Dying to Marry Him novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Second Bride

A bride who tried the door is eliminated, Kerensa faces Rook about the influencer, Loretta asks to be written into the story, and Alyssa says Gilt wants to know what happens in Kerensa's room.

He told me not to open the door, but I barely waited before I turned the handle.

Nobody in my books ever stays in the room when someone screams.

The hallway was empty and lit by the same cold blue candles.

A woman in a yellow gown lay on the marble outside the chapel doors with her face turned away.

Her hands were still wrapped around the iron ring of the exit.

I knew her by the dress. She had been one of the six laughing at Alyssa's vow.

Gold letters unrolled above her. ELIMINATION 2. BRIDES REMAINING 6.

"She pulled on the door," the Master said behind me.

He had come back without a sound again.

The mist stood a little thinner at his throat, and I told myself it was the draft.

"I told you to stay inside," he said.

"You told me. I didn't agree."

"The doors are Gilt's. Anyone who forces them is eliminated. I do not decide that."

"You didn't decide for the influencer either," I said.

"She hit you, she came apart in front of all of us, and you said your line again."

My hands were shaking. I put them behind my back.

"You did not even look away."

For a long moment he said nothing.

"If I could have moved, I would have," he said.

"Until the brides have vowed, I cannot move, and I may say only the house's words. I said them."

"That's the rule?"

"It is the house's rule. It has a great many. I keep the ones I can."

I looked at the woman in the yellow dress.

I believed him, and I did not forgive him.

"I'll want to hear the rest of that," I said.

"I will tell you if you ask me properly."

"What's properly?"

"By name."

I felt my face go hot. "I don't have your name."

"Rook," he said.

It was a small, plain word, and he said it quietly.

"Rook," I repeated, and the mist moved, and I filed that away to think about later.

A door banged open down the hall.

"Kerensa!" Loretta came out in her stocking feet with her glasses crooked.

"I heard a scream. Was that one of ours?"

"The one in yellow," I said.

She crossed herself, fast, and then looked at Rook.

She did not step back from him, which impressed me more than anything else I had seen.

"Mister, I need to know something," she said. "My vow. Does it hold?"

"It holds."

"For how long?"

"For as long as hers runs." He tilted his head toward me.

"You vowed to keep her company while her story runs. As long as she has pages left, your vow cannot be collected."

Loretta stared at him. Then she looked at me.

"Honey," she said. "Did you know that?"

"No," I said. "I just wanted a vow with no door in it."

My vow had no end, and Loretta's was tied to mine.

If the others tied themselves to my pages too, the third dawn could not take them either.

"Rook," I said carefully. "Could someone else's vow work like hers?"

"Only if they are in your story," he said. "And only if they wish to be."

A voice came out of the dark at the end of the corridor.

"How cozy."

Alyssa Danforth stood at the stairwell door with her lace train gathered in one hand.

I had not heard her come. She had taken off her shoes and was carrying them.

"I was just looking for the bathroom," she said. "Isn't it funny, they don't give us one."

"Alyssa," Loretta said. "A girl just died."

"I know. I saw." Alyssa's voice went soft and sad.

"I was trying to help her. I told her to wait until morning."

I wanted to believe her. She had stood up in front of seven strangers and tried to keep us alive.

She looked at me and then at the Master.

"Gilt had a word with me after the rules," she said.

"He wants to know every line you say in that room. If I find out, I might get a fourth night."

Nobody moved.

"I told him I'd ask nicely," Alyssa said.

"And if I say no?" I asked.

"Then I'll find another way." The softness was gone from her face. "I'm not dying for your story, Kerensa."

She walked past us, close enough that her skirt brushed my ankle. At her own door she turned.

"Be careful what you write down," she said. "Someone might read it."

Her door shut.

Loretta sat down hard on the floor of the corridor.

"I'm going to be sick," she said. "Or I'm going to hit her with a shoe. I haven't decided."

Rook turned back to me.

"She will go for the notebook," he said. "You should not sleep tonight."

I held up my ringed hand and showed him the black band.

"Then come back in, sit down, and I'll tell you the next chapter," I said. "I'm not going anywhere."

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