“I’m not so fucking delusional that I can’t remain on my feet.”
He nods once, waving his hand for me to walk. Annoying asshole. I bet Kane told him to piss me off on purpose. Bunch of dicks.
The stone steps have worn away in the middle, so it only takes three of them to disorient me. I have to stare at my feet as I slowly walk up.
Lenny’s newfound humor makes another visit as he whispers, “They are your own feet, little doe.”
“Shut up, Lenny,” I hiss. “Or I’ll tell your mother.”
The air is even colder by the time I finish speaking but I don’t apologize to him. Just because he’s the nicest member ofhis psychotic family doesn’t make him good. That’s like winning a competition for smelling the least like shit.
When we reach the top of the staircase, I stand back as he walks around me to lead me to another door without saying a word. This one is wooden too, with a large beam across the middle. He slides it across, opening the door to the cry of the gulls and wind whirling around us as the breathtaking view is unveiled.
I can’t see any other land in the distance, just miles of the sea as the sun sparkles across the surface. It’s less blue, more green from this vantage. I can almost forget where we are as I step onto the flat stone roof. The wind is more vicious, whipping my hair into my face, so I tuck it into my hood and hold the strings as I stop at the edge of the roof.
Knocking my elbow into his, I give a half apology. “I won’t really tell her you talk to me.”
“I’m not afraid of my mother,” he says without any emotion.
“So why are you being weirder than normal?”
“I was the first person to hold Kane,” he admits, like it’s a crime. “Isadora didn’t know I was there in the delivery suite when they handed me the second-born. In that moment, I felt something I’d never felt before.”
Leaning with my side against the railing, I smile. “You love him.”
“No.” He stares out at the horizon, unblinking. “Fear. I’d held babies before, but he felt smaller than the rest even though he was perfectly healthy.” He mechanically blinks, turning to me. “I don’t harbor any hate for you, or your actions. Not when I know it was always planned for you to be here.”
I need to getHelene is a liartattooed on my eyelids because I keep allowing her to suck me in when she’s incapable of telling the truth.
“Lennox, can you tell me why it was so important for me to be here?” I continue examining him. “Don’t mention some agreement with my family because no one forced Ruby or Scarlet to be here when you’re all clearly capable of finding them.”
He pulls on his gloves again before threading his fingers together so the seam is firmly planted on the inside of his fingers as he asks, “Are you aware of The Three?”
I nod as he looks over at me.
“This all began with three prominent families in different fields and a game of ‘hunt the maid.’ It was my twice great-grandfather, your fourth, and a third associate. From what I’ve heard, they would take fishing trips. On these trips, they would each choose a maid to accompany them—a representation for their family.”
Harkin would go on those fishing trips. It always coincided with my mother firing a member of staff.
He points at the side of the island where three large logs are stuck in the middle of the water. “Do you see the post stuck in the water?” He curls his gloved fingers around the top bar of the railing. “They would fish there, while each maid would be tied to a post as the patriarchs bonded. At first, it was a way to show they had control over their house, that they could command their staff, but then it built into a darker game.”
“What did they do?” I squeak.
“The first year they gave into their whims, they stripped the maids and tested what would attract more birds to them. The next, they attempted to lure sharks to the shore by threading fishhooks into the maids’ skin, tugging whenever they caught something on their lines. It took five years for their true desires to come out to play.”
He pauses while I do the same with my breathing. I know how this is going to end, the same way all their creepy family stories do.
“One by one, they untied their maids,” he says lower. “When the sun set, they gave them the option to earn their freedom. A choice none of the previous maids in their position had been given as they always came home with a box of fish, three travelers light. That fifth year, as all three of them ran into the woods to reach civilization, they were shown no humanity. In turn, the veil of civility each of the families managed to maintain dropped away. They no longer cared about the wealth of an ordinary man, or the accomplishments. What they wanted was to feed on fear. It became this.” He holds his hand out, gesturing to the forest full of dolls.
“What does it have to do with me?”
Some random evil cunt of an ancestor shouldn’t dictate my life. Lennox clearly thinks otherwise as he explains, “A pact was made between the three families to make something bigger than anyone has ever witnessed before. Marriage wasn’t a deep enough bond when they would regularly intoxicate their wives, so they were unaware of who entered their bed. Children were off limits, at the time anyway, so the bond could be made.”
At. The. Time.
The lump in my throat chokes me, holding my bile back as I lower to sit on the floor. He lowers with me, sitting on his haunches as he recites their—our—sickening family history. “When you were a child, there was a change. One of the families angered Helene. It made her pull your parents closer because she needed protection. Ruby had already agreed to marry Rowan, as long as you were unharmed. She wanted to save you, little doe.”
I hug my knees, causing me to mumble. “But I killed Asher?”
