I shake my head once, clenching my hands into fists. “Dad.” My mouth is dry and I lick my lips, trying to make myself sound braver than I feel. “You can’t let Sullen go back with…him.”I glance at Stein, refusing to meet his gaze, lest my courage falter. I wonder if he’s told them I hit him with a flashlight. I imagine how he spun the story, if he did.
It doesn’t matter.I’mmy parents’ daughter. They have to listen to me. They have to… trust me.
My pulse thrums too fast in my head. We can’t run this time. If I don’t talk our way to safety, I can’t even imagine the horrors Sullen will face, alone with his monstrous excuse of a father. “Sullen has kept me safe. I?—”
One of Stein’s guards starts to step forward, as if he’ll lunge toward me himself, but Stein shoots his arm out much like his son did to me, a mirror, and prevents him from coming closer. Stein Rule narrows his eyes.
“You will not approach Karia in that way,” he says icily, his tone cold.
I see my parents look toward Stein for half a second. Von and Isadora are further in the hall, but they are both staring at me while my parents are focused on Sullen. No one has said a word about Sanford Rule at my back.
“She is clearly traumatized by my son,” Stein continues, not lowering his arm.
“You’re a liar,” I snarl, stepping forward, but Sullen forcefully pushes me back with his forearm. I grab onto him, curling myfingers into his hard muscles, gripping him tightly like I can keep us together this way, even as my heart sinks. “You’re a fucking liar. Sullen hasn’t done a single bad thing?—”
“Karia.” Dad’s voice, low and soothing. He pushes closer, elbowing a guard harshly out of the way. Like nearly everyone here, he’s dressed in black from head to toe. At some point over the last few days, they changed clothes while I was missing. Probably went home to Ritual Drive and made a plan tofindme, despite the fact I’ve never been more found than I am right now.
“Dad,” I say, a broken whisper as I grip Sullen tighter. He is so rigid, and I am trembling with fear. Not of retribution, but what will happen if they separate us. “You have to believe me.” I swallow hard, searching his gaze. There are circles beneath his eyes, his face looks pinched, and I know he probably hasn’t slept well in my absence. “When have I ever done something like this?” I point out, my bottom lip trembling. I haven’t been an angel, but I have never run away from home. Never caused big problems. I got good grades and I still live at home and while I don’t have many rules, I’ve never done anything that would warrant them, either.
Dad glances at Stein, who is watching me with an entirely new expression. One full of soft eyes, as if he pities me. His arm is still held out, like he’s holding back his guard. Trying toprotectme. But there’s something absent in his gaze. Like he’s hollow where his heart should be. I try not to think of the words carved into Sullen’s skin when I stare at him, but I can’t help it.
Rage makes me tremble violently.
I grip Sullen tighter but I can’t stop the words from leaving my mouth as I look right at Stein fucking Rule. “You are disgusting.” I spit it out. It tastes vile on my tongue. I want to scratch at his eyes. I want to break every bone in his body. “You aredisgusting.”I don’t look away from him. “I know all about what you’ve done.” I don’t mention Sullen. For some curiousreason, even though we all know this is about him, I don’t want to drag him into it. “I know you are a pitiful excuse for a leader and you?—”
“Karia.”My mom hisses my name, and I snap my eyes to hers.
“Are you going to believe him, over me?” I ask her directly, lifting my chin.
Silence fills the room.
Mom doesn’t blink as she looks at me. Her face is a mask; she’s gotten so incredibly good at perfecting it all these years with Writhe.
Believe me. I’m your daughter. When have I lied about something like this? Step out of the shadow of the cult. Leave the brainwashing behind. Don’t think about your career for one fucking second. Think aboutme.
“I’m very sorry, Antwine,” Stein says in the silence as Mom continues to stare at me. “I… This is why I stepped down. Why I left Alexandria. Ritual Drive. My son is unwell, and he is very good at convincing everyone around him thatheis a victim.”
I don’t say anything to that. I don’t break eye contact with my mother.
I feel Sullen’s shakiness beneath my fingers where moments before, he was solid and unwavering.
Greater fear grows like ice in my veins.
“Unwell?” Mom finally speaks, and she still stares at me while she does. “What do you mean byunwell?”
Stein is quiet a moment. I don’t look at him to see what he’s doing. How he’s arranging his features into a mask of lies.
“He suffers from delusions. Has since Mercy…” He breaks off. His voice catches. It’s almost like Sanford’s, when he was speaking of Juliet, but there’s a difference. It’s subtle, discreet, but because I’ve heard them both discuss loss, I sense it. Theway Stein Rule is a psychopath and all of his words are merely theatrics. Mimicry.
“Since Mercy passed,” he continues in the same fractured tone.
I will my mother to hear it. The deceit.
“He has been in and out of mental healthcare institutions for most of his life. I have tried to shield all of you from this, and him from each of you. Writhe doesn’t always pass down leadership from father to son, but often, we do. It gutted me that Sullen wouldn’t be able to fill my role, but I am grateful Mads is here to take on the torch.”
Mads himself says nothing to this, merely stands in the doorway like a barricade between us, and his son and Isadora.
He’s full of shit, Mom. Please believe me.
