Page 22 of Black Ledger

“They won’t,” the Headmaster said softly.

“My father⁠—“

“Your father thinks you’re dead. Severin”—the Headmaster took vicious steps toward me, clutched my chin, and forced my head up—“the boy you once loved and trusted with everything, faked your death. He blew up the restaurant where you were last seen.”

“No.” My voice broke. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t he?” The Headmaster clicked his tongue. “How sad and naive you are. A Volkov should never be trusted. They’re all rotten apples. Severin wanted you gone, and now you’re here.”

I shook my head, his hand still on my chin, as tears streaked down my face. That couldn’t be true. Severin loved me. He had killed for me. He had once cut off a politician’s son’s head and gifted it to me in a box.

Severin would never betray me like this.

But then…

He had said, Get rid of her.

Was this what he meant by get rid of her?

“Accept it and get over it,” he said. “No one is coming for you because Xeniya Morozova is dead. Forgotten.” He slapped me. “Accept it. I own you. We own you.” He motioned to all the guards along the walls. “Besides, half your family was in on it. Ask yourself this, Xeniya: if Severin faked your death, do you really think that his right-hand man—your brother—wouldn’t know about it?”

My chest tightened until it hurt, and I rubbed my sternum to ease some of the pressure.

My brother—my twin—could not have been in on it. He’d punched Severin the first time he found out Severin had touched me. Punched him.

My brother was supposed to be on my side. He always would be. Pain gathered in my core, and my face throbbed from the effort of holding everything in.

It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be.

“Your family doesn’t care about you. You are collateral on their rise to power.”

No. It wasn’t true.

I just wasn’t.

“They aren’t coming for you.” He tilted his head slightly, examining me, and his eyes dropped to my chest; the sheer pink dress hid almost nothing. His gaze held sickeningly on my hard nipples.

I was always, always dressed in something sheer, my body put on display for anyone to see.

He reached out and pinched a nipple, and I jerked violently against my restraints, gritting my teeth, nearly growling at him.

He tsked and shook his head. “None of that now.” He pinched harder and grabbed my throat. I started to fight back, raising my chained arms, but two guards were immediately on me, pinning my arms down.

“Tsk, tsk. Don’t be a bad little muse already,” he replied, hauntingly calm. “Aleksandr said you’re such a good little cocksucker and I’d like to see for myself just how good you are.”

I swallowed, then rolled my shoulders back and lifted my head up tall, meeting him.

“But first, let’s set your ground rules here at the Lethean Order. In a minute, I’m going to take your chains off, and you’re going to do nothing. You’re going to stand there and follow every single one of my orders willingly.”

He snapped his fingers, and his minion—the man in the full-body red suit and full-face mask—stepped forward holding a laptop. Like before, they didn’t need to turn the screen toward me; I knew it would be Veronika.

But an anchor still dropped in my stomach when I saw her outside, sitting in the field of dandelions in our backyard, picking stems and crying.

Blood drained from my face so quickly I swayed on my feet and had to steady myself.

Nika hated being outside. She hated the sun and despised dandelions, yet there she was, picking them, and she was screaming. The video didn’t have sound, but I could tell. Unfortunately, I wasn’t good at reading lips, so I had no idea what she was saying.

A large figure entered the frame and pulled out his gun with a silencer on it, but Nika didn’t see. She was too consumed with her surroundings to notice anything.