by Stella Hart
In fact, everyone else I could think of right now would think it was a crank call too. My story sounded completely insane. But there had to be someone who would listen…
“Henry Davenport.” I finally looked back up. “He… he’s a friend of mine. I don’t want to talk to anyone else. Not even my family.”
I didn’t actually know Mellie’s brother, but I had a feeling he might help me. He’d once tried to warn me about Mellie, after all. On top of that, he was the only person in the world who would immediately believe what I had to say, seeing as he’d gone through a similar nightmare with the secret society.
The chief picked up a pen and scribbled down the name. “Number?”
“I don’t remember it off the top of my head. But he lives here in Connecticut. If that’s even where we are.”
He nodded. “Yes, we are. I’ll try to track down your friend. You sit tight.”
He stood and left the room. Fifteen minutes passed. Then another five. I slowly sipped at the coffee and nervously twiddled my thumbs, waiting, waiting, waiting…
Black horror suddenly struck me, and my stomach dropped. I’d made a cataclysmic mistake. Mellie told me that Henry was always being tracked and monitored by Crown and Dagger to ensure he kept his mouth shut about them. That meant they were listening in on his phone calls too. As soon as the police called him and told him about me, the society would know exactly where I was.
Shit, shit, shit!
How could I be so stupid?
I ran out of the room, but I knew I was probably too late. Chances were high that they’d already called him. Still, I had to try and stop Henry from getting in trouble because of me. I could say I misspoke, and that I meant to give them a different name. Harry, not Henry. Something like that.
“Hello?” I headed back out to reception. There was no one there. I shouted louder. “Hello? Please, I got tongue-tied and said the wrong name! Not Henry Davenport. Harry. Harry Devon! I was just… I was confused!”
A door opened, and the chief appeared again, a frown on his face. “Miss Marris, please go back into the interview room. Everything is fine.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said the wrong name. Please don’t ask Henry to come here!”
“Calm down. I didn’t call him,” he said soothingly.
My shoulders slumped. Oh, thank god.
“Your father is coming to pick you up,” the chief went on.
My eyes widened. A cold black stone of pure fear dropped through my guts. “No!” I shook my head wildly. “Please, you can’t let my parents come here. It was their fault! They sold me to the society in the first place!”
“He’s already on his way. I know how confused you are, Miss Marris, but everything will be fine.”
I sank to the floor. “No, no, no!” I wailed. “You don’t know what you’ve done!”
“Trust me, I do. This is my job. Everything is going to be okay,” the chief replied in that annoyingly peaceful voice. He had no idea.
I decided to make a break for it. My father probably wouldn’t get here for at least an hour and a half, given how far away we were from the coastal city he lived in with my mother, so if I could get the hell out of this place and find a ride to another town, I could start over there. Find a smarter police chief. Not this idiot who’d found and contacted my fucking family against my will.
I got up and dashed toward the main station door. Then I froze in my tracks.
Through the glass, I could see that Tobias King had just exited a black car on the other side of the street. Now he was striding right toward the station.
My eyes wide as saucers, I turned to the police chief. “Ah, there he is. Right on time,” he said crisply, looking past me to the doors.
“Oh my god…” I shook my head wildly. “You… you’re in Crown and Dagger’s pocket! They pay you to take care of any escapees who show up, don’t they?”
He stepped over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said with a gentle smile. “There’s no such thing as Crown and Dagger. It’s just a silly urban myth. Tobias King is your father-in-law, and you’re simply confused.”
“You’re a monster,” I hissed, my lips trembling. “You’re supposed to protect people. Not hand them right back to fucking criminals!”
He didn’t respond. Instead he looked back over my shoulder and tilted his chin downward in a respectful nod.
The air around me suddenly seemed thick and volatile. Every hair on my neck stood up, and my blood ran cold. I turned around slowly. It felt like I was fighting my way through an acrid fog the whole time.
Tobias was right behind me, a mirthless smile on his face. “Hello, Tatum,” he said. “It’s so good to see you again…”
14
Tatum
“I’m not going with you,” I said, a tremor in my voice.
Tobias smiled. “Yes, you are. We’ll do it one of two ways. I have a needle in my pocket with a tranquilizer, and I can jab it in you and have my men carry you out unconscious. Or you can be a good girl and come quietly.”
I used to love it when Elias called me a good girl, but now that the words had left the lips of his evil father, they seemed tainted. Repellant.
He arched a thick brow when I didn’t respond. “So what will it be?”
I bit my bottom lip. I knew I was screwed. It was just a matter of which choice was worse for me.
I’d already been drugged by these Crown and Dagger assholes before, and there was nothing worse than waking up confused, sore and disoriented, then later terrified as the memories flooded back in. So as much as it pained me to agree to go with Tobias without making a scene, it was at least the better of the two options he’d presented me with.
“I’ll come quietly,” I murmured, my shoulders slumping with defeat.
“Good.” He put a hand on my upper back, pushing me toward the door. I turned my head to see one of his cronies handing a stuffed envelope to the police chief.
Unbelievable. Was there anywhere in the world that remained untouched by corruption?
Tobias pushed me into the back of the black car. Then he sat down on the same seat, by the opposite window. His upper lip curled in distaste as he looked at me. “If anyone at the Lodge asks you what happened, you will say you simply got lost on a walk and accidentally spent the night in the woods.”
I shrugged dejectedly. I doubted most people would bother asking anyway, and those who did would already know I was a captive who didn’t simply go for a walk. So what did it matter?
“You’re sick,” I muttered.
Tobias leaned over and grabbed my scarf, yanking me close to his livid face. “And you’re a stupid little cunt. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
I couldn’t help but let out a scoff. “Lucky? Are you kidding?”
He narrowed his pale, reptilian eyes. “I found out from Ms. Davenport that you gave Elias allergy medication. If it had been painkillers instead, I would’ve wrung your skinny little neck the second I saw you this morning.”
My brows furrowed. “Why?”
He let out a short, angry breath. “My son had some unfortunate mishaps with certain types of drugs when he was nothing more than a child. He doesn’t touch them at all anymore, just in case, but I know he has quite an addictive personality. So you’re damn lucky you didn’t give him anything stronger than Benadryl to knock him out, or there’d be hell to pay.”
“Seems like there will be anyway,” I said under my breath, trying to turn away.
He didn’t let me. He leaned even closer, fetid breath hot on my face. “The one thing you should know about Elias is that he eventually gets over all the things he finds himself fixated on. Right now, you’re it. But he’ll get over you too, and when that happens, you’ll be cast aside like the worthless garbage you are.”
I swallowed hard and pictured myself in a year or two, working as a maid at the Lodge after Elias had ditched me in favor of a new slave. I would nev
er be free from the place, so I would have to see him there with her all the time. Then the next ‘her’ once he grew tired of my replacement, and the one after that too. Forever.
Multiple waves of sadness and jealousy struck me at the mental image. I knew it wasn’t a normal response. I shouldn’t feel sad that my captor might no longer want me, and I definitely shouldn’t feel jealous at the idea of another woman being held captive by him. I should pity her.
Unfortunately, my brain clearly wasn’t normal, because I was jealous as hell. Seething, white-hot levels of jealous. The thought of seeing Elias put his hands or mouth on another girl made me want to scream and tear someone’s hair out, He might be my captor, but he was still mine.
I pinched myself, hard, trying to squash the wildly inappropriate thoughts. I had to stop having these feelings for Elias. Had to. I would never be able to concentrate on a proper escape if I kept this up. Leaving him behind was hard enough last night, so doing it again might be impossible if I didn’t take my feelings for him and lock them away.
But even as I thought it, I knew I was already a goner. I couldn’t fight my emotions any longer.
I knew that I’d started to develop feelings for Elias recently, but that was different. Those feelings were up in the air. Intangible, elusive. I was never quite sure what to make of them. Now they’d settled into a solid picture right here in front of me. Stark and crystal-clear. I didn’t want to start falling in love with him, but I was already well on my way…
I bit back a sob and looked out the window. I didn’t want Tobias to know the truth. Didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how I felt. He would only tell Elias, and then they’d laugh about it together. Laugh about how insane and pathetic I was.
As fond as he was of fucking me, he would never feel the same way about me.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the black iron gates of the Lodge. When we reached the main building, I wasn’t let inside. Instead, Tobias and two of his men escorted me around to one side of the mansion. One of them opened some sort of trapdoor near a stone wall, and then Tobias pushed me forward, down a series of old stone steps. The other guard picked up a torch and set it aflame with a cigarette lighter, leading the way.
“Where are we going?” I asked, my voice shaky again.
“Shut your mouth, slut,” Tobias replied. “You don’t get to ask questions anymore.”
The temperature dropped as we descended beneath the mansion, sending a violent shiver down my spine. Without the guard leading us, it would be pitch black. Our vision was confined entirely to the circle of flickering yellow and orange light cast by the torch.
We kept walking, heading further down. We were in a narrow tunnel now, jagged stone teeth hanging from the shadows above. The light went out for a second, plunging us all into black, and the guard cursed. My hands shook. The darkness was like an invisible force-field, crushing my chest, squeezing the life out of me.
The guard managed to get the torch lit again, and Tobias pushed me forward. Small, loose stones littered this part of the tunnel, causing me to stumble.
“Stupid girl,” he muttered. As if it wasn’t his fault.
As we headed further into the subterranean maze, winding our way into a different passage, the light from the flickering flame showed frigid pools of inky black water on either side of us. I could also hear flowing water up ahead, turbid and splashing somewhere along the walls.
A huge arched doorway came into view, carved out of pale gray stone with intricate ornaments sculpted along the top. The air grew colder as we approached and entered, stepping into a dim chamber.
“Stop,” Tobias muttered to me.
The guards went ahead of us, lighting sconce torches along the walls, bathing the entire cavern in a yellow glow as they glittered against the stone like sparkling jewels. If I wasn’t so scared, I would’ve gasped in amazement at the sight before me.
We were in an enormous grotto with carved sculptures lining the edges. Directly ahead of us was an underground lake with small streams flowing in or out from natural entrances along the smooth stone walls. The murky water rippled in the firelight.
Around the lake was a wide stone walkway which led in a circle around the chamber, and in the middle was a tiny island, so small it probably couldn’t fit more than ten people if they were all lying down back-to-back. There was also a carved bridge leading over the lake to the island from where we were standing.
In the center of the island was a black coffin.
All the air went out of my lungs. When I was brought back to the Lodge in one piece, I thought I would just be punished. It hadn’t occurred to me that this might be an execution. Really, I should’ve known. Mellie once told me that none of the girls who attempted to escape in past years had survived.
I fell to my knees, pathetically clutching at Tobias. “Please don’t kill me,” I begged.
A savage flash shot across his eyes. “After all the shit you’ve pulled, there’s nothing I want more. Unfortunately, my son would very much like to keep you around for now.”
For now.
I screamed as the two guards returned and hauled me across the bridge. One of them held me still as the other opened the coffin lid. Behind us, I could hear Tobias crossing the bridge.
“Tie her wrists and ankles before you do it,” he commanded.
The guard who’d opened the lid pulled two black ropes from his pocket and made quick work of tying me up. Then he and his colleague picked me up and put me inside the coffin.
“Hopefully the time you spend in here will be enough to make you realize how lucky you’ve been so far,” Tobias said, eyes glittering with malice as he looked down at me. “Oh, and by the way—don’t try to move. You might just manage to make the coffin roll all the way into the water, and you’ll sink to the bottom of the lake, however far down that may be. No one’s ever checked, but we know it’s deep. Eventually, the water will leak through the cracks near the hinges, and you’ll drown before my men manage to get you out.”
He waved a hand, and then the lid came crashing down. My world turned pitch black.
I gulped down deep, panicky breaths, already feeling like I was suffocating even though the logical side of me knew I wouldn’t run out of air. There were cracks near the lid hinges, like Tobias said. Enough oxygen would make its way in here, even if I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest.
Trying to stay still was absolute hell. The more I tried to concentrate on keeping my arms and legs motionless, the more they inadvertently twitched and trembled, even with the ties around my wrists and ankles. I had nightmarish visions of the coffin tipping into the lake and slowly filling up with dark water, visions of myself waiting to die.
I knew Tobias was a sadistic bastard. He would probably keep me in here for hours. I couldn’t sleep to pass the time, as exhausted as I was, because if I did I might roll around without even knowing it. The idea of waking up underwater filled me with yet more dread and terror.
I concentrated on getting my breathing under control instead. Slow, steady. Calm.
Then I tried to keep track of the minutes, timing them in my mind. One-Mississippi. Two-Mississippi. Three, four, five, all the way to sixty. I repeated that four more times.
God, that was just five minutes. I was already so bored that my eyelids were drooping.
Don’t go to sleep. Don’t even close your eyes.
I tried a new tack. Instead of counting out the seconds, I thought about my next move. Clearly, the forest escape plan was a bad one, and I was lucky to be alive after being caught. It seemed obvious to me now that all the towns surrounding the Lodge would have police departments in Crown and Dagger’s pocket, just in case. I should’ve already guessed that.
Still, I was undeterred. I wanted freedom, craved it like my lungs craved air.
Tobias and his men obviously thought I would be tired of fighting after stuffing me in this box. Broken, beaten. They thought I’d give up, but all they were r
eally doing was making me even more determined to get out of this hellhole and expose them to the world.
Unbeknownst to them, I still had another trick up my sleeve.
My old tentative plan to suck up to the society and try to get voted in as a hostess for the next Artemis Festival was still on the table. The festival was coming up very soon, at the beginning of spring, so time wasn’t on my side, but I was still resolute. Tobias and Elias might not vote for me, but I could still try and make sure the other members did.
Whoever won me as the grand prize wouldn’t set me free, but he’d take me far away from this place, and wherever that was, it had to be better than here. Had to be easier to escape from. I wouldn’t stop trying, wouldn’t stop fighting.
And then, when I was finally free, I would make Crown and Dagger pay.
My blood felt like fire in my veins as I psyched myself up for the plan. As much as I’d succumbed to weakness after failing to escape in the past, I wouldn’t this time. I was done with that. Done with giving up and crying and going into dark places in my mind, the kind of places that tried to force me off cliffs just to end the pain. Never again. They could do whatever they wanted to me here, and I would only come out stronger each time. More hell-bent on revenge.
But I couldn’t let them know that. In order to be selected for the festival, I had to be memorable to every man here. I had to seem happy, like I’d finally accepted my place in the Lodge and learned to love it. I had to be subservient, obedient, welcoming. The perfect slave.
From now on, that would be me. I would be sweet and charming and smile invitingly at every member I saw, not just Elias. I would do things to get noticed by all of them in a positive way. I would say what they wanted to hear, do whatever they commanded, move the way they told me to move. Fight back by pretending not to fight. Pretend to be good, pretend to be happy, pretend to want every single man in this place. Tatum Marris, the perfect slave.