“In the cave. You shut me down after we escaped the asylum…after thingschangedbetween us,” he adds.
“Well, because—”
Niklaus places a single, warm kiss on my thigh. It’s all-consuming, carrying a current of tingling feelings up my arms and back.
“I’m not good with rejection, my darling wife.”
I blink repeatedly, choking on my own breath.
“You lied?”
He kisses my leg again. “I lied.”
He lied. He didn’t mean what he said. He was reacting to my dismissal of our time in the asylum. I run through it all over again. That part of my brain that has spent so long despising him tries to reel me back in, then wavers as I take in the damage to his back and arms.
“And you won’t change your mind?”
“No.”
“Sapphire? How is he holding up?” Sophia asks from Jack’s cage.
Niklaus pretends to be asleep.
I smile. “He’s hanging in there.”
Sophia squints her eyes to examine his back, pressing her forehead to the bars. Her nod is sweet and sincere, and something about it wilts my heart. Knowing her fate and being powerless to stop it crushes me.
“Your vision isn’t clear, is it?” I ask.
“My whole life. Everything’s always been a little fuzzy.”
“You would look very nice in set of round bifocals.”
A somber expression crosses her face. “Maybe when the prison gets a physician for the eyes.”
One day, I think.One day, you’ll get your glasses.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” she says warmly.
Niklaus’s breathing grows heavy and deep, limbs relaxing as he falls asleep.
“What kind of experiments does Crow Ivast do on you and Jack?”
I’m afraid to ask. I have a feeling…I mean, I know what was done to my parents to some degree.
“Different methods of torture mostly. Long, rigorous hours of finding ways to bring us suffering without killing us.”
“Why?”
She closes her eyes. “He has been testing theories that if twins suffer from mental and physical trauma at a young age, their minds break, and they couldpotentiallybe capable of immense new abilities.”
“And has it worked?”
“Nope. My sister, Story, died for atheorythat willneverpan out.”
“Story? When did she pass?”
