“They took her from me,” I explain. “I tried to keep her safe—I’ve been fucking trying to find the fucking island. You don’t get to sit there, pointing out the obvious. Call your mother, your father, fucking anyone and get the name of Helene’s island so I can get my fucking wife back!”
“Island?” A small crease forms between her brows. It slowly flattens with the horror taking over her features as she plasters her back to the door. “Theisland? No one knows where the Kobalts call home.”
“Ask Ruby. She was at the wedding, she’ll know. Scar, please, I’m begging you.” I lower to my knees for another Leroux, clasping my hands together. “Look, I’m begging.”
“You didn’t have a normal wedding, did you? You had the ceremony?” she spits. “You all fucking lied to me.” Her rage takes over but I don’t move as she cocks her arm back and punches me in the face with enough force to daze me. “You fucking dickhead. Why the fuck did you let her go through that?” She kicks me in the thigh, causing me to stumble back.
“I didn’t know.”
Her face contorts as she looks at me with pure disgust. “You didn’tknowyou wererapingher? What the fuck do you think tying her up to a breeding bench while those sick cunts bleed all over her was? Their traditions are generations old, but consent isn’t a new fucking concept.”
She continues cursing at me as she brings her phone to her ear. “Ruby? You need to help.”
She puts it on speaker for me to relay every fucked up thing that’s happened. Ruby already knows the wedding shit, so I don’t go into those details, but Scarlet is clearly adjusting to the information as she wavers between rage and tears.
“I don’t know where she is.” My voice is weak as fuck. “I don’t know where any of them are.”
“Kane?” Ruby says in the same gentle tone as always. “I’m sorry for what’s about to happen to you. But if you don’t bring my sister back here safe and sound, I will personally make sure it’s worse. Do you understand?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Now, say goodbye to Kane Xandros. Everything Delilah loves about you, that you find comfort in, will die—and you’re going to be the one who kills it.” She falls silent as I stare at the seconds ticking over on the screen.
She drags in a deep breath before she says, “Welcome to your new life as Kane Kobalt.”
II
three tears later
54
KANE
There are things no one ever mentions about prison. The word itself conjures up thoughts of a building, one identifiable place where a person loses their freedom due to the crimes they’ve committed. But it’s not a building or a place—it’s a state of being.
Another is, it doesn’t stop the crime.
It escalates it.
The deterrent loses its power.
That’s what happens when the thing you’re supposed to be afraid of becomes home—you lose the fear of consequences.
“Without consequences, you’re both trapped and free,” I tell him as I glide the tip of my finger down his face.
Bound by the choices you’ve made, yet you’re able to do whatever the fuck you want because there’s nothing unknown left in the world. When the people in power lose the ability to scare you into submission, they turn to more drastic measures.
“Force,” I grit.
Forcing you to see you’re nothing.
Forcing you to see you have no control of yourself.
Forcing you to become them, because deep down you’re ruined, broken, so irrevocably fucked up you can’t find your place in society.
So you break other people.
“I break people,” I admit, pushing my finger into his cheek.
