Page 125 of Madness Behind the Mask
Her words slap me across the face. My entire world feels like it’s collapsing, a star going out, a species at its end. “Who’she, Delilah?” I ask, my own panic rising as the baby is –wasa girl. “Delilah, who is he!” I scream it this time, needing to know who else I’m about to lose.
I lift my head to peer down the road in the direction Caden just left in and catch sight of a vehicle stopping in front of our house. It’s a two-tone van, thetophalf of it white.
“No,” I whisper even as I keep pushing healing magic into Delilah’s body, trying to fix what I can’t. “No.”
“He’s dead,” she cries. “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.”
The delivery man gets out of the driver’s seat. He goes around to the back, pulls out a cardboard box, and heads up our drive.
“No.”
Flashes of Leon’s body slam into me, and I fall away from Delilah, my own grief making me forget hers. “No.”
The man starts to walk up our drive, not seeming to care that Delilah’s still screaming bloody murder. That I’m on my knees, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. He just puts theblood-stainedbox down in front of me, thengoes to hisvan to get another one.
And another.
And another.
“Mrs. Shadow?” the man says, smiling at me, his eyes vacant but bloodshot, some sort ofmagicaldrug coursing through his veins. “I just need you to sign here.”
He holds out a pen and pad to me.
“He’s dead!” Delilah wails, and I finally know who ‘he’ is. There aren’t any official labels on the boxes. Someone just popped them into his van this morning,right after they forced him to take a Mad Hatter – one of our potions that will make a person be more open to suggestions. Like delivering blood-stained boxes and not seeing anything wrong with it.A delivery of the stuff got intercepted by the Blood Fangs last week...
“Mrs. Shadow?”
Numb, I take the pen and mark a line, not bothering to properly sign it. But that’s all he needs, all he’s been told to get, and he turns on his heels and leaves.
“Has she lost the baby?”someone asks, but I don’tlook upto see whoit is. His voice is fuzzyand far away, unable to properly pierce the fog choking meas I stare at the three cardboard boxes.
Jonathan is dead. My firstborn has once again been stolen from me. Byhim.
“Has she lost the baby?”Those words float around my head again, having run a lap and come back, flashing in their importance.“Has she lost the baby?”
My head snaps up. I’m on my feet, my heart lodged in my throat. Bonnie is now my firstborn, and she’s a girl. Just like I am.
I run past the boxes and down the drive, not caring that the pavement hurts my bare feet. My daughter’s life is in danger because she has a younger brother. Because she’s a girl standing in front of a male getting the throne. And they’ll kill Molly too – anything to ‘break the curse’ thatcomes from having twosets offemale firstborns.
It’s been twelve years,I want to cry. Iwas able to keep them safe for twelve years, and now I’m losing them all at once.
No. No, I won’t. I’ll get there in time. I’ll get them to pack a bag.They’ll live a life on the run, but they’re both infertile, so maybe that’ll keep them safe. Keep them from being hunted in fights for whose offspring is the true heir. Ryo can marry and continue the line. My two girls can be left alone. They canlive. They can live.
“Molly!” I scream as I bang on her door. It swings open under my fist, terrifying me. She always locks her door. “Molly!”
I run inside, dashing through the house even as a little voice tells me to give up, to go checkBonnie’sbefore it’s too late for her too. Caden is away. I was preoccupied. Any witch worried about the curse would strike hard and fast before either girl could get away.
But I can’t abandon one child over another.
I can’t be asked to choose.
So I run through the house until I find her still in bed, her throat slit, her eyes closed. I rush forward with white light flowing from my hands, but I can’t bring back the dead. I can’t restart her heart and get her breathing again.
Asking for her forgiveness for abandoning her, I race out of the house and down the street toBonnie’s.
I’m too late for her too.
Her throat is slit just like her sister’s, but her eyes are open and her body is crumbled on the floor in the kitchen. They came up behind her and killed her before sheknew they were there.
