Page 48 of Toy

“I wanted to tell you that as your father, it is my job to guide you to salvation, and I intend to do so. Soon.”

“How wonderfully vague.” I stared right at him and steeled my jaw. “There’s one problem with your plan to ‘guide’ me, whatever that means. Mason will hunt you down to the ends of the earth to get me back. He’ll save me from your so-called salvation.”

He lifted one brow. “You think so?”

I nodded. “Yes. In fact, I know so. I bet he’s already on his way here now.”

He lowered his gaze and pinched the bridge of his nose. My spirit immediately soared. I felt like I’d won, like I’d actually thrown a wrench in his plan to destroy me in every conceivable way, but then he looked back up at me, triumph brimming in his gaze.

“Mason is dead,” he said.

His words sent a hot knife through my heart. “What?”

He smiled. “You were right. He was determined to hunt us to the ends of the earth to get you back. But he didn’t make it far. Some friends of mine got to him.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said stiffly. He was lying. He hadto be. He was trying to break my spirit, after all. Obviously he thought this was the easiest way to do so.

My father shrugged. “Okay. You don’t have to believe me,” he said in a breezy tone. “Are you sure that’s the right decision, though?”

“Yes. A hundred percent.” I gritted my teeth and nodded. “I know your game, and I won’t fall for it. Mason is alive. He’s coming for me.”

He chuckled. “If you say so.” He took a step closer to me. “Even if he was alive and coming for you, he wouldn’t make it in time. Can’t you see that?”

“It’s kind of hard to see anything properly when I don’t know where I am or what your intentions are for me other than ‘guiding me to salvation’,” I said, putting the words in air quotes. “I assumed you were going to kill me, but now I don’t know.”

“Oh, I am going to kill you,” he said in a measured tone. “But not yet. I have to let the men have their fun with you first. I owe it to them. A shiny new toy to make up for all the trouble they’ve gone through.”

I shook my head. “You’re so fucked up,” I hissed.

“Why? I’m sure you won’t mind being the village slut for a while. You’ve always enjoyed opening your legs to men.”

My lips curled with disgust. “What happens after they’re done with me?”

“At the next full moon, we’ll have a ceremony, and you will be reckoned for your crimes against us.”

I swallowed hard. “How?”

“How do you think?” he asked, tilting his head to one side.

Despite my earlier vow to show only strength before him, my legs and arms began to tremble. “The old way?” I said, remembering the tall wooden pillar in the square outside.

I pictured flames licking up my legs, ripping scream after scream from my lungs. My nostrils were suddenly filled with the scent of burnt hair and sizzling flesh, as if it were already happening. After all these years, I still remembered every last detail so clearly.

My father nodded. “That’s right.”

“When is the full moon?” I asked, chin trembling.

“In a week,” he said crisply. “You will be burned at the end of the seventh day, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. I wasn’t lying earlier. Mason is dead, and he isn’t coming for you.”

The amusement and certainty in his voice chilled me to the bone.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “He is,” I whispered, even though my faith was rapidly slipping. “He’s coming.”

“No, Jolie.” My father chuckled and shook his head. “No one is.”

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