39. Ophelia
We spend the next few hours dozing in sexual satisfaction. I wish Roman had been in a better state to join in the fun, but as soon as he is, I’ll be sure to make up for it.
Cain’s phone buzzes with a repetitive tone that signals a call, and he pulls himself out of sleep to fumble for his cell.
He swipes the screen to answer and places it to his ear.
He doesn’t say anything at first, just listens.
I assume it’s his father, making sure the men have turned up okay, and that we’re back at Verona Falls, safe and sound.
But his eyes narrow, and he frowns as he turns to me.
“It’s a call from the main gate. Someone is here to see you.”
Instantly, all my senses are alert. “Me? Who?”
It seems as if he knows exactly who my thoughts have jumped to. “Don’t worry, it’s not the Prophet. It’s not a man. They know not to let any random male figure come asking for you.”
“Then who is it?”
“She won’t give her name. She just says she needs to see you.”
“She?” My heart rate picks up. Adrenaline makes me dizzy. Who the hell is it?
“The security team won’t let her in until you’ve verified she’s no threat.”
“Can’t someone else go?” Malachi says, his dark eyebrows drawing together.
Cain shakes his head. “She won’t speak to anyone else. Only Ophelia, and in person. We’re going to need to go to the gate.”
I draw in a shuddery breath. Realistically, if it was someone out to hurt me, they wouldn’t be standing at the gate, asking to speak to me. Unless it’s some kind of trick, but I still feel like someone would be pretty stupid to announce their arrival to multiple armed guards.
“I need a minute.”
Aware I’m still naked and stinking of sex, I hurry into the bathroom to wash up. I’m sore between my legs, and moving gingerly, but it’s a good soreness. It’s the quickest wash I’ve ever had, and I towel myself dry in a rush.
When I emerge, the guys are already dressed.
Roman spears his fingers into his hair. “I don’t like this.”
I bite the inside of my lip. “Me neither,” I admit.
“Don’t worry,” Malachi says. “You’re not going alone. We’ll come with you, and we’ll bring some of Cain’s men with us, too.”
I tell myself nothing can go wrong if I’m surrounded by all these armed men—plus the security guards at the gate—but still my pulse thunders in my ears like I’m underwater.
Roman steps forward. “Wait, can’t one of the security guards take a photograph of the person, or send us a link to the CCTV so we can see her?”
Cain smacks himself in the forehead. “Fuck, yes. Of course.”
“A photo will be quicker,” Mal suggests.
The three of them look in my direction for my approval.
My heart hammers, but I nod. I need to see who it is.
Cain calls back the security guard and tells him what he needs.
Then he ends the call, and we wait. The seconds seem interminable, and I struggle to regulate my breathing, taking gasping breaths every now and again, as my heart pounds.
My past flashes through my mind. The people from the compound are dancing through my memories.
It must be something to do with them, surely.
It can’t be Mom because she’d simply be let in to see me.
The dean knows her and would instruct the guards to wave her in.
Other than the people here, and my parents, the only people I know are them … the cult.
The phone buzzes, and Cain opens the message.
He frowns at the screen, then turns the phone toward me.
I draw a sharp breath and clamp my hand over my mouth.
A moment later, I’m running from the water tower.
“Ophelia, wait.”
The guys catch up with me, and we’re quickly joined by Cain’s men. I’m not frightened anymore, but I am filled with anticipation.
We finally reach the gates, and I draw to a halt. There are metal bars between us, but that doesn’t stop the impact of seeing her again for the first time in so long.
Her dress is the first thing that hits me. Seeing it again, that damned maroon color we all had to wear, is propelling me back in time.
“Daisy?”
She looks older. It’s only been a year, but her face seems to have aged ten. I know such a thing isn’t possible, but it’s true. It’s like she’s gone from being a girl to a woman, though she still looks the couple of years younger than me.
“It’s okay,” I tell the guards. “You can let her in. I vouch for her.”
The gates creep open, and Daisy steps through.
“Ophelia, I’m so happy I found you!”
This girl was like a sister to me for so many years, and seeing her here at Verona Falls is surreal. Before I can even register what’s happening, or my reaction to it, we’re in each other’s arms. My eyes fill with tears, and Daisy gives a little hiccup of laughter.
“I wasn’t sure I’d found the right place,” she says.
I’m still baffled. “But—how?—?”
“I went to your parents’ house because I had the address you’d written in the note you left me back at the commune. I heard you talking about this place, Verona Falls, and I managed to find it.”
“You heard me talking? How is that possible?”
“I was hiding outside of the gates.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself?”
“Fear. I didn’t know the men you were with. They seemed…scary.”
Her gaze flicks over my shoulder. I notice that their presence hasn’t stopped her approaching now.
I can understand her hesitancy, though. Malachi always seems a little frightening, with all his black clothes and tattoos and makeup, and Roman had been all beaten up, and Cain is huge, and naturally looks like he could hurt something.
“You still could have shown yourself. You know I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.”
But she shakes her head. “I didn’t know that.”
She has a point. Men have hurt us plenty of times before, and we’ve never been able to stop it.
“How did you escape? You said in your letter that the Prophet was going to make you his seventh wife.”
“He was…as far as I know, he still plans to do that...but that isn’t why I’m here. I had to leave because I needed to find you. I needed to find someone to make him stop.”
“Make him stop what? The wedding?”
“No, it’s far worse than that. If I only had to worry about marrying him I might be able to cope.” A tear trickles down her cheek, and she wipes it away. “He’s planning something worse, Ophelia. Something far, far worse.”
I glance around, aware of the college guards within earshot. With a two-minute walk toward the woods, we’ll find a couple of benches.
“Walk with me,” I tell her. I turn to Cain. “Can you three come with us, but ask your father’s men to keep their distance and watch us from a little way back?”
I have no idea what she’s going to tell me, and I don’t want it to get back to Nataniele and others here if it’s something that could cause issues for me or the Preachers.
I link my arm with hers, and we walk to the bench. I gesture for her to sit, and she does, as I take a seat beside her.
“What is it, Daisy?” I face her and focus on what she’s about to say.
“Since you left, he’s been getting even more manic. He’s talking about the end of days?—”
“He was always talking about that,” I interrupt, aware I’m being dismissive but suddenly wanting to stop this conversation. There’s a sinking feeling I don’t want to face in my stomach.
“Yes, but now he believes they’re upon us. He says it’s time for the ascension. But there won’t be an ascension, Ophelia, because we’ll all be dead. Me, my mom and dad, my siblings, all the people in the commune.”
“What are you talking about?” I glance anxiously at the guys, who seem equally worried.
“He’s planning a mass suicide.” Her voice is barely a whisper. “He’s going to kill us all, and he wants you to be the main event.”
“No!” I gasp.
This can’t be real. All those people! Those innocent babies, and the poor women whose lives he’s already ruined.
I can’t fathom it, and still, despite it all, he has his obsession with me, alive and burning.
Her words fill me with utter dread. It sits like a cold stone in my belly, chilling me slowly from the inside out.
“He hasn’t given up on you, Ophelia. He’s still obsessed with you.”
I shake my head and stand as I take a step back, wanting to create space. “I don’t believe it. Not after all this time.”
She stands, too, and steps toward me, shaking her head as I move back again.
“I had to come. I had to find you. There’s something else. I overheard him talking, and he said something about you.”
“What do you mean?”
“He said he knew you were destined to be his before he ever laid eyes on you.”
I take in what she’s saying, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s the kind of stuff he always said. He thinks he sees the future.
“He’s talking his usual nonsense, Daisy.”
“No,” she insists. “He was talking with a man, and he told him that he’d seen pictures of you, and he knew your name before he ever met you.
He said as soon as he saw the photograph of you with your different colored eyes, he knew that you’d be his most important bride, and that he made the plans to be where your family were that day and take you. ”
The world swims around me. How is that possible?
“He came across me by accident.” I say the words out loud as though hearing them with my own ears again will make what I’ve always believed to remain the truth.
“No, that’s not what it sounded like. He made it sound as though taking you had always been his plan.”
I glance over my shoulder at the Preachers.
What is she saying? That my abduction was intentional? It wasn’t an accident that I was the child taken that day—I wasn’t just in the wrong place at the wrong time? It had been arranged?
My gaze lands on Roman, and Cain, then Malachi. Then it’s drawn back to the girl standing in front of me, the one I haven’t seen for a year, but who managed to find me, despite everything.
She wouldn’t have risked this if what she was saying wasn’t true. She wouldn’t have come all the way here, and how did she even manage it, if she wasn’t trying to warn me, to help me? Unless … it’s a trap. But no, that makes no sense.
As I look between my men, my head starts to swim. I feel sick and faint, and my hands have gone all tingly.
Trying to take it all in, one question rings loudly in my head.
Who can I trust?