His other hand gripped the bottom of my chin and forcibly turned my head to the large canopy bed, decorated with sinister thorns and carved demonic figures. His fingers bit into my jaw as he lowered my line of sight. Sitting on the bed, tangled in its crimson sheets, was my mother, watching me with wide, frightened eyes. Her skin was pale and blood and bruises stained her cheeks. She no longer looked like my twin.
She looked a lot like someone who was about to die.
My face heated. Anger bubbled under my skin, but I felt something else as well—a roaring in my head and an overwhelming explosion of pain and heat against my stomach.The book! It was still hidden. I clamped my arms across my middle to try to ease the discomfort, but there was no use. I just clenched my teeth together and pushed through it.
“Did you think I would not find out?” I tried desperately to turn my head away from his but he held me tight and gnashed his teeth against my temple. “I don’t know what sort of magic you performed on her, but I will punish you by killing every person you ever held dear to your heart.” His words unnerved me, grinding into my skin. He bit at my cheek and pain cut sharp across my skin. I wanted to scream out, but instead I squeezed my eyes closed and listened to the rumbling hum of the gods that hid beneath my shirt.Well, that was a sentence no one ever thought they’d say.
“You will learn to fear me. Serve me. Desire me.”
Not likely. I struggled to break free. My eyes opened and glared at him defiantly.
Hemlock laughed, tightening his grip. “I’ll have you watch as I tear your mother limb from limb, with my own hands.”
Mary’s face blanched more.Did she think any of this was going to end well for her? Did she really believe that this inhuman psycho was going to really have feelings for her?“Did you hear that, Mary?” I shouted out to her. “Did you hear how much you mean to him?”
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try to provoke her, butdammit, she was my mother! Didn’t she understand it was supposed to be us against him and not me against the both of them?
My heart thundered in my chest, but I kept my eyes locked on hers, refusing to show any fear.
“Are you so naïve as to think I will not do as I promise? Everyone you held dear, my pet. Everyone.”
“I’m not naïve, Hemlock.” I grunted out the words. “It’s just a simple fact of everyone I ever held dear has hurt me more than you have already.” His eyes slowly met with mine.
Hemlock roared out a string of chants, and pain slammed into my chest, sharp and hot and suffocating. I opened my mouth to speak, to yell or scream, but nothing came out—or in. I couldn’t breathe. Sparks of fire burned through my throat and exploded in my lungs.
“You think I will not hurt you, but I will. I will tear out a bit of you each day for eternity.”
My heart felt as though it were stuttering to an abrupt stop. My body involuntarily started to panic, desperately trying to find air.
“Did you ever love me?” My mother’s voice was small and weak.
I didn’t know why she thought to ask that question just then or why the answer truly mattered to her, but I was instantly dropped to the floor and air crashed back through my lungs. Whatever her stupid reason, I had a reprieve. I scrambled away from Hemlock’s grasp, sliding myself gasping and choking across the room from him.
“You’re only human,” he told her. “A plaything, nothing more.”
“But you told me—”
Hemlock chuckled darkly. “Many gods before me consorted with humans as well. Come now, Mary. We’ve spoken of old stories.”
“You made promises to me that you didn’t—“
“You’re a weak, pathetic mortal. Nothing more.”
“And what is she,” she asked, pointing to me.
“She was born in death, half immortal, and the closest thing to a god. She will worship me for an eternity. A span of time so long she’ll forget there was ever a human named Mary or the place you came from.”
Half what, now? What did he just say about me?
“You told me if I came with you we could rule over Ravenswood together. You swore to take care of me for—”
“And then you took her from me, didn’t you?” Hemlock said, cutting her off abruptly.
Mary sat up straighter, frowning at him, batting innocent doe eyes his way. “That wasn’t me. That was—”
“And Addy is gone because of it. Mercifully, Mary. I could have terrorized her for lifetimes. Think of all those stories I told you. Think about the time Prometheus gave humanity fire. What was Zeus’s punishment for him?”
I remembered that story in the mythology books I read. Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock and had an eagle eat his liver every day for eternity. All because he was nice to humans. I hugged my arms to my stomach. Was Zeus in the book hidden under my shirt? Would I been setting all those gods free if I opened it? The same gods who had story after story of abducting unsuspecting humans for sexual gratification?
