Page 86 of The Puppeteer and the Poisoned Pawn

After being in Jack’s house for less than an hour, here’s what I learned about the day he died.

That morning, Kane and I met at sunrise; he told me he found out Scarlett was being targeted—Vlademur knew about Violet and her the entire time. He missed it. He blamed himself. After explaining what she was going through, I forced him to get rid of Scarlett’s perpetrators, and scare Violet away from her house, even though we both knew something big was coming for me. They were drugging Jack with far more Mind Phantoms than he could take. And it was all going to implode on us.

I reluctantly touch the ottoman near the front door, running my fingers over the jagged wood that he accidentally hit with the club. The same weapon that was aimed at my head.

And with a heavy wave of darkness, I slip into that void, free-falling until I’m standing over a fifteen-year-old Skylenna, covered in her own blood, while Jack kicks her in the ribs.

“Please,” Skylenna coughs out, protecting her vital organs in a feeble attempt to stay alive.

I look up at Jack, dripping in sweat and crying hysterically. “Where is he?” he shouts.

She continues to gasp.

Normally, I would be wincing at this sight, holding in my cries as I watch one of the worst days of my life. But, currently, my skin is dry and flaky from the blood of my enemies. I’m sore from head to toe, yet desensitized from violence entirely. There is nothing in this moment that could shock me.

Before Jack can land the last fatal blow to my head, I blink, and a force like a hurricane tackles my father to the ground. The impact is so damning, so incredible, that their bodies slide across the floor until they hit the wall. Paintings are knocked from above their heads, glass cabinets rattle, and the ground vibrates under my feet.

I step closer, looking at the man that saved my life.

Kane wrestles the club from my father’s hands, throwing it into the hallway. He shouts at him to stop, to find the will, to realize what he’s done.

“Get her out of here,” Jack wails, pointing at me. “I’m so sorry! Oh god, I’m so sorry!”

Kane kneels at Skylenna’s side, forehead wrinkled, eyes wide with shock. Slowly, he lifts her from the ground, gently cradling her to his muscular chest.

“I knew you would come for me.” She smiles up at him despite the condition of her face and body.

I’m so focused on her blood saturating through his gray shirt that I’m caught off guard when Kane yells, “Jack,no!”

My eyes dart to Jack, slicing a knife through his own throat.

I turn away woodenly. Kane was right. Jack did take his own life. I suddenly want to escape this memory. Why would I want to watch it happen after being haunted by it for so many years?

Kane is momentarily torn by whether he should try to save Jack or rush Skylenna to get medical attention. He looks back and forth before his tormented eyes land on Skylenna, blinking up at him through blood and tears.

He begins running. I follow.

“What’s happening?” Skylenna asks him in a daze.

“Hold on,” his voice breaks, sounding like he’s about to lose it. Cry out in pain or yell in anger. “I’m so sorry, Skylenna.”

I pick up my pace, forcing my tired legs to catch up with him and hear what other words transpire between the two.

“No,” Skylenna croaks. “I’m the one that’s sorry.”

Kane slows to a fast jog, looking down at her as she opens her clenched fist. Two red petals and the roots from a flower. I nearly trip as Kane comes to a halting stop.

“No.” His voice comes close to Dessin’s terrifying tone. “No!” He comes close to dropping her as pure shock overtakes him.

“I don’t have long now. Maybe an hour. If I—die, it won’t matter anyway.” She pants, eyelids fluttering closed from exhaustion.

Kane’s mouth falls open. “What have you done? How the fuck am I supposed to live knowing that I’ll be the only one to remember? To look at you and know that you’ll never seemeagain? Every memory of me—gone.”

Ichoseto lose my memories?

“It’s—the—only way. I can’t let them—hurt you or DaiSzek—to break me.”

Hurt him or DaiSzek? She thinks Demechnef would have used them to break her in the experiment?

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