Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Xeniya Morozova
Thirteen Years Ago
The shackles at my feet rattled with every step as I was half-walked, half-dragged into a large concrete room, empty of furniture.
The men who dragged me wore full-body blue suits and faceless black porcelain masks. Not a single piece of their skin was exposed. Besides their weight and gait, nothing distinguished them—they were anonymous guards.
Ten guards stood along the walls, while three escorted me inside.
At the center of the room stood a man in a tailored black suit, wearing a white porcelain half-mask with gold cracks and a black tear running down one eyehole.
Unlike the black masks that covered the guards’ mouths, this one stopped at the bridge of his nose, exposing his lips and lower face.
Beside the White Mask stood a man in a black suit with a solid full-face gold mask.
I looked around, taking in the exits and escape routes. They’d made the mistake of not drugging me today, and if I could, I was going to try to get out.
The place was spacious, cold, and vacant yet somehow still stuffy and suffocating. Three exits led Lord knew where, but two men in blue guarded each.
I sighed and turned my attention back to the White Mask and the Gold Mask in front of me.
Cold spread beneath my skin like a river flowing through my veins. My fingers curled around my chains until the metal bit into my skin.
“Hello, Xeniya,” the White Mask said. “I am the Headmaster and your new keeper.”
I kept my expression blank and said nothing. I was going to wait for his instructions because being confrontational for no reason wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“You are now one of the Forgotten—the girls who belong to the Lethe, the men who make up the Lethean Order.”
Lethe? The Lethean Order?
Lethe, like the River of Forgetfulness in the Greek Underworld?
I scrunched my face, trying to remember the lesson from my college Intro to Mythology class on the underworld.
But that was it. That was all I remembered.
I hated my electives and normal classes had been hard for me.
I understood code and binary. I didn’t understand old Greek stories about made-up places and deities.
“What is the Lethean Order?” My question came out breathy and weak.
“Oh, I’m so glad you asked.” The White Mask—sorry, the Headmaster—stepped closer to me.
“We are a society of the most powerful men in the world.” A large, self-righteous smile spread across his lips.
“We own politicians, CEOs, and mafia bosses. We rule the world from the shadows, but we often get lonely. We have needs, and that’s where you come in—the Forgotten. ”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It was all a dumb cliché from some high-budget, heartless action film.
He took another step toward me. “You are one of the Forgotten, one of the girls we kidnap and use however we want. We call you the Forgotten. No one will remember your name because no one is coming for you.”
“They will come for me,” I said, though I hadn’t thought it through.
But there was no world in which my father wouldn’t burn everything down for one of his children.
“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.
“No,” I screamed. “Nikochka, watch out.” But of course, she couldn’t hear me.
The figure turned slightly, and I caught a glimpse of the side of his face. It was Sergei Volgin.
Nika’s head guard.
Every muscle in my body trembled, and a hollow, shattered cry tore out of me.
“You see how far we’ve infiltrated your world?” the Headmaster asked. “You see what we can do?”
“Yes,” I said, barely audible. “Yes.”
“Great.” He smiled. “I’m glad you’re so cooperative already. Now, to be clear, if you ever step out of line, I’ll begin killing the people you care about one by one.”
He motioned to the Gold Mask, who hit the space bar, and the next livestream popped up, showing Katya, my childhood friend. Gold Mask hit the bar again, and Abigail, my college roommate, popped up. It went on like this until they had made it through every person I’d ever cared about.
They had been incredibly thorough, and the only way they could have known all of it was if someone close to me had betrayed me.
“If you try to escape, I will bring in Abigail, and she will become a member of the Forgotten. I will force you to watch as I let my Lethe rape her. Over and over again, knowing that you are the reason for her pain. Do you understand?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but my throat was so tight and thick. It felt like I was drowning in quicksand.
“Do you understand me?” He slapped me hard across the face.
“Yes.”
My stomach twisted so hard I thought I might vomit.
“Good. Now, my darling. Some ground rules.” He motioned to the guards with two fingers. “To keep you in line, I’ve installed monitors in your cell, which you can use to view your family and friends. You will be able to see them and know that as long as you follow our rules, they will remain safe.”
The Headmaster nodded, and one guard bent down to my feet and unlocked the manacles while the other unlocked my wrists.
They fell to the floor with a harsh, loud sound. My wrists burned where the metal had sat, and the absence of the restraints suddenly felt wrong—as if wearing them had been some kind of protection.
I didn’t move. I held my head high and waited for orders—waited for whatever vile thing they were going to do to me.
Because I would be the sacrifice that kept my friends safe.
My shoulders locked with tension as he said, “On your knees.”
I nodded and slowly lowered myself to the floor, the concrete digging into my kneecaps.
My pulse stormed violently beneath my skin.
“Good girl.” His smile widened. “Now, I would fuck you to break you in, but unfortunately, we haven’t prepared you yet for that.
Soon, after you leave this room, you’ll be taken to the medical chambers where we will microchip you, place an IUD, and check for STDs.
Our Forgotten are clean, pristine creatures—at least at first. And we will make you ready for any of our Lethe to rent. ”
Sweat gathered beneath my dress despite the cold.
He ran his thumb along my bottom lip. Instinctively, I opened my mouth for him. I figured he wanted to use me as Aleksandr had, but he clicked his tongue.
“No. None of that. Not yet. I don’t fuck in public.
” His gaze moved to the guards surrounding us.
“You are no longer Xeniya. From now on, you will be called Calliope. You’re our muse.
Our little fuck toy to do whatever we please with.
All the Lethe are different, but you will serve them to the best of your ability.
You will become the vessel they want. Some of them will want to chase you and want you to fight back, while others will chain you up, and some still will seduce you and make you cum.
Whatever they need, you will be. Do you understand? ”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now go get prepared because I’ll visit you tonight and sample the goods.”
He snapped his fingers again, and two guards forced me up, escorting me out of the room and into a much, much worse one.
The infirmary.