Page 68 of His to Keep

“C-Callum,” I whimper, seeing Father Aaron rise and running straight at us. “Look out!”

Father Aaron catapults himself at Callum. Flipping over, I claw at the ground to get away from them as they fight and thrash on the floor. When I hear a yell, I turn back, relieved that Callum has gained the upper hand. With his hands around his father’s throat, Callum leans over him and squeezes his neck. From inside the house is a scream.Penny.

“Wh—where’s Penny?” Father Aaron gasps. “What did you do?”

“Shut up.”

Father Aaron grins cruelly. “You’re…really going to leave…your own mother to burn?”

“She isnotmy mother!” he yells at him as Penny’s screams for help wail from the house. Callum squeezes his eyes shut, sweat dripping from his forehead. “She…she was going to. I just wanted to get her to stop. She tried to kill me!”

“And now you’re killing her.” Father Aaron laughs. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“I’mnothinglike you!”

“Callum, no!” I scream when he lets go of Father Aaron and runs back to the house where Penny’s screams have gotten worse. Fire licks the doorway now, and when I glance up, the whole house is covered in flames.

It’s impossible. There’s no way he can go in there to get her. That’s why he stops on the porch because he knows it too. But his lapse in judgment gives enough time for Father Aaron to get up. With a devilish glint in his eye, he charges Callum, who hasn’t realized.

Father Aaron’s going to push him inside.There’s no time to yell or warn him. Grabbing a long shard of glass from the ground beside me, I run after Father Aaron just as he grabs Callum’s shoulder. Attempting to use his weight to push him into the fire waiting inside the house. Callum captures the door frame just in time, and I let out a scream as I drive the glass into the back of Father Aaron’s neck. He grunts. The glass slices my own hand as I push it in further, and he gurgles. It allows Callum to grab and whirl him around, flinging him inside where the inferno happily engulfs him. And just like that, he’s gone.

Father Aaron is dead.

Grabbing my wrist, Callum drags me down the steps, and we run. The cool, smoky breeze hits me as our feet pound the dirt until we can’t anymore and collapse on the grass a little away from the fire.

Breathing heavily, Callum rolls onto his back, black hair clinging to his forehead from blood and sweat. A sheen of moisture gathers in his eyes as he stares up at the sky, and my bottom lip shakes.

“Callum.” I crawl to him and grab the sides of his face, smearing some of my blood on his skin. “Are you okay?”

“She wouldn’t stop,” he whispers, wisps of smoke coming from his breath. “I-I lost it. I pushed her, and she fell down the stairs. I just wanted to get to you. I didn’t mean—”

He’s talking about Penny.

“She deserved it,” I say, surprised by the ferocity in my voice. I don’t sound like me. Am I callous now? She was his mother and a victim in her own right. But I won’t forget her helping Father Aaron to rape Maisie and me. “She deserved to die in that house with him.” He turns his head away, but I drag him back. “Look at me.” He does, eyes locking with mine for the first time. “It wasn’t your fault. You saved my life.”

“With consequences. You can’t come with me, Ava. We can’t have a life together.”

“Wh—what do you mean?” Tears tumble down my face from his words. “You’re…breaking up with me?” I wince from the stupidity of how it sounds, knowing I shouldn’t even call it that.

“There are things I had to do, things you don’t know about, to get you out. And you’ll hate me for what I’ve done.”

“What are you talking about?” I never imagined, after listening to his plan about murdering his father and escaping, would involve losing him in the process. He nearly died, and now he’s saying we can’t be together? My chest tightens, and I suddenly can’t breathe. I have no one else but him.

“There was a problem with our plan, and that was John. I knew it all along; I just didn’t tell you because it’d distract what you needed to do. I couldn’t take them both on if it came to it.” My head shakes, and I’m confused at what he’s trying to say. “I went to his room. Maisie was there. He saw the knife in my hand and asked if I was going to kill him. I told him only if he got in my way. He said that he was bored, bored of serving my father who had promised so much but failed to give, and knew I’d eventually snap and kill them all. He bargained with me. Promised if I let him live, he’d leave, and I wouldn’t see him again. He’d give me money and leave the door and gate open so we could get out if we succeeded, and he wouldn’t tell the Brotherhood. He wouldn’t tell them aboutyou, under the condition that I leave Maisie with him.”

Eyes widening, I let go of him to put my hand over my mouth.

Oh God.

“Y-you—”

“I left her there.” Clenching his teeth, he sits up so I can no longer see his face. “I understand if you hate me, but my loyalty was to you, and I couldn’t save her. Not when you’re all I care about.”

“John murdered her. In the worst way. You knew he would, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I told you about him, remember? He’s a psychopath, Ava.”

“And you left her. You lethimlive!”

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