My heart thudded hard enough to shake my ribs. The man in the mask hadn’t seemed interested in Brit. Maybe he’d left her. He had to have.
I rolled out of bed and crossed the two steps to the only door. I called on my Majekah. The wood turned to scraps at my touch. Relief caught in my throat until I saw the bathroom.
“Just beautiful,” an ancient voice rasped, dry as dust.
Cayden had always avoided talking about his family. He promised I’d never end up here. Fear ran down my spine as I turned.
An ancient man stood, outlined against a black pulsating entry. His wrinkled face wilted under the weight of his skin, and a too-tight minister’s collar held the bright-orange robes I’d seen on Cayden’s brothers.
The sight of that collar made my own feel tighter, like an invisible chain. A draft touched places normally shielded by underwear. Someone had stripped me and bathed me. I hugged myself, suddenly feeling very small.
“Welcome to your new home, Quinn.” He closed the space in three slow steps, milky-green eyes set in the same deep sockets as Cayden’s, only colder. A gnarled cane with a large crystal on top supported his weight.
“The correct response…”—he smiled, slow and sure—“…is to kneel. I am your Prophet. The father of your children. Your reason to exist.”
I pressed my abdomen, feeling the cold edge of my belly button ring, proof I was still me. For now. Bile burned at the base of my throat.Would I even know if I’d been raped?My heart thundered. I forced the rising vomit down.
“Your magic’s strong,” he said, closing in. “Submit, and I’ll remove your collar. There’s no need for this to be unfriendly. I am a kind Prophet. Our family walks in the light of the Sun God.”
I forced my gaze to the crystal on his staff, clinging to the harmless rainbows it threw across the gray room.
“No.” The word came out stronger than I felt, like it belonged to someone braver.
The milky green of his eyes churned, as if something alive moved beneath the surface.
Beneath the wrinkles of his cruel smile, Cayden’s bone structure mocked me. I knew. This was Cayden’s father, the man who had impregnated his own daughter.
He stepped back, spreading his hands in mock benediction.
“God shines only on believers,” he said with a sad smile curving his lips. “Until you believe, you are tainted. Untouchable, even to me, without risking His wrath.”
His words didn’t comfort me.
He beckoned, palms open in false welcome. “You will believe, Quinn. My word is truth. I will lead you into the light.”
I shook my head.
He carved a slow shape into the air, and the gray room warped around me. I was suddenly inches from the Prophet with my back to the bed. He reached out and wrapped my sparkling locks in his fist. I jerked back, for him to yank me forward again until my scalp burned.
“You’ll beg me to touch you,” he promised. “They all do.”
He released me, and in his place, Brit stood: pale, trembling, bleeding.
“You left her to die.” His voice boomed. “Bleeding. And all because she tried to help you.” Brit blinked out of existence, and the Prophet’s shadow filled the room again.
Guilt slammed into my chest. I’d left Brit. Abandoned Everly. Turned my back on Cayden. Too blinded by fear to see Xan had been my friend. I didn’t know how to look beyond myself.
The Prophet’s smile sharpened, a blade forged from my guilt. He drifted into the dark, voice slicing through the space between us. “You’re no friend. No ally. Just useless.”
The worst part? He wasn’t wrong. I’d flinched from danger every single time it stared me down.
“How many times have you fallen, girl, and needed saving?”
My dad, hauling my crazy ass up over and over. Xan healed me because I couldn’t survive without a grocery store or bug spray. Rowan found me broken and bleeding under a table. Cayden pulled my skewered body off a crashed train. Every failure whipped into a storm, tearing through my head.
The Prophet’s smile sharpened into a knowing smirk, as if he could taste my guilt. “You’re not just a problem; you make their lives harder just by breathing.”
I couldn’t see the old man. The storm in my head swallowed him whole. My heart hammered as failures pelted me like hail.
