Page 38 of The Dark Rising
“And what would I get out of that?” I fold my arms, glowering at Leo.
“In this, I believe her.” Darius’s tone is firm, unmoving with an undertone of warning. For what, I’m not sure.
“This means the memory stone is wrong and it has been tampered with. The question is, how? Why? If we go through all that you had been accused of at Wolvorn Castle, we might be able to find out who has any reason to produce a crystal to make you look guilty,” Leo says.
I tilt my head. “I can tell you right now who would do that.”
“Who?” he demands.
“The Highers.” Silence. “More specifically Higher Charles, and then my family.”
Zaide grunts while Damian laughs through his words. “You’re joking right? Why in the Gods would the Highers care about you?”
“Isn’t Charles one of your guardians your parents chose for you? Along with Higher Warden?”
“Warden?” My brows pinch together. “I don’t even know who that is.” Then my lips peel back. “My parents choosing to have Charles as my guardian was a mistake, one we all paid the price for.”
“You’re going to have to explain this more,” Darius says. “We are trying to get the truth, no matter what it is. You have to give more than a few words as an answer.”
I tap my fingers along the table, wondering where to even begin. I don’t even want to do this, but we are here and what other choice do we have? Six people against the Highers and the Elites is suicide, never mind being the number one target in Vrohkaria, labeled as a traitor. If we can’t get them on our side all is lost. Even if it’s just to get Sarah, for now.
I’m not sure if us coming here was the right decision, but to gain their help, it has to be done. There is no one else.
“Charles was a very good friend of my parents. He’s been around for as long as I could remember. We all trusted him. My dad even helped him become a Higher.”
“He’s been a Higher for hundreds of years,” Darius points out.
“Then you know how long my parents’ friendship with him was. They didn’t know he would turn on them.”
“How?” Darius asks.
I sigh, looking down at the grain of the wooden table. “The Aragnis pack has produced Heirs for thousands of years, I’m told. My mom was an Heir, she had been for a long time, the longest that I know of any other. Before my seventh birthday, I went outside to play in the woods behind our house like I usually did, collecting lesia flowers as I went. But this time, I overheard something I shouldn’t have,” I choke out, the memories threatening to pull me under. I clear my throat. “Two people were in the woods, hidden by their cloaks. They said it was time to get to my mom, that it was time to act now. I didn’t understand but I ran. I was scared. I ran back home but they heard me and chased me. They knew I had overheard what they were discussing. I only got away because a wolf came out of the trees, it let me run past it, not interested in me whatsoever. Instead, it went toward those I was running from, enabling me to get home and tell my mom what I heard.”
No one speaks, and I look up. Darius stills, his eyes sharp as he tilts his head at me. The look on his face is indescribable as he’s lost in thought, his eyes clouded.
“Heirs are born as pups,” Zaide questions, and I shake my head and shrug.
“I wasn’t.” I continue on through their confused looks. “A few nights later, Charles came with both Highers and Elites. My dad hadn’t come home yet, which was unlike him. Mom and I tried to fight them off, but there were too many, they were too strong. I was only a child. I was eventually knocked unconscious as they dragged my mom away from me, and I woke up in my basement. Alone. Inside a cage of iron, infused with terbium.”
My pack shifts uncomfortably next to me, and Colten reaches out and squeezes my hand on the table. I squeeze it back before moving away.
“In your home?” Zaide grunts.
I nod, my eyes still on Darius’s now darkened ones. “I don’t need to tell you what happened down there. You have all seen my body, how being in a cage with terbium didn’t let me heal properly and caused the scars you all saw.” I swallow audibly. “If the cage would have just been iron, I wouldn’t have a mark on me, but they didn’t want that, or how quickly an Heir heals.” My vision wavers and I blink rapidly to clear it. “What I will tell you, is that Higher Charles, and a few Elites and members of my family, were involved. I was trapped in my basement, never once being able to leave until Josh found me and helped me escape, just before my eighteenth birthday.”
“But why would they do that?” Leo asks, a horrified look on his face, and Damian looks down at the table, a frown on his face.
I stare into the fireplace across the room, my words detached. “I was the daughter of an Heir, I was to be the next Heir. They were waiting for the moment of my eighteenth birthday when my markings would appear, as they knew I would fully come into my powers. They taunted me about my mom’s death, along with my dad’s, blaming it on me because I overheard them planning to take my mom.” I look back at Darius, trying to hide the pain in my eyes, knowing I’m unsuccessful. “I wasn’t lying when I told you my family was stolen from me. It was always going to happen eventually, but I sped up their plans with what I overheard. I spent many years in…trainingdown there,“ I spit, gritting my teeth. “Them preparing me to obey their every command, to ready myself to be bred to create powerful children for their use. Or more specifically, Charles’s use.”
Darius stands suddenly, his chair crashing to the floor as his brows pinch together. I stare at him in shock at the sudden movement, apprehension swirling in my stomach. Then I squeeze my eyes shut at the onslaught of bullshit that I know he’s about to throw at me for mylies. I wait for the words, wait for any hope of getting Sarah back to go up in flames.
It never comes though, just eerie, tense silence. I peel my eyes open slowly, and watch in confusion as he starts to pace, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. I look at his men and they watch him with wide eyes, clearly not knowing what’s up with him either.
“Continue,” Darius demands, his voice barely above a growl, the deepest I have ever heard it.
I move my hands to my thighs, digging them into my legs as I wet my lips. “I was to lay on my back for as long as he saw fit. Patrick, my cousin, was to do the honors of breaking me in, tearing through my virginity to ease Charles’s access into me.” A shiver travels down my spine at the thought. “It was one of his rewards for his help in training me, he got to be the one to use me first. He loved to tell me all the ways he would use, abuse, and break my body. The perfect little plaything. He had waited years to be able to shove his disgusting dick inside of me. He wasn’t allowed until I was eighteen. Didn’t stop him from using my mouth though.” I ignore the way my voice shakes, the way my body starts to tremble, but they wanted to know. So here we are, listing to poor Rhea’s fucking sob story, just so I can help Josh, my brother who just hurt me, get his mate back. The pain of it all is welcomed now, maybe it will swallow me and I can never feel it again.
“Rhea?” Colten asks, his voice full of sadness and I blink slowly, turning my head toward him. Hudson rests a hand on his thigh, and I see him grab it tightly, his knuckles white.
