Page 31 of Sacrifice

“You really thought she’d do such a thing?” Sebastian asked sharply. “You thought she’d give up everything to live here forever?”

“I thought we could make it work somehow. I told her she could bring you with her, because I knew she’d never leave you behind, and I didn’t want her to do that anyway. I was so looking forward to meeting you, Sebastian. Being a family with you. The four of us together.” Papa paused again, shaking his head. “Of course, it was all a silly, futile dream. A delusion. Miranda didn’t want to leave the outside world. She rebuffed me, and I tried to let it go. Tried to forget my feelings so she could continue with her work. But then… someone told her how to get to the forbidden cave.”

“Me, I presume?” I asked, brows rising. I didn’t recall doing that at all. All I remembered was being afraid of the cave.

“Yes. Even though you were such a tiny little thing back then, you were already running around the woods every day, learning every inch of them like the back of your hand. We could barely keep track of you. Miranda knew that, and she took advantage of it in the end, when she asked you to show her exactly where the cave was.”

Sebastian took a step forward, squaring his shoulders. “Rose was just a child back then,” he said in a low voice. A furious gleam had entered his gaze. “Are you seriously trying to claim that it washerfault my mother died because she took her to that cave and showed her the truth of this place?”

“No, of course not. It wasn’t just that. Allow me to finish, please,” Papa said. “As I was saying, Rose showed her where the cave is. Back then, we had no doors or locks in there, because the cave is so remote and well-guarded by traps that outsiders have never had the slightest chance of stumbling upon it, even if they happened to be on our land. So, because of that, once Miranda was taken there by Rose, she immediately discovered what we’d been doing. How we kept our community running, in more ways than one. After that, she immediately left Alderwood. She didn’t tell me what she’d seen, but one of the alchemists saw her and informed me and the other elders. So… we knew that she knew.”

“Then you tracked her down and killed her.” Sebastian’s nostrils flared. “That’s what you meant when you came to the door that night. You told her that she’d ‘let the Darkness out’. You were letting her know that you were aware that she’d been in the cave.”

Papa raised his palm again. “No. You misunderstand me. We went to the house that night to save her. Not to kill her.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Sebastian growled. “Do you ever stop lying?”

“I know you’ve never believed our version of events,” Papa said evenly. “But it’s the truth. We knew how much danger she was in, and we wanted to keep her safe.”

“From what?” I asked, tipping my head.

“Not what.Who,” Papa replied. “One of the people who has benefited the most from what goes in the forbidden cave.”

“Who?” Sebastian shouted. “Just fucking tell me!”

“I thought you were smart, Sebastian,” Papa said, fixing him with a cool, unwavering gaze. “You still haven’t figured it out?”

“Don’t be cruel, Papa,” I snapped. “Just tell us who Miranda was in danger from.”

He swallowed audibly and took a step backward, as if he were anticipating the effect his next words would have on us. “It was Adam,” he said, staring at Sebastian. “Your father.”

12

Sebastian

I stared at Augustus,thunderstruck. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“It was your father.Thatwas who Miranda should’ve been afraid of that evening,” he replied in a wooden tone. “But she didn’t know any better. We went there to warn her, but… things went awry.”

I was so furious, so filled with boiling rage, that I couldn’t bite out another word. All I could do was stare and try my best to stop myself from shoving Augustus right into the same fucking pit Jean-Pierre had wound up in.

“Papa, what are you talking about?” Rose asked, eyes wide as saucers.

Augustus let out a heavy sigh, head shaking. “As I said before, it is a very long story. I will have to start from the beginning for any of this to make sense to you.”

“I thought youhadstarted from the beginning.”

“No, darling. This story began hundreds of years ago, before any of us were even conceived.”

“Jesus Christ,” I managed to grind out through clenched teeth. “This has to be a fucking joke.”

Augustus raised a palm. “It is not a joke,” he said somberly. “Please, allow me to speak.”

“Fine.” I threw up my own hands and let out a bitter, mirthless bark of laughter. “Have at it. Tell your bullshit stories.”

He ignored my jibe and began. “As you know, the Covenant was founded by Jean-Baptiste Dubois and Matthiew Brouxard. They discovered the forbidden cave and received sacred knowledge from the Entity there. Knowledge that would allow them—and all their descendants—to live freely and happily in their own corner of the world for as long as time existed.”

“You mean they ate those red mushrooms and ended up tripping balls and hallucinating shit for three days straight?” I said, raising a scornful brow.

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