Chapter 21: Lost In Wonderland
ADRIEN’S POV
"Do yourself a favor and be quiet for a moment, darling. Can’t you see I’m having a conversation with Mr Pietro?"
This crazy fucker. I literally have a gun pointed at my fucking eye and he’s still smiling sunnily at my would-be killer.
Wait...he didn’t actually bring me here to die, did he?
"That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?" Pietro whistles loudly, "Or do you not just care about your ’lovely’ fiancé?"
He doesn’t. Not in the slightest.
"Do you care for all your toys, Pietro?" He takes a leisurely sip of his whiskey. "Now, can you explain why you’re dealing euphoria in my hotel?"
"Would you believe me if I said I did it for fun?" He snorts.
"No, I wouldn’t actually," Orion says, flashing both him and me a breezy smile, "because you do not have the ability to influence the creation of a drug like euphoria."
"You’re an assassin not a kingpin, Pietro."
"Well...you’re right." Even with the easy vibe of their conversation, the gun never lowers from my face. "But you see, even an assassin can become something more special if time is given."
"How poetic. Though, I can assure you, if you do not lower your weapon, your ’time’ will definitely run out right now." He delivers the threat as easily as breathing.
"You don’t want to achieve your final attack now, do you Pietro?"
So, he’s not leaving me to die?
"I thought you didn’t care for your toys, Basilisk? Am I wrong or were you lying about that?" His accent shifts from something Midwestern to something distinctly feminine.
Is he a she? Is this a thing now?
Orion sets his glass down on the desk with a sigh. "I take it back duckling, you’re not as idiotic as I made you out to be. I think you might have managed to rank higher than this fool in high school."
I was an average student, not an idiot! Not everyone could be as freakishly intelligent as you, Orion. I always did my best, and I ranked comfortably in the middle of the class.
I was twenty out of forty!
And for god’s sake, please do not insult the man who has a gun to my fucking eye! Even if you don’t want to play nice, try to hold back a bit for my sake. I’m fucking begging now.
"Oh, you’ve been lovers since high school? I thought you were dating a lady?" Now, his voice is oddly high-pitched, like he swallowed the air in a helium balloon.
"I was but she ended things with me," he leans against the table with a pout, "but then I found duckling and I remembered what I really wanted..."
He fixes his unsettling gaze on me. "And that was to torment him for the rest of our lives."
Pietro says nothing at first. He tilts his head contemplatively at Orion, then turns to me, repeating the same motion.
"Would shooting you free you from your misery?" He asks, genuinely honest.
"Please don’t."
"I’m sure dying now would be better than whatever he has planned for you, don’t you think?" He tries again.
Orion watches us, amusement coloring his face. "It’s nothing he can’t handle, I assure you. All he needs is a bit of training to get back into it."
Now, Pietro looks sufficiently alarmed. "Dude, do you really not want to die?"
Is that really what did it for him? Hearing that Orion intends to break me? What a soft-hearted assassin. He should seriously start looking into new job options.
"I have a very strong will to survive...so please don’t shoot."
"Don’t go begging other men in front of me, duckling." This crazy fucker just won’t let things rest. "He’s clearly not going to shoot you. This is his way of fucking around with you."
"What gave me away?" Pietro asks calmly as he lowers his gun and tucks it away in his jacket.
I don’t know if I should feel annoyed or embarrassed that I got toyed with by a literal assassin, but thinking about all the ways this could have gone wrong kills any rising emotion in me.
At least I now know where I stand when it comes to Orion.
’Do you care for all your toys, Pietro?’
"The thing with Pietro of a thousand faces is that no one ever sees you until it’s over," he responds giddily, "so, imagine my surprise when you revealed yourself and decided to have a conversation with me."
"With your fiancé’s life on the line of course," Pietro adds as a jab, voice resembling that of an old Spanish man.
"What do you mean?" Orion asks, fingers tapping at the table lightly. "If Adrien’s life were truly in danger, both you and everything you cherish will cease to exist."
"I’ll give you a bit of advice now Pietro, because you see, the only thing predictable about me is the way I respond when what is mine is touched by another," he pushes himself off the table, prowling towards Pietro.
"And if you want to know what that reaction is, then pull out your weapon and take a shot at my fiancé."
It would’ve been better if he had growled the words instead of speaking in that soft tone. A chill runs down my spine unbidden, and I see the way Pietro stiffens slightly.
His claim isn’t just a joke. It’s something else entirely.
"I’d like to believe that I’m funny, not insane," Pietro counters, raising both hands playfully, "he’s all yours, mi amigo. All yours."
Orion doesn’t back down though. He stares Pietro down, watching as the man squirms under his gaze— trying and failing to hide his emotions.
And as cathartic as it is to watch Orion stare down the man who held a gun to my face, I would rather not. There are so many things I want to know. Things I know Orion has been keeping from me for the fun of it.
Things like—
"Euphoria." Their staring contest breaks at the sound of my voice. "What is it? Some kind of ecstasy?"
I almost wish I hadn’t asked. With both their eyes on me, I find myself fighting the urge to flee. Orion’s gaze is as frustrating as always, but Pietro’s is dark as hell.
And his eye color is no longer brown. It’s now a piercing shade of grey. Like a storm cloud.
"Are you some kind of...shapeshifter?" I ask abruptly, my curiosity about euphoria temporarily forgotten.
"It’s a killing technique," he replies easily, "Pietro of a thousand faces, remember? It’s like— "
"It’s a slow-acting poison." Orion cuts in, looking slightly put-off. "The more you use it, the happier you get, hence the name ’euphoria’. You keep using it, and you smile happily while being lowered into your grave."
Oh, so it’s like Orion? A one-hit slow-kill drug?
"But why call it a poison? Aren’t all drugs poisonous?"
His gaze flickers with something like interest, but it appears so fast, I think I must have imagined it.
"Don’t you know, duckling? All drugs taken in excess are poisons, but not all poisons can be drugs." He takes a seat on one of the sofas, arms crossed over his chest.
"But to really know the difference between euphoria and other drugs, our darling Pietro is going to explain a lot of things to us."
His lips stretch into a slow smile. "What do you say, man with a thousand faces?"
