Page 6 of Absentia Mori

I nod. “I walked in on Gormon giving her one of his famous sponge baths. Sick fuck. She’s scared and alone. And no one knows she’s here except us.”

Mordecai’s pupils dilate, stretching deeper inside his brown irises. He licks his lips. “Her family will have her out of here within hours.”

I shake my head. “Nope. I don’t think they know she’s in here. Dr. Hall doesn’t believe that she’s Libra Thorn for some reason. Something must’ve happened on the outside. So she’s all ours.”

Raithe flexes his arms, his corded muscles taut and glistening. “I want her to suffer. To feel every inch of the pain her cousin made me feel.”

“That spoiled cunt has no fucking idea the nightmare I’m going to fucking drag her through,” Mordecai adds.

The euphoria bubbles inside me again. I think of all the ways I’m going to torture her, play with her, use her like she’s my fucking pet. We all will. “I snuck a peek at her file. They’ve got her heavily sedated. She’s out of it and confused. But she recognized me. She even begged me to verify her identity to Dr. Hall.”

The three of us burst out laughing.

Raithe pulls on a black T-shirt. “What, and ruin all the fun? Nah. That slut isn’t going anywhere until we’re done with her.”

“Until she’s in a fucking body bag.” Mordecai snatches his book off the bed and plops back down in the chair to continue reading.

I shudder as a painful memory surfaces, threatening to drag me down into the darkest depths of my mind. The night we lost everything—our coven, our place at Tenebrose Academy, and our friends. But the worst was when they took our sigils; they carved them out of us like we were animals.

Raithe, Mordecai, and me are the only three out of twenty-something initiates who survived that night. The rest of them fucking bled to death. But Riot Graves made sure that we’d never see the light of day again. He and his fucking coven control the whole town of Raven’s Gate, including this asylum.

But if Libra Thorn is stuck in here with us too… well, that means their control is starting to slip. And I’m going to make sure that we take full fucking advantage of it.

“Are you ready to cooperate?” Dr. Hall narrows her eyes at me.

I rub my swollen wrists, annoyed that my diamond bracelet is gone. Aries gifted it to me on my twenty-first birthday.I never take it off. I look down at my chipped nail polish and cracked cuticles, internally screaming at the sight. I’m so disgusted by my own filth that I want to vomit.

I take a deep breath and remind myself to be grateful that I’m no longer restrained, and I have my pants back on. I avoid Gormon’s leering gaze. “Yes, Doctor.”

She purses her lips into what I can only imagine is her version of a smile. “Good. We have prepared a nicer room for you. You’ll have your own bathroom and a small, barred window to get some fresh air.”

I nod. Oh, thank fuck.

She flips open a folder and continues. “One of our more senior patients will give you a tour of the premises. Once youhave proven you can be trusted, you will be allowed outside in the courtyard under supervision. Then later, we’ll go over your treatment for the next year.”

A year?This is fucking insane. I want to scream and claw her eyes out. But I have to stay calm, or I’ll end up back in this room and at the mercy of Gormon.

I’ve had to fake pleasantries my whole life. My father calls ita result of good breeding. Like I’m one of his championship horses. Except he prefers their company over mine.

Aries and I are just possessions to him. And my mother… well, she plays the game better than any woman I’ve seen in all of Melancholia society.

If I can make it through thousands of vapid events with some of the most dangerous and self-absorbed people in the world, then I can make it in here. I’m the queen of manipulation and deceit. It’s the only way I know how to survive.

“Sounds… delightful,” I reply to the expectant doctor.

As we exit the stark room and leave behind my confinement, I start to make a mental list of everyone I’m going to kill.

My heart sinks when I step into the hallway. More fluorescent lighting, chipped white walls, and the screams… I shudder as two orderlies drag a hysterical girl past us. I make the mistake of locking eyes with her, the light in them completely gone. She mouthsrun.

Fuck.

“This way, Miss Doe.” The click of her heels against the linoleum floors reverberates off the barren walls. Each step sends another shiver down my spine.

“What’s with all the screaming?” I ask.

“There are many troubled souls here. We do our best to fix them. As we will do for you.” She stops in front of a door. There are scratches in the wood and on the knob.Like something was trying to crawl its way inside.“Your new room. I’ve put youright next door to a lovely group of boys who have been here for quite some time. One of them will be giving you the facility tour.”

Before I can peek inside my new room—prison cell—the door next to mine bursts open.

---