Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

God, shut up. I squeeze my fists, silently telling her to shut her mouth, but
I won’t say it out loud, will I? Because I’m scared. I’m scared of that point of
no return, but why? It’s costing me Liv.
It’s costing me everything.
Raising my eyes, I reach up and start unpinning my hair. I pull out the
pins, the hairspray keeping it clumped together, but it falls down piece by
piece until the entire work is undone.
“Hey,” I hear Krisjen say.
Amy rises next to me. “Clay, what are you doing?”
I take everything out, shaking my head to loosen the locks, lazy curls
spilling around me as I unscrew the diamond studs my grandmother gave me
to wear.
I’ll wear the dress. I’ll go to the ball. But that’s it.
“No!” someone shouts.
I startle.
“Now I said we aren’t expecting any deliveries,” Marnie snaps. “How did
you get through the gate?”
Amy and Krisjen stand behind me, all of us with our eyes pinned toward
the foyer, but whoever is at the door is out of sight.
But then a voice booms. “Clay Collins! Are you home?”
I bolt out of my chair, tightening my robe around me as I round the corner
into the entryway and see Iron Jaeger standing at my door. He’s in his usual
grease-smudged, white T-shirt with sweat shining across his forehead. He
holds two large boxes.
“A little help?” he chides me, glaring at Marnie who won’t let him pass.
“Marnie, it’s okay.” I move forward and take a box off his load. “What is
this?”
“Fuck if I know.” He barely takes three steps inside before he drops the
other box on the floor in front of me. “You figure out the rest.”
Spinning around, he leaves, the door hanging open after him as I stand
there holding the bag, so to speak.
“That was weird,” Amy says.
Did Liv send him? I look down at the box, Lavinia’s name engraved in
lavender in the center of the large, white box. It’s taller than the other one,
both of them different shapes.
“What is it?” Krisjen asks.
I kneel down to the floor and set it next to the one Iron dropped, opening