“I always knew you were a traitorous bitch,Eshe,” Abena sneers. “I hope you didn’t really believe that little mask would hide who you are.” She laughs. “God, I should’ve smothered you in your sleep years ago and saved myself the trouble.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Auntie.” I roll my face covering up and offer her a feral smile. “I want you to know who’s taking your worthless, ain’t-shit life. And let’s be clear: You couldn’t kill me inyoursleep, much less mine. That’s not what you do, how you’re built. You’d much rather have someone else do your dirty work. Guess you figured it worked with the mother, why not have a go again with the daughter, right?”
Rage gathers inside me like a tropical storm, gaining power and speed, threatening to tear everything down in its path. I’m set on destruction—Abena’s. And if I go down as a result, well, fuck it.
“Your mother, your mother. Aisha, Aisha. I’m so fucking sick and tired of hearing you whine about my goddamn sister. She was a cunt just like my mother. Just like you. And the best thing they ever did for this family was lie down and die like the bitches they were,” Abena snarls, hate twisting her features into a hard, ugly mask.
“You disrespectful piece of shit.”
She laughs, tipping her head back, and I can just imagine my knife going across her throat, splaying it open, and her blood coating me.
“No,Niece. That’s ‘you disrespectful piece of shit,oba.’ Your queen. A position you will never know. You will never sit on that throne. You will never be your precious Aisha.” She smiles, and if mine was feral, hers is savage. “You’re welcome.”
You’re welcome.
Yourewelcomeyourewelcomeyourewelcome.
A scream swirls in the pit of my stomach, and it surges upward, throwing blows against my ribs and heart, clawing at my throat. It howls in my brain, buzzing, buzzing. My vision goes red—
“Kill her. And let’s go.”
The cold, rational voice in my ear shoves the haze back a fraction so it’s a film, and the furious winds in my ears ease to quiet noise. Fury continues to have me in its grip, but I’m no longer a berserker on the edge of mass annihilation.
“You.” Accusation drips from Abena’s voice as she throws the covers back and swings her legs over the side of the bed. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Do it,” Malachi urges.
As if I need the encouragement.
“Do this, Eshe, and the full weight of this family will be on your—” Abena snaps.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl, charging over to the bed and pistol-whipping her across the cheekbone.
Fierce satisfaction burns through me like the Olympic fucking torch when her skin breaks open and crimson blood sprays across my lips. I lick them. Behind me there’s a commotion, but I trust Malachi to handle it. Nothing’s going to stop me from this now that I’m so close, I can literally taste it. I press the SIG to Abena’s forehead and pull on the trigger…
“Eshe! Move!”
A gun blast nearly deafens me, and a pained grunt reaches myear just before a solid body slams into mine. I roll, staring up into a bright blue pair of eyes—but not Malachi’s.
Ekon’s.
In a whir of motion, he vaults off me and grabs Abena from the bed. I jump to my feet, right behind him, but the closed door to her bedroom shudders, shouts coming from the other side.
“Fuck!” In the time I glance from her door, Ekon, with Abena cradled in his arms, disappears into one of the obodo’s many hidden passages. Some I know of and some I don’t. Helplessness and rage consume me as the wall beside the tall armoire slides shut. “Where did he come from?”
I spin around, scouring Abena’s bedroom, and Malachi, his fist wrapped around Marshall’s arm, points toward an open door on the other side of the room.
“What is that?” Malachi asks Marshall, who wipes blood from a gash on his forehead.
“An adjacent bedroom.” He pauses. “The Mirror just started using it.”
Malachi’s head turns to me. “You didn’t know that?”
Embarrassment rushes to my face because I hear the accusation in his tone. That Abena’s in the wind and we’re trapped here because I went in emotional without all the facts.
“Obviously not.” I look at Marshall. “Is there a way out of here? Another exit besides the hall?”
When he doesn’t immediately reply, Malachi lowers his arm toward his leg and the knife sheath there. Marshall shakes his head, holding up a hand.
