Chapter 24 - Scarlett
Scarlett
I had been very excited to see my sisters and brothers again, but now my mood was soured.
Why didn’t Poppy believe I could handle it? Hadn’t she seen me handle the attack on our home? Hadn’t she been told how I handled Carl after what he did to me?
Didn’t she see me handling the wounds I had now?
I knew what was at stake going to Absolution.
I knew what would happen to me. I knew how horrible and terrible it would be.
I knew what I was signing up for. I also knew that I could handle my own.
I wanted to do this. To protect the mission, to save those people.
They deserved freedom. They deserved a new life, just as I had gotten.
I could save them. They could break my body, but they would never break my mind. I was sure of it.
I was almost sure of it.
I shook my head inwardly. No, Poppy was filling me with doubts. I could handle this. I was strong enough, I was sure. I wasn’t weak. I wouldn’t quit on this just because of some seedling of fear. I wouldn’t allow myself to do that.
Azrael would tell them that I was breaking the rules, that I was uncontrollable, wild, and I would prove just that to them. I could break out of any restraint they put me in. I could kill them with anything I found. I didn’t need my dagger, I knew how to turn anything into a weapon.
I would be fine.
They wouldn’t hurt me. I would be fine.
Why was there doubt?
Azrael opened the door to the meeting room, allowing Olivia, Lucy, and Poppy through before we walked in.
Everyone was sitting around the large oval table already, the conversations silencing when we walked in.
Everett stood when Olivia neared him, brushing his lips by hers quickly before looking at me.
I wasn’t wearing a mask, I realized as all eyes turned to me. I had forgotten to put it on before coming down here.
“I love your house,” Emily finally said, her chair moved closer to Grey’s. “Makes me want to build our own.”
“You’d be the last,” Azrael stated coldly.
Emily frowned. “Moody.”
I slowed to a stop halfway between the door and where our chairs were. I could see only three empty ones, meaning that the Blackheart brothers didn’t get chairs. I suppose they did prefer to stand in most cases, but still, it seemed strange not to give them the option.
Poppy took her seat beside Evie, leaving Azrael’s spot at the head of the table, and my spot which was on his right, between he and Olivia.
Alaric joined my right side, his presence dark and quiet.
Havoc joined my left side, his presence warm and inviting, but no less threatening. I think it was in their blood. All of them. The four who came from the asylum. They must have been injected with shadows there.
With evil.
“Expressionless doesn’t take away the tension. What’s bothering you, doll?”
I looked across the faces as Azrael grabbed the back of his chair in one hand, his other gripping his cane, bent behind his back.
I leaned my cane against my hips and said, “Poppy made Azrael doubt my decision to go to Absolution. And now I feel…” I struggled with the words, the anger falling a bit as I searched for the right one.
“Doubt,” he said quietly. “Your plan to go there was created around the fact that you needed answers to who the Founder was,” he went on. “Now you know who the Founder is so why are you still going?”
“There are still answers we need,” I told him. “Locations, names. Malachi may be the Founder but who are the Elders? Where are they? Are there more of them than just the five we know of? To end this, we need to get every root. We have to be sure.”
“And you believe the answers are there?”
I glanced his way, searching his caramel eyes before turning back to the room. “They have to be. There is nowhere else to look.” After a moment, I turned back to him. “Do you doubt me too?”
Havoc offered a bare smile. “No, doll. I doubt those who doubt you. You have an intelligent brain in there,” he went on, poking my forehead.
“You have assessed the risks and believe the rewards outweigh that. In the grand scheme of things, that’s all that matters.
Once you have a goal in mind, if you’re determined, nothing can stop you, not even added cracks to that head of yours. ”
I studied him carefully. “Olivia survived,” I answered, turning back to the table, to Olivia.
Everyone was watching us, but I knew for a fact they couldn’t hear Havoc, and I was signing at my normal speed, so the best they could do was catch a word here or there. I wasn’t worried.
“And so will you. Just remember,” he hummed, “how many people you have out here ready to rip apart each and every single person who lays a hand on you.”
I cocked my head to the side, eyes landing on Poppy. “Do you think she’ll still feel the same knowing I’m going?”
“Real family’s fight, doll. They worry, they pace.
Don’t take her doubt as doubt in you but as fear for you.
She’s scared. 80 percent of the people in this room have been sexually harmed in some way, shape, or form, so don’t you ever doubt that they won’t move heaven and hell to make the people pay for what they are going to do to you.
” He leaned in, his breath hot against my skin.
“If I were you, I’d keep a list of names.
There’s no stopping us once we catch the scent of blood. ”
I found his eyes and then Bishop’s on his other side, and finally Alaric’s. Each male gave me the same look of certainty as Havoc had.
A list of names?
I could do that.
I finally straightened and joined Azrael’s side.
“How are you healing?” Emily asked, leaning over the table. “Liv filled in why you were limping.”
I leaned the cane against the edge of the table. “I dislike being impaired,” I told her truthfully.
“She doesn’t like being impaired,” Olivia said, leaning back in her chair.
“You understand her?” Emily asked.
“I’ve been learning,” she smiled softly. “She’s probably not going to be as…wild,” she went on, her smile growing as her eyes met mine, “as last time you met. She’s trying her best to heal as quickly as possible.”
I felt a smile of my own grow before turning back to Emily who was also smirking.
“I can understand that,” Emily nodded. “Rae and I have been anxious to see you again.”
My eyes shifted to Rae, my smile widening only to fall when I saw the troubled look in her beautiful blue eyes.
She was staring at me. All of me. Looking me over slowly, her eyes darkening.
I looked down at my clothes, studying them. I thought I had picked good clothes today. Did I not look appropriate for the meeting?
“She’s so young,” I finally heard her say, her voice soft.
My eyes lifted, finding her staring at Azrael. “Why is she so young?”
“She’s 20,” he replied tightly.
“You made her your wife,” Rae stated, shaking her head. “She’s 20.”
Confusion filled me. “20 is when people get married,” I signed.
“Outside the church, people marry whenever they want,” Azrael responded. “Some view 20 as too young—”
“Rae,” Jack said, sliding his hand over her hand.
My eyes lifted, seeing how tense she was.
Jack shook his head subtly, her shoulders falling an inch. His eyes found mine. “We’ve tried to put together your timeline,” he began evenly. “Her being 20 makes things look a certain way.”
Azrael’s smile sharpened, the air around him chilling. “Dear, sweet wild rose.”
Olivia inhaled deeply and turned to the room.
“Okay, you’ve heard most of this before, but it would be easier to tell it all from start to finish so we don’t miss anything.
It’s going to be filled with a lot of information Azrael intentionally left out, much of it you won’t like, but just know this; I trust him, and in my opinion, everything he has done, everything he knows, it’s all true.
So, before you think about interrupting,” she went on, finding Jack and Rae, “please don’t. Wait until you hear all of it.”
Grey, Emily, Evie, Zo, and Everett all looked at Jack and Rae who clearly noticed.
Rae’s eyes found mine, searching them quickly before she straightened. “How much did you leave out, exactly?”
A lot from what I remembered. He told what I would call ‘the bones’ of the story. The skeleton of it. I suppose now was the time for Olivia to give them the meat, the blood, the organs. “I gave you enough.”
Rae pressed her lips into a line but kept her mouth shut.
I took my seat beside Olivia, and Azrael took his before we settled in to listen to our story told in the words of my sister.
~~~
It was strange hearing my entire story told from an outside perspective.
I knew everything I had been through. I felt it all.
I had been present most of the time, but hearing her talk, in detail, about what the church had done to me, how I was sold, how my mother had died and left me in the hands of them, it felt like a lifetime ago but at the same time, it felt like it had all happened yesterday.
Even so, I studied everyone around that table as Olivia spoke. Watched as their expressions shifted from horror to shock to rage and confusion before they cooled all together.
Their stonefaces were almost as good as mine.
Rae was the first person I turned to when Olivia finished. She was staring at the door behind Azrael and I. Her eyes were burning, but there was a kind of deadly calm that had overtaken her.
Jack was leaning back in his chair, his eyes locked on Azrael, cool and unwavering.
After what felt like a lifetime, her eyes finally flicked to his. “So, I was right,” she stated quietly.
“Yes,” Azrael answered easily.
Greyson stood suddenly. “I’d like to speak with you,” he told Azrael before dismissing himself from the table.
Azrael watched after him for a moment before standing soundlessly and following Grey to the far side of the room where the windows stretched from floor to ceiling.