments when I said nothing to him and gave him none of my attention, I was too focused on trying to actually process what was going on. "I asked you a question."

The tone of his voice made me flinch, so I looked at him and answered simply. "Yes."

He eyed me carefully, despite the cold eyes he still had a friendly expression on his face, like he was telling me I could trust him until I did something to upset him or didn't cooperate. "Nobody likes a thief."

"Didn't you steal it in the first place?" I asked him, narrowing my eyes. His eyebrows raised like he was waiting for me to explain what I meant by that. But he knew. The necklace had been given to Antonov, who was supposed to help move it across the country. Midas stole it.

"That attitude isn't wise, princess." he warned me, shaking his head with the click of his tongue. "And no, I didn't steal it." his head shook, "It was in my possession. You, or your little bodyguard should I say, stole it from me." he corrected, clasping his hands together on the rich oak desk that separated us. "And he killed Antonov. Not that I minded, he was going to be killed anyway. But I needed him for a few more days, so that was just an inconvenience for me, sweetheart. The necklace is mine."