“Right, Avrum?” he repeats stiffly as he waits for my answer.
A loud groan comes from behind me, and I whirl around. Cornelius is hauling Haven from the dark corner and drapes her over his thick arms. Still lost to unconsciousness, her limbs swing back and forth with his movements. She barely looks alive, and the idea makes nausea roll through me. The beautiful cotton dress she had been wearing before I’d left her is only shreds of blue cloth that barely cover her nakedness.
I can’t believe this. He’s taken her, abused her.
“Avrum.” His voice rumbles with animosity, and when I meet his gaze in the mirror, his pupils have dilated as his anger and impatience grow.
“Yes, my lord.” The words leave my mouth, but they don’t register in me otherwise.
“Excellent!” As if on a switch, Henri’s mood shifts dramatically. He grinsand continues dressing himself, slipping into a burgundy vest and buttoning it up.
Cornelius places Haven on the bed while Keagan begins using the ropes already around her wrists to tie her to the headboard.
I can’t move, can’t believe the atrocities I’m witnessing. Who else knows about this? How long has it been going on? I’m not even sure I could stomach the answers.
When they finish securing her to the bed, Keagan leans down and presses his lips to her forehead, holding my gaze the entire time. Mocking me. He’s enjoying this, the sick bastard.
This can’t be happening.
The man who’d saved me from death, my immortal father… He’s not trying to help Haven. He’s using her for his pleasure.
And Haven had been risking it all to leave this Hell. She’s a prisoner, and I had been the one to track her down and drag her back every time.
Am I any better than Keagan or Cornelius? Am I a monster, too?
“Will that be all, my lord?” Keagan asks, drawing out every word.
Henri adjusts his collar. “You can go,” he dismisses them.
As they leave, my legs are locked in place, my thoughts a jumbled mess. Henri pats my back hard and I lurch forward. “You may go, too, Avrum.”
I don’t know how I make it across the room to the door, but when I take hold of the handle, my gaze lingers on the four-poster bed. Haven’s awake now, her glassy blue eyes watching me, pleading with me not to go.
My chest clenches painfully.
“You may go,” Henri says again, with more force.
And I do. As quick as I can, rushing out the door and down the hall, unable to take another second longer inside that room with her, Henri, and the truth.
Keagan’s and Cornelius’s booming laughter follows me all the way.
Chapter 6
Avrum
Idon’t know where else to go, so I just let my feet walk for me. They bring me outside, through the courtyard, and to the forest line, where the duels are normally held. It’s quiet out here, the wind restless like my mind.
Sucking in as much crisp, autumn air as my lungs can hold, I still feel trapped. Leaves dance on the breeze in a playful swirl. Silver water droplets cling to the grass and shimmer like the many stars above, but the beauty around me doesn’t sit with me the way it used to. It’s only an illusion—a lie.
I look back at the manor where Haven remains, hopeless and weak, tied to Henri’s bed like some kind of animal. My fists clench, rage replacing my initial shock. I left her in there. Like a coward, I had walked out of the room, leaving Henri to finish off what he’d started.
Henri isn’t the man I thought he was. He’s barely amanat all. He’s a monster.
And me… What does that make me then? Am I a monster, too?
One thing’s for sure, I am pitiful for not doing more to help her in the moment.
I’m now second-in-command to the devil himself.
