Page 36 of Twisted Kings

I looked around, confused. “Where’s Mama?” It had been days since I last saw her. Since she left to have the baby. I hadn’t seen Papa either, although he rarely spent time with me. He worked a lot, Mama said, which was why he spent his days with the scary man. The one who made Mama cry sometimes.

“Your mother’s with the angels now.” The nurse seemed sad about that. Why was she sad, and why was Mama with the angels? Was heaven a nicer place to be? It had to be better than this stuffy attic.

“Is she having fun with the angels? Will she be back soon?” I missed Mama. When she sang, her soft lyrical voice helped me sleep.

“She’s happy now. She can’t come back, but she is watching over you from heaven.”

At seven-years-old, I understood the concept of heaven, so I also understood what the nurse was trying to tell me. Mama had gone, leaving me alone with my sister.

I straightened my back and stood taller. “I’ll take care of my sister.”

“Good girl,” the nurse said approvingly. Then Verity began to cry. Small whimpers at first, which soon became increasingly desperate screams. Her little face turned purple, her screams echoing around the attic.

The nurse disappeared into the kitchen. A door slammed downstairs and my father’s voice roared. “Shut it up!”

I didn’t like it when he yelled. Mama always warned me to be quiet around him. She said he didn’t like noisy children. I wasn’t sure he liked anything or anyone, least of all me.

“Shush,” I said, reaching out to stroke the baby’s downy head, but she just cried harder and louder. So I tried singing, like Mama did for me. The words came easily. I figured that if the song Mama sang every night helped me sleep, it would do the same for my sister.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, furious screams turned to whimpers, and then silence. When I peered into the bassinet, my sister stared up at me, her dark lashes glistening with tears.

I knew then that the nurse was right.

My sister would need me. But that was OK. If Mama wasn’t here to take care of us any longer, then I’d be the one to keep the nightmares away.

Nothing had changed in the intervening years. Whatever lay ahead, Verity would always be my priority.

17

Thea

Rain fell in sheets, casting a gloomy pall over the dull green landscape. Ireland reminded me of Scotland, only less hilly. Here, at least. Whereverherewas.

Geography had never been my strong suit, but from what I could gather, the safe house was somewhere on the north-west coast. Not that I cared all that much. It wasn’t as if I’d be staying long.

If my father was still alive, he’d be searching for me. Torrance, too. From what little Kyril had told me, Dad had tried to marry me off to Konstantin Marku. For all I knew, I was now a married woman. I just wish I could remember.

I hoped not. I was too young to be a mafia wife. And make no mistake, Marku was very much of the era where wives never uttered a word unless spoken to first. No doubt my father had accepted a substantial payment for the hand of his daughter. Millions of euros, probably, plus all the additional benefits that came from a marriage alliance.

Knowing him, he was currently having an aneurysm at the loss of his cash cow.

Cows.Verity was his other chief asset. Young and a lot more pliable than me. Perfectly capable of giving some man a baby one day, even if the thought of my sister being treated like a broodmare made me feel ill.

Trees and dry stone walls flashed by as the SUV navigated the narrow lanes snaking between towering hedges and trees. Occasional flashes of a churning gray ocean caught my attention. It had been ages since I last saw the ocean, and despite the anxiety in my stomach, a small spark of excitement at the thought of wandering along a deserted beach dispelled the fog in my brain.

The SUV took a left turn down a narrow decline. I prayed we didn’t meet a coach of Japanese tourists coming in the other direction; there were no turnaround spaces.

The lane grew narrower and the hedges taller. Skeletal trees loomed over the SUV, blocking what little remained of the light, their naked branches clawing at the sky. I shivered. There was something sinister about this place; I half-expected goblins and leprechauns to leap out at us.

The rain eased off just as the sun broke through the clouds. The SUV slowed down and came to a crunching halt at a set of wrought-iron gates set between thick stone walls. I looked up to see a magnificent rainbow curved over a large house beneath tall trees. Beyond the house, waves pounded rocks as gulls wheeled in the sky above.

It was wildly beautiful. Nothing at all like the hot, dry vineyards and olive groves I had grown up surrounded by.

“Looks like we’re here,” Kyril announced, shoving his phone back into his pocket. The two guards standing at the entrance nodded at our driver and then the gate opened as if by magic. Our car and the two behind passed through and up a gently curving driveway.

We had arrived at our temporary sanctuary.

The moment the SUV stopped, the front door swung open and Eden flew out, her pink hair jarring against the monochrome walls of the house.

---