Page 110 of Tempest

Tempest

Five Years Ago

The rubble that was Briarcliff Academy’s best-kept secret shrinks in the rearview window, the car’s engine providing an appropriate roar to the disappearing castle the farther we crest away from it.

“Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable.” My father slams his hands against the steering wheel, beating it again and again as he belts out curse after curse.

“Dad.” I’m switching my focus between him and the road in front of us, bouncing between them at a faster rate. Dad isn’t slowing down, and the asphalt underneath the McLaren is a blur.

“The amount of time I put into those people, the blood, sweat, and money I invested to keep their riches afloat, and they let a girl destroy hundreds of years of work? A teenaged cunt? I won’t fucking have it!”

“Jesus—Dad!” I grab the wheel as he swerves, streetlights being a thing of imagination in this area of Rhode Island. A moonless night adds to the shit-tastic shitfest that occurred on school grounds, and I’m not confident Dad won’t see a deer and aim for it.

“We got away,” I assure him. “No one knows we were there. And Chase, he’d never surrender our family.”

Dad cackles. Laughs and laughs until tears escape from the corners of his eyes, streaking down the curves of his cheeks and dropping onto his thousand-dollar suit.

“Don’t you speak to me, son, like you had nothing to do with their downfall. You played your part well like I taught you, but know this—I am well aware of how deeply you betrayed my honor.”

My shoulders press into the bucket seat, the engine seeming to come alive in my veins as Dad directs its thrum. It takes mere seconds for my fear of him driving to morph into thankfulness. It means, for the moment at least, he can’t use his fists on me. “I’ve always been loyal to you, Father.”

“You’re an excellent liar, Tempest. Hone it well because I assure you, you’ll need it for where you’re going next.”

“We’re going home.” I lift from my seat. “Aren’t we?”

Dad’s lips thin. He steadies the wheel until we’re coasting at an excess rate of speed but in a straight line.

A pit opens in my gut, deep enough to fill with dread.

“I’ve done everything asked of me, Dad. Since I was fourteen, you stuck me with these rituals, made me perform these stupid fucking ancient tasks, like wear cloaks and exchange blood and basically bond with the elite through orgies and prostitutes. And I did it all without saying a damned word. You can’t blame me for their destruction simply because I was there to watch it fall!”

“Son, I’d be careful with your words.”

“It was their arcane rules that broke them and overinflated, criminal egos that destroyed your sacred brotherhood. You wanna get behind sex rings and high school crypt ceremonies? Fine. I, for one, am done with that shit. I’m glad we were forced out of there because frankly, Dad, thinking of you fucking fourteen-year-old girls—”

My head cracks into the passenger window. Fire spreads across my cheek where his blow landed. Working my jaw, I feel around the area where his raven signet ring split my skin open.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Dad. Did I get it wrong? Was it little boys you were after?”

“You fucking waste!” The car swerves when Dad attempts another swing. I duck and grab the wheel, swerving us in the other direction on the two-way road.

“You want to kill us?” I roar. “Then do it! End your legacy by taking the coward’s way out!”

“I won’t stand for your insolence, you son of a bitch.” Dad’s face bloats with rage, his skin red, and his features almost beyond recognition. He clamps his hand down on the back of my head and rams me face-first into the dash until I can’t see anything but black.

When I come to, the world is too bright, but the smells are familiar. The ticking of a cooling engine and the fragrant scent of leather gives me enough of a clue that I’m still in the car.

I come to slowly, my head pounding and my vision blurred. Squinting, I notice stadium lights outside the window, so bright they white out the night sky.

It’s still night, though. One check of the car’s clock through pin-hole vision confirms it’s 3 am.

The door on my side opens so abruptly I nearly fall out.

“Come with me, boy.”

“Huh?” Smacking my lips, I collect the drool that accumulated there during my nap. “Where am I?”

“Private airfield. Get out.”

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