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I’m an idiot. Maybe the guy is extra hungry, and who am I to question that? As I walk toward the front door, I freeze at the sound of a muffled cough from beneath me.

I scan the kitchen and notice the pantry door is cracked. When I step toward it, my hands shake. Could someone be in there? I’m taken aback when I realize it’s no ordinary pantry; there is a door inside with a slide bolt. I shift it back and push open the door, which reveals a set of stairs behind it. My heart thumps in my chest as I flick on the light. The smell of bleach is strong as I go down the stairs, and when I hit the bottom, my gaze snags on two cell-like cages side by side.

“Valli?”

At the sound of his voice, my heart dies in my chest.

I don’t remember moving, but now I stand at the bars, my hands covering his. My brother is thinner than when I last saw him and pale. Rowan’s eyes flash through a range of emotions—relief, anger, shame—all ones I have seen him wear before, but right now my own anger simmers.

“Thank God it’s you and not him. He wears bells so I can hear him coming.” His voice drops to a whisper. “Is he with you?”

“No. Rowan, look at me. How long have you been down here?”

“Since that night. They brought me back here.”

The room tilts. He’s been down here that long, and I wasn’t told about it.

“Who?” I ask. I already know, but I need him to say it because some part of me is hoping that it’s not true.

“Your scarecrow, and that Jester. The Scarecrow only comes once or twice a week, but the Jester is here every day.”

He tells me about everything that has happened down here. That he is fed, and no one has touched him yet. I want to ask what he means by yet, but I don’t. Betrayal hits me hard. Cave knows better. I might not want Rowan in my life, but I don’t want him dead either. He is my brother, one of the last pieces of my father. We may not share the same mother, but Rowan is still my blood.

I make myself step back from the bars and check the rest of the room. The cell beside him has a cot, just like his, but it seems emptier. Rowan has a lamp and books, whereas the other is colder somehow, and the cot has no mattress. It also has a drain in the center, and the smell of bleach is coming from that direction.

“Who was in there?”

“Steedy,” Rowan answers. “They caught him, too, but the things I had to listen to. And don’t look at the bathtub.” He swallows hard. “A few nights ago, I heard the bells, and he dragged Steedy out of here. I know that I’m next.”

I press the back of my wrist to my mouth and breathe through it as my brother watches me. He has spent his whole life reading me, and his face changes when he sees me processing everything.

“You have to get me out.” His hands pass through the bars, catching mine again. “Tonight, Valli. Please, I can’t be next. He told me I was next. Said he was waiting for you to be strong enough to help him do it. Do you understand what I’m telling you? They want you to kill me. I told you they were up to something, and you didn’t listen. They don’t love you, Valli, they’re killers. What happens if you do something they don’t like?”

“Stop.”

“Mom would be sick if she knew.”

“Stop!” My tone surprises Rowan, and he realizes my demand is serious.

“Did anyone follow you?” he asks quickly. “Does anyone know you’re here?”

And there he is, the brother I despise, always trying to manipulate me. “I need a second to think.”

“There is no time to think.”

“I have to think.”

I back up toward the stairs as he reaches through the bars. Rowan’s face morphs into the man I know right in front of me. I can’t tell anymore which parts are true and what he is putting on. There is no way my men would do this without a good reason. I haven’t known them all that long, but they have done nothing but be good to me.

“I’ll come back, I promise.”

“VALLI!” he screams, then his voice drops. “If you leave me down here, you’re one of them.”

I run back up the stairs and into the kitchen, where I gasp for air, grasping the edge of the counter. Right in front of me there is a bowl with a set of two keys. I stare at it for a long time, not knowing what to do. I don’t want my brother to die, but what happens if I let him out? Will we repeat the same cycle that we have been stuck in since our parents died? What happens when his actions affect Leni? She is in a good place right now and happier than she has ever been. Her life has to mean something—Rowan and I are lost causes, but she has a chance to do better, be more successful.

No, I need time to think, and they haven’t killed him yet. If what he says about the Jester is true, then Rowan is mine to kill, so he won’t die anytime soon. I need time to think and come up with a plan.

So I take a deep breath and lock the house behind me, then walk back the same way I came. The whole way back my mind spins with questions surrounding Cave and the Jester. I thought they barely knew each other. How much do Noa and Cipher know? How many of them have been lying to me?