Page 96 of The Secrets of a Sin

“You’re no longer the keeper of her soul.” She spins to face Arsen with my blood coated across her face. “We are.”

She rises onto her feet, and I lose it. Like a bolt of lightning, something powerful strikes through me and causes my voice to thunder.

“I’ll never belong to you!” I bellow, causing all eyes to land on me. “At least Arsen didn’t have to drug me to get in between my legs.”

Pure silence fills the air, but it’s Annalise’s heavy scowl that punctures right through me. Then, suddenly, with a quick jab of her hand, she has my chin in a tight grip, forcing my eyes to peer into hers. “Don’t act like you didn’t come on our tongues.” She spits in my face, causing my own blood to splatter across my face. “Ungrateful little bitch.” She squeezes her fingers on my chin, causing her long nails to dig into my skin.

“Enough!” Sister Mary shouts, causing Annalise to immediately drop her hold and stagger back. “Terrorizing our future members isn’t going to help spread our beliefs.” She declares in an eerily calm voice as Annalise’s scowl is replaced with a straight face.

“Then why am I tied up to a chair if I’m supposed to be a member of your so-called cult?” I shout with a cry as her face twists at the word cult.

“Cult?” She spits out as if it burns her tongue. “We’re an awakening, Charlotte. The birth of a new existence that will rupture the primeval ways of living and create something uncanny.”

My skin crawls from her revelation. How could someone be so far off like this?

“And you, my dear, are the beginning of our movement.” Sister Mary steps off the small ledge and hobbles over to me with a gleam in her eyes. “Unlike Phoebe, who proved to be unworthy, we see your strength, your fire, and the vigor you carry in your heart despite your immoral choices.” She stops in front of me and leans her face down until her soulless eyes sink into mine. “And that’s why you're going to rid the world of a male who can construct chaos.” Her stare filters over to Arsen. “It’s time, Charlotte, for us women to rise from the ashes and come together as one. Let us coat our pathway in the wretched blood of the men who once crucified us and bathe in their misery.”

What the fuck.

They weren’t just crazy. They were all clinically insane. They wanted to exterminate men altogether.

“Starting with him.” She nods towards Arsen’s form. “Use this knife and purify the world of this creature. Fucking drain him.”

* * *

Arsen

Fucking drain him.

They wanted Charlotte to kill me just like they did Phoebe.

Sister Mary, who’s now standing in front of Charlotte, holds her hands out. But I knew better. They weren’t just going to let her go without slaying me. They’d make her stab me until I was no longer in the way of their demented plan. Just like Phoebe, I was only their way. The only reason I had been drugged and brought here was to be sacrificed for their fucking deranged faith. They wanted to slaughter me like a lamb and immerse in my blood as if it would give them superhuman strength or something.

And if I had to die, I’d rather it be by her hand than theirs.

“No.” Charlotte shakes her tear-stained face frantically. “No way. You’re all fucking crazy.” She starts to shout as my hands continuously try to make work of the bind around my hands. Even the smallest chance of survival would be a goddamn miracle granted they

“No isn’t an option, Charlotte. Either you do it, or we do.” Sister Mary shifts her stare over to the crazy brunette. “And I can guarantee that she’s been thinking about all the ways to make him suffer.” My eyes float over to where Sister Mary is staring, and I catch the eyes of the brunette, who’s watching me like I’m her fucking meal. Teeth bared and tongue out, she glides it across her mouth like she’s eager to sink her mouth into me, but not in the way most girls do. The only reason why she’d have her mouth on me would be to shred, to fucking puncture my skin until I bleed dry. “Or you can be the one to cause his demise.” She refocuses on Charlotte, whose world seems to be crumbling at her feet. Her eyes are void, but it’s her rampant chest that I watch pound vigorously as if she’s seconds from completely falling apart. “Your choice.”

My eyes bore through hers, and I pray she looks at me just once. And just like that, as if she knows I’m looking, her stare shifts to mine.

I need you to do this, angel. Don’t let them have the satisfaction of killing me.

She knows what I want. Her eyes brim with tears, and her head frantically shakes in refusal.

“No!” Charlotte screams again, and this time Sister Mary scowls. “No one is touching him.” She cries in a pained shout as her head drops in defeat. My body ached to comfort her, to pull her in close and disappear into our very own haven. I wanted a chance at goodbye, or at least one last time inside her where I could worship her.

Then, abruptly, I watch as Charlotte's head lifts. “I’ll willingly go with you. I’ll stay and be a part of your group. But only if you let him walk away unharmed.”

Fuck no.

There’s no way I’d let her go with them voluntarily, especially to save my life. I was already partly saved, and it was all because of her. Death didn’t scare me, not one bit, but being without her did. I’ve only just found her.

“Making demands already, little mouse?” Annalise chuckles as she walks to the back of Charlotte’s chair and leans down over her shoulder. “I don’t think you heard Sister Mary clearly enough. Either we disembowel your little boy toy in front of you.” Her arm then lifts over Charlotte’s shoulder and shoves the already bloodied knife in front of her face. “Or you can take this knife and end his life your way.”

As more hectic tears fall from Charlotte’s face, I observe Annalise’s hands undoing the binds on her chair. She doesn’t even seem to notice that they're releasing her, but just as quickly as she’s freed, the brunette stalks over to the other side of Charlotte and grips her upper arm. Once Annalise is finished with Charlotte, she sets her sights on me, sauntering over to my collapsed form on the ground and grunts.

“Verity!” She shouts. “Help me pick his chair up.”

---