Page 64 of Madness Behind the Mask
“Then let’s talk business,” I say, my tone flat beneath my smile. I have been waiting a long time to finally kill off the Shadow Domain and take control of St. Augustine. The Death Hunt are mostly concerned with the witches’ downfall rather than spreading their own territory, and I am certain after the Shadows go, I’ll be able to wipe them out too.Butat the moment, I have been flat-out ignoring them. The enemy of my enemy, and all…
But with the corkedvial of liquidCara Jervis fishes out of her robes –a clear, crystal white, best described like captured light to thosewhocan’t see magic– the game is about to change in our favor.
“Thirty-nine thousand,” she says as she offers it to me, dropping fromthefortyI offeredto show she values our future relationship...but without giving up too much.
My smile for the first time tonight turns genuine – a predatory sneer as I take the vial from her hands.
“Thirty-nine thousand, sixteen hours, and a hundred dead.” As I lift my eyes to hers, she shivers.
Twenty-Four
HER
14AUGUST1947
My eyes are so heavy, they feel as if they will tear if I even try to open them. With them swollen from tears thick with grief and caked to my cheeks with what feels like cement, I keep them closed as I wake from a fitful sleep.
If you can even call it sleep.
I don’t feel refreshed despite the strong light in the room telling me that I’ve been out for at least a few hours. I assume it’s the sun, but I guess someone could have turned my light on.
My chest tightens with both hate and love.
Love that someonemight haverealized I didn’t want to be alone in the dark.
Hate that I am so grief strickenasto need a light on.
But in the dark, all Iend upseeingare the shadows that took my daughter.
My shadows...
Myfamily’sshadows...meaningDavid’sshadows.
And although Caden assured me my uncle didn’t touch her, a horrible weight settles in my stomach at the thought of any part of him being near her sweet innocence. He might not have raped her, but he did me.
The knowledge of that has the weight in my stomach seeping into my mouth, making my tongue thick and heavy, my throat constricting at the memory of his cum sliding down my throat. I trusted him… I thought he loved me, that he was teaching me to be a good wife because he cared. But in truth, he was forcing a secret of sin down my throat, and I’m not quite sure what disgusts me more. The fact that he never loved me or my dumb naivety.
The door of my room opens before I can decide, and I know it is Caden who enters despite my eyes being shut.His presence soothes me, and I whimper softly in my need for him to hold me.
He moves to my side immediately, crawling into bed as he wraps me in his arms.
I cling to him as I shake, remembering how cold Olivia was when last I held her. So stiff. So still…Not giggling like she used to whenever I visited her in the nursery. Not staring at me with wide beautiful eyes that radiated so much happiness.
Just gone.
I hope she found comfort in Myers arms’ in her final moments.
I hope she looked at his face and didn’t die afraid.
I hope it wasn’t painful.
Shuddering, I heave and sob as I cry for her all over again. The well of grief is so deep inside me, I feel like I will never know anything other than this pain.
It fills every atom of my existence, weighs it down with a suffocationthat squeezes every ounce of life from my bones.
I am so desperate to take her place.
I am her mother.
