There’s no escape.
“Uncle Carl?” I call him, and his eyes flash dangerously. “Please don’t use that on me. I’ve changed my mind.”
His eyes move to the knife in his hand. “It’s too late for that.”
“Why?” I ask. “I thought you wanted me.” I try to sound flirtatious, but panic leaks from my every pore.
“I told your father this was all a bad plan.”
“What was?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me. I don’t want to die, but there are so many secrets that keep me up at night.
“Marrying your fucking mother,” he spits. “He ruined everything. They ruined everything.”
My heart pounds, and I’m not sure what I’m more afraid of: what he might do to me or what truths there are to uncover about my mom.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, trying to keep the anger and accusations I feel out of my tone.Keep him talking.If anything, it’s distracting him from the knife in his hand.
“He wasn’t supposed to. There are rules, traditions, who the fuck did he think he was by taking her?”
My mind is reeling as I try to put the pieces together. “Taking her? What are you suggesting?” I ask.
“I’m not suggesting anything. Your father knew she wasn’t his to keep. He married her, and he ruined everything.” Pieces start to click together. Why would my mother keep it a secret that she attended Bellthorn? Why would my father care so much that I didn’t go to school there?
“Are you telling me my mother was an Offering?” I ask, my voice so breathy it barely sounds like my own.
He makes a noise of outrage. The hand holding the knife flips toward me like I’m infuriating him. “I’m not telling youanything, Sable. You should be able to figure something out on your own.” My cheeks burn in humiliation. He clearly knows a lot he’s not telling me, but I also don’t know if anything he’s already told me is true. My mother is gone, and our relationship before that was complicated, but if I could actually understand her? I don’t know, part of me feels like that would fix things.
He takes a step forward, looking at his weapon like he finally remembers why he’s here. I scurry up onto the bed. My butt scoots along the sheets until my back meets the headboard, but it doesn’t make me any safer. I have nowhere to go, and no one will help me. The idea that the guys are going to save me dies as he stands before me and presses our chests together. He closes the little distance I created in less than a second. He stands at my side, and I look down, noticing he is hard just like normal, only this seems to excite him more.
“Was my mother an Offering?” I ask again.
He slides the blade under the too tight shirt, nicking my skin slightly as he goes. I’m so scared, and the blade is so sharp. I barely feel any pain, just the heat of my own blood oozing and then the chill on my skin as the cut fabric falls away. Once my chest is exposed, he stares at my tits. Is he going to kill me and fuck my corpse? I wouldn’t be surprised at this point.
“Please, Uncle Carl,” I beg.
“Stay very still, be very good, and I won’t kill you.”
I want to ask him to promise, but what good would a promise be from a man like this? The blade touches my skin, sliding across it and separating my flesh with a strange agony that takes a moment to hurt, but turns into a profound agony. Blood drips down my chest as he moves. After a minute or two, I’m sure he’s carving something, but I don’t dare look. The pain is so great that I nearly pass out, but I force myself to stay conscious for fear that he’ll kill me when I’m passed out, and I’ll die never knowing that I did.
When he’s done, I can’t open my eyes, but I hear the distinct ripping sound of his zipper falling. He takes himself out, the wet jerking sound next to me so familiar now I’m not sure I’ll ever escape it. It doesn’t take him long to get himself there, and I don’t bother to pray he’ll avoid my wounds because I already know. I can’t help myself, and I scream as his release hits the open wounds.
“Don’t worry too much when you see what it says, Sable.” He pats my shoulder, and I force myself to stay perfectly still. “I’m going to marry you tomorrow, and then I’m the only person who will ever see it anyway.”
With that sinister promise hanging in the air, he leaves me alone. My pillows soak with my blood, and I know I have no choice. I have to kill him before he kills me. It takes me some time, but I manage to drag myself to the shower. I sit in the bottom, and I sob as the water pours over me, but I won’t let his fucking cum sit in my open wounds. That hurts worse than getting clean.
As I do my best to scrub off something that can never really come clean, everything crystallizes. Unfortunately, I lived through too many of those moments in the last year. When I decided to save myself and leave my dad at the bottom of that river. When I turned my back and left Bellthorn and now I’m choosing to leave this place no matter what it takes.I will take his life before he takes mine.
It wasn’t just the knife cutting my skin that showed me what he’s capable of, but what he really wants, to hurt me. I’m a pawn in his rage about my father, our family, and my mother. I have many questions, but for the first time, I push them aside. I don’t want to know. Uncle Carl is unstable, and I can’t let an unstable man with a knife decide my destiny.
Pain flashes through me as I climb out of the shower. I’ll get some clothes in a minute, but for now, it’s time to face reality.I still haven’t seen what Uncle Carl felt like carving into my flesh. The mirror flips the image, but that doesn’t stop me from reading the jagged letters that spell “whore” across my chest. A pit sinks in my stomach, but it can’t go any lower because I’m already in hell.
I listen carefully as I look for clothes and any first-aid supplies so I can start bandaging my wounds. I can’t hear him moving around the house, but he will come back soon. He never leaves for too long. I get dressed and pack the wound as best I can before I head back to the closet to find my best approximation of a weapon. A teenager’s heel that hasn’t fit me in years.
My room is on the second floor, too far from the steep ground to land well. Even if I wanted to give it a shot, it’s nailed shut. The door is always locked unless he comes in. It’s the only opportunity I have, and I curse myself for not taking the opportunity to get the jump on him earlier.
I lay on the bed, so exhausted I’m not able to control it anymore. I need to sleep, but I’ll be ready. The next time he comes in, I’ll jump him and catch him unaware. All I have to do then is run. Run hard and fast and make sure he never finds me. My heart hurts when I think about the Bellthorn boys and the fact they aren’t looking for me. Soren probably told them what happened, and they already got their new Offering. I’m not hurting anyone but myself. My parents are dead. My best friend never cared about anything but robbing me. There’s no one coming for me.
CHAPTER 13
