Cinder
Seventy
“If we kill her we can’t use her anymore!” the woman hissed, her voice echoing in the basement-like room.
I still didn’t know where I was. It was too big to be a basement, but it wasn’t a normal bedroom in a house, either. Maybe a bomb shelter or an underground cellar? There was nothing to tell me what time it was or if it was day or night. It echoed like catacombs or an abandoned prison.
They were far enough to keep their faces hidden from me, but I could hear them yelling and arguing.
I could hear the sick bastard talking about my sister, and then I heard the woman.
She was an enigma. I didn’t know if there was another person with them who didn’t show her face or if the woman was insane and talking to herself.
She did argue a lot, but the man wasn’t here all the time.
“I don’t give a fuck. I want her dead,” he barked back.
For the last ten minutes, they had gone back and forth on whether they should finish the job or not. I needed them to make up their fucking minds because this pain was misery. If they weren’t going to kill me, I would continue to fight. Rory needed me to fight.
How did I never think of an accomplice? I was only looking into him.
No one else because his obsession with her was infinite.
Why was she a part of this? And then there was the other girl who was scared of a mouse.
I thought I was ahead of him, close to getting him, but I wasn’t.
Rory was in more danger because of my secrets.
The meek girl would bring me water and pain meds when he wasn’t here and the woman was…gone? It felt pointless when my injuries were dire and if I didn’t get help soon, I knew I would die here. She was trying her best to help me, but I didn’t understand why she didn’t just tell someone where I was.
She was scared of them. Fear was a powerful weapon, and if she was trapped, maybe I could find a way to help her, too. She helped me, so I could repay the favor and help her.
“If you kill her, then how are we going to get Aurora?” the woman yelled. “I have worked too hard to get us here!”
“Wasn’t that the fucking plan?” he hissed.
The woman grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “I want her to pay for what she did to us!” Us? “She survived, and we were destroyed. All you care about is sex. I want her to bleed, just like we did. Aurora needs to repent for being his favorite princess.”
My face contorted in confusion.
I knew the possibility of another girl, but I had no proof. There was nothing linking him to another victim.
His favorite princess.
“Your issues aren’t my problem. She should be dead, and Rory should be ours. I’m tired of playing games with her. She is letting another woman defile her perfect body. She is mine! Not any of the Vipers or fucking Haven’s! She is supposed to be mine!”
Haven…
Haven.
Rory was dating Axel Morningstar’s daughter?
She didn’t tell me.
Why would she? I would’ve reacted how I did when she was with Widow and when I caught her with Vesper.
My sister knew what she wanted, even if it was the enemy.
I couldn’t be angry when all I wanted was to be home with her.
I would give anything to see her happiness, even if it mortified me to see her heart get broken, but that’s assuming my friends would hurt her.
I thought about our last conversation before this happened. I was angry…livid, but also scared. But I shouldn’t be afraid of my friends hurting her…You’re acting just like Mom and ruining my fucking life!
God, that stung, but not as much as hearing I hate you fall from her lips before she ran away crying. It was all my fault to begin with. My fault for being stuck here, my fault for what happened to her when she was hurt. My fault for this monster coming back to haunt her.
I was the one who hurt her.
God, I wish I could take it all back. I treated her like a fragile little girl when Rory was a fierce firefly. She was shining through her darkness.
“I’m sorry, firefly,” I whispered, the words scraping against my throat like sandpaper as a tear slipped down my face.
“You’re going to ruin years of fucking planning because you can’t fucking think,” the woman snapped as angry footsteps echoed down the corridor. I groaned in agony. What were they going to do now? “Men. All you fucking do is think with your goddamn dick.”
“She’s mine, dammit.”
“No she’s fucking not!” That voice was different. “She was meant to be mine! He lied to me. Aurora is mine. Not yours.”
The man chuckled. “The adults were talking. I don’t have time for this.”
God, what was going on?
He was going to hurt Rory…but so was she? I was in misery, but I needed to fight so I could get home to her. I would be a better sister, even if it meant dealing with hell and crawling back to her.