Rory covered her mouth to muffle a strangled cry.
“Whichever of us was with her always stopped her,” her father continued. “But she had more and more good days.”
Her abilities were retreating? How was that possible?
“Keith stayed with her one night, and in the early morning hours before he woke, she snuck out.” Dume looked apologetic, as if it was any of their faults. “She’d never woken earlier than any of us before, and we didn’t think to put any safeguards to alert us if she tried to leave.”
Rory needed to hear the rest, no matter how painful. This was her fault. “Then what happened?”
Dume and Patrick shared a loaded look. “She waited until one of the local banks opened and tried to rob it.”
“What?” Rory asked and staggered back a step. “And she was arrested,” she concluded, earning a single nod from Dume. “This is all my fault.” Her voice broke.
“No, sport, it’s not,” her father said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Your mother is a grown woman. By stopping her, we only prolonged the inevitable.”
She pushed him away. “She wouldn’t be in Vincula if it weren’t for me,” she cried, jabbing a finger into her own chest. “I killed by my own free will, and I am every bit the monster they say I am.” She ripped the cap from her head and threw it. “She predicted this. ‘Darkness is poison,’” Rory recited. “She tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t stop.”
She sank to her knees with her head in her hands as sobs racked her body.
“Hisdarkness,” Sam’s deep voice said from the porch.
Rory lifted her head. “What?”
“You said, ‘Darkness is poison,’ but the prophecy states, ‘hisdarkness is poison.’ It could not have been you to which she was referring.” He looked bored, and she wished she’d thrown her hat at him instead of the ground.
“How do you know about the prophecy?” she asked.
Lauren jumped off the porch, careened around Dume toward Rory, and hauled her up. “Your mother’s incarceration is not your fault. She made her own choices.”
Rory’s pain morphed into anger. “What the fuck is wrong with everyone here?” she shouted as she looked from her father to Dume. “Why are you even here? You know the fucked up, horrible shit I’ve done. At least Keith and Kordie had the good sense to stay away.” She’d tried to ignore their absence because she understood. It still hurt.
“We wouldn’t let them come,” Dume said instead of answering her.
Rory swiped at her face. “What?”
Dume rubbed the hair between his tiny horns. “What can I say to make you understand that we all love you? None of your victims were innocent.”How would they know?“People have been coming forward,” he continued, seeing the unasked question in her eyes. “Nine people said you saved them from a person you killed.”
Rory’s breath caught in her throat. “It doesn’t matter. My actions were horrendous.”
“It does matter,” Sam said, surprising everyone. Rory couldn’t bring herself to meet their gazes as shame settled heavy in her gut. “You sent dangerous people to hell. They would have ended up there, eventually.” He paused. “Or they would have hurt more people.”
What would they think of her if they knew she enjoyed it?It’s true; she would never kill an innocent, but hearing her victims beg for their lives was music to her ears, and seeing their black souls dissolve made her feel lighter than anything she’d ever experienced. Sure, guilt pricked her soul momentarily afterward, but the act of killing the wicked was euphoric.
Her friends wouldn’t understand. No one would.
“Your mother wouldn’t have cared if your soul was black,” her father said, and Rory scoffed. “You could have the blackest soul in the realm, and she still would have found her way to you.”
Her father meant well, but his words made her guilt worse.
“Vincula is not the hell hole you think it is,” Lauren said, earning her a death glare from Sam.
“What?” Rory and Dume asked in unison.
Lauren ignored Sam. “Vincula is not what they taught you in school. The scary tales of the prison realm are for deterrence. It’s a functioning town, and the inmates are assigned their own apartments to live in. There are no barred cells.” She paused when Sam said something to her under his breath. “I could go on.” She jerked her head toward Sam. “But this guy will kill me if I continue. I assure you, she will want for nothing.”
Other than Sam dragging Lauren away and whispering angrily, no one said a word. Rory watched the two guards exchange words,and judging by Sam’s reaction, not only did Lauren tell the truth, but she also told highly classified information.
Lauren bitched Sam out, pointing from his hand to her arm, and Rory suppressed a smile. If he grabbed Lauren’s arm again, he might lose a hand.
