“He deserves to feel pain,”the monster snarled. When Lenny tried to wriggle away, the monster dug its grip into his forearms. We were brutal, furious and violent and
empty
enraged.
“Arthur, stop!” Eva shrieked.
I would have cried out in frustration if I could. I wanted to scream and tell her this wasn’t me, tell her I was in here, I was broken, I wassorry.
The monster shucked off my gloves, its dark intent flooding the body we shared.Wait.A full-body panic tore through me.Wait! Stop!
The monster didn’t stop, reaching for Lenny.
A pair of impossibly large hands locked over my arms in an iron grip.
Jack.
The monster struggled.“Let me go!”it barked aloud.
“No,” Jack huffed. The monster thrashed, but Jack Moreau was stronger than the beast. “Take a deep breath,” he commanded. “There’s a place in you where the darkness doesn’t reach, Arthur. Find it!”
I trembled within my prison of ice. He didn’t understand. Iwasthe darkness. You can’t run from the parts of yourself you hate.
“What’s going on?” a voice I didn’t recognize called out.
Jack squeezed even tighter. “Don’t let go, Arthur.”
The monster didn’t like the way Jack’s branches dug into our back. Hurting us. With a snap of our teeth, it ripped an arm free and grasped the closest branch.
And snapped.
Chapter 8
Arthur
Jack Moreau bellowed in pain.
The agony in his voice was a shock to my whole system, cracking the monster’s ice in a moment. Sensation flowed back into my fingertips, pain replacing numbness.
“Jack?” I mouthed his name, blinking fast. Red-green sap oozed from the branch I’d broken. It smelled almost autumnal, as sweet and rotten as mulch gathered under a carpet of leaves.
At first, the big man simply stared at me, his face draining of color. Then he fell to his knees.
“Dad!” Eva shoved me out of the way as she rushed to his side. I caught my balance on the countertop, shattered glass digging into my now-exposed palm.
Before my eyes, the leaves on Jack’s aspen began to change. Their edges curled inward, green bleeding into a vibrant yellow. Some chipped off and floated to the floor.
Eva took his face in her hands. “Say something,” she begged.
But when he tried, no sound came out, his mouth gaping open only to close again. Pain sketched over his features.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling smaller than I ever had.
At the sound of my voice, Eva stiffened. She whipped toward me, eyes red. “What have you done?” she snarled.
I was going to be sick, my mouth opening and closing with no words to fill it as my gaze flicked back to the man I’d hurt. Jack stared at his youngest daughter, rapidly blinking, a shudder moving through his enormous frame.
A pair of heavy boots drew my eyes up.
