“What happened?”
“Melantha, Helene’s mother, had a maid she was fond of. She’s of the world before Helene, where the Kobalts were respectable, hiding their secrets amongst the shadows.” He spares me a glance. “The manor—where we were—used to have a small floodlight on the roof like a small lighthouse, so previous generations would guide the shipments in the shadows while everyone was distracted by their necessities arriving. There was a maid who was privy to the family secrets who didn’t particularly take a liking to Helene. Sarah, the maid, began to deteriorate in her old age, telling Helene’s secrets.”
Does he know one of those secrets is the fact I’m not my parents’ child?
“When Helene found out, she decreed everything should be stripped from Sarah,” Lennox says, his voice weighing down along with his features as he tightens his hold on the steering wheel. “Her dignity, her wealth, her comfort—and her daughter.”
“How old was her daughter?”
“Ten.” He pales, staring at me like he’s trying to give me another warning. “She was small due to being sick as a baby, so she looked no older than six or seven. She was a sweet girl, always humming wherever she went. Especially when she was afraid and she would hold her dolly tighter.”
“Did you…”
“I angered her,” he repeats, shaking his head. “Rowan was supposed to remain hidden at her side while she taught him everything he needed to know for the businesses to run. He was eager to prove he could do what she wanted. He didn’t want me to be punished for disobeying our mother, so one night, after I’d already ruined Sarah, we switched places—I hid while he left the manor.”
There’s a very loud siren telling me this story doesn’t end well. Yet Lennox decides now is the time to be honest.
“He’s always been curious, even now. That was his first taste of the outside world without our mother’s hand in his. He satiated his curiosity about an animal mounting a human.”
I’m going to throw up.
“Eight dogs, three days in the forest, and he returned to the manor without a speck of dirt on him. So you see now, there are tiers to evil. Some of us accept our stations because we aim to lessen the cruelty rather than prolong it. If I had done what Helene had asked, I would have killed Sarah’s daughter quickly, efficiently. But I didn’t, so the innocent girl no longer hums.”
“How old were you?”
“Old enough to know what would happen, old enough to accept my punishment.” He begins driving again. Then turns to me with half of his face covered in shadows, the other illuminated by the lights from the dash.
“She was pissed at you because her golden boy left the house?” I ask.
“The other people on the island began hearing phantoms of her humming when they crossed the forest. When her body was found, they saw she was torn between her legs, brutalized and left for dead. The islanders called to the wards for help. They argued it was against nature because they couldn’t ignore what had been done any longer. So, as you put it, she was pissed the world she had carefully crafted began to crack.”
I feel sorry for him and I don’t know how to convey his life is seventy shades of fucked when he seems to accept it. He looks at me like he knows it already as he softly says, “A church without worshippers is just a building. This island without inhabitants made Helene a woman, not a god.”
20
KANE
The flight to Austria was tense. I didn’t even quiz my uncle on when or how he learnt to fly a jet. His warning is the only thing in the forefront of my mind when I’ve left Delilah with the bitch who ordered a child to be murdered because of gossip. A child who couldn’twalkwithout a crutch, who just lost her mother, her home, then some sick fucking cunt set a pack of dogs on her.
Snow crunches under the tires of Lennox’s SUV as we drive to the creepy cabin. Rowan has already called him to request an update on when I’ll be delivered. The sound of his name in my head turns my stomach, now that I know hiscuriosities. Asher used to call his sadistic interests the same thing too, brushing them off as intrigue. The vile jigsaw pieces force me to understand my mom as I control my breathing. She was so afraid whenever it came up and my dad would be deep in thought for weeks after—because they’d witnessed it before.
The sun is starting to come up, reflecting off the stark white snow, making me squint from the glare in the open space. Lennox leans across the car to flick my visor down.
“For someone who doesn’t want kids, you’re being a dad right now,” I mutter.
“Wantingandhavingare different sentiments, little shadow.”
I don’t know how strong his loyalty is, so I don’t offer him a chance to leave with Delilah and me. It would be quicker if he’s involved. He could give her the answers she needs, which we could leverage for our safety. But I can’t gauge what he’s thinking to know if he’d ruin our planning.
Rowan is waiting for us on the front step when we pull up to the cabin. This time, he doesn’t have his phone at his ear or the little boy at his side. I know he hurt Delilah. I hate him for that alone. Yet hurting a child is unfathomable. It’s one of the things that was even agreed upon amongst the prisoners while I was inside. He holds his arm out, smiling as I get out of the car. “Welcome, dear nephew. The entertainment is waiting for you.”
“I don’t need entertainment,” I grit.
Lennox remains two steps behind as the dickhead in front of me gives me his back, walking into the cabin. He doesn’t guide us to the room we were in before. Instead, he walks through a set of steel doors and up a flight of stairs. We stop as he takes a mirrored mask from a hook on the wall then fits it over his head.
There’s another set of steel doors before we reach a large room full of people wearing mirrored masks. A woman cowers in the corner with only her hair to cover her as she bows her head so the long red strands flow down over her chest with her hands clasped in front of her in an attempt to maintain some dignity in this fucking place.
It’s the boy still dressed in a pair of paper-thin shorts who has my focus. Rowan opens his hand and I turn, but my own horrified reflection stares back at me because Lennox has one of the fucking masks too.
