by Penelope Sky
I ran faster, pulled out the knife Raven gave me, and did the bravest thing I’d ever done.
I jumped on him too—and killed him.
I killed someone.
There was no hesitation as I slammed the knife into his back, into his legs, any piece of flesh I could find. All I cared about was my sister, and I would kill anyone who got in between us.
He collapsed, his blood spilling out into the snow.
I dropped the knife, looked at my red hands, and felt disoriented from all the blood. “Raven, are you okay?”
She was already on her feet, sprinting to a collapsed cabin. “Help me!” She stuck her bare hands into the fire and tried to lift the burning wood. Her palms immediately pulled away at the heat, but she tried again anyway.
If she was willing to burn her own hands, someone important was underneath. I rushed to her aid and did the same, grinding my teeth as we lifted the heavy piece of wood a little higher, revealing Magnus underneath.
But the two of us weren’t strong enough.
“Bethany, please.” Raven turned to the blonde who had helped me take down the executioner.
She took one look at Magnus, not showing an ounce of pity.
Raven’s hands were nearly on fire, but she didn’t drop the wood.
I had to pull my hands away because it was too much. I could smell my own burning flesh.
But Raven held her position without me. “Please, Bethany. Please…not him.”
Bethany still looked uncooperative, but she did it anyway.
The three of us lifted the wood off Magnus and pushed it aside.
Bethany and I immediately shoved our hands into the snow to cool the burns to our flesh.
Raven ignored the agony and hooked her arms underneath Magnus and dragged him away from the building, across the snow, and to safety.
Bethany pulled her hands out of the snow, rubbed them together, and then turned to me. “We’ve got to run now. They’re coming.”
I nodded.
She ran for it.
I lingered behind, watching Magnus rise to his feet and scream at Raven. “I fucking saved you!”
I ran to Raven on the ground and pulled her up by the hand. “Come on! We gotta go.”
Magnus was livid, his anger brighter than the flames destroying the cabins that had once surrounded us. “Run…before I kill you.”
She finally ran with me, her hand in mine, and didn’t look back.
We made it back to Paris.
Bethany was with us, packed in the car with a couple other girls we could fit. Everyone else had run, waved down cars on the road, took different routes through the countryside so the guards couldn’t hunt them down.
That part of the exodus wasn’t organized because we didn’t have the resources of the police, so we’d just hoped for the best.
We returned to the apartment, Bethany with us, and it was strange to be back in the living room after everything that had just happened. The burning cabins were still in my eyes. My hands still ached as if they were on fire. The fear and anxiety were just as paramount.
I wondered if Fender knew yet.
Would Magnus tell him the truth…that it was Raven?
Would he tell him I was there?
When Bethany stepped into the apartment, she had a breakdown. She fell to her knees and sobbed, touching the rug under her fingertips to make sure it was real, her tears making stains on the cream color.
Raven kneeled beside her and rubbed her back. “I know…I know.” She got choked up too.
It was impossible not to.
After Bethany took the day to get back on her feet, we helped her reunite with her mother and daughter. They lived outside Paris, in a little town in a small cottage. Raven used the last bit of her savings to rent a car and take her there.
We walked with her to the door, watched it open, and then saw the way her mother looked at her.
It was the same way my mother used to look at me.
The way Raven had looked at me when she saw me at the top of the stairs.
They hugged, cried, and then the sweetest little girl came down the hallway. “Mommy?”
Bethany fell to her knees and cried harder than she had in our living room. “Oh, baby…”
It’d been days since we burned the camp to the ground.
Raven and I didn’t talk much about it.
Like we were waiting for the repercussions.
We didn’t run because we had no money and nowhere to go.
And Raven was convinced the guards hadn’t seen our faces, that Magnus was the only one who knew. “He wouldn’t say anything.” She sat on the couch, her eyes out the window more than on the TV.
I was in the corner of the other couch, my knees pulled to my chest, watching the rain pelt the windows. “He looked pretty pissed off, Raven.”
“I know…but he wouldn’t.” Her face was permanently somber now, the high of liberation gone the second we’d left Bethany behind. Once the action and excitement were over, she was filled with sadness. Maybe even a little guilt. “He…wouldn’t.”
“Even if you’re right, there’s only one person who could have done it.” Fender would figure it out even if Magnus lied. I was the only other free person who had escaped the camp, and I certainly wouldn’t have done that alone.
She stared at the TV with a blank face. “The camp doesn’t exist. The girls are free. The drug enterprise doesn’t exist. There’s nothing for them anymore. They’ll move on.”
I knew Fender better than anyone. “He’ll want revenge.” And I wouldn’t be able to protect her this time.
“Then he can come and get it,” she whispered. “I have no regrets—and I never will.”
Four
Disloyal to Loyalty
Fender
In the center of the bed, I lay still.
The fire had died out, my bedroom engulfed in shadow.
My eyes were on the ceiling, the chandelier that was twenty feet above me, the crystal having a faint shine from the lights coming in from the property outside. Sleep was a luxury I didn’t enjoy anymore, no matter how hard I worked, how hard I drank.
My phone rang on the nightstand.
I almost didn’t answer it because this cloud of indifference hit me right in the heart. But I reached for it and answered in silence.
Chaos was loud over the line. Screams. Orders being barked out. “Stop them!”
I sat up. “What the fuck is going on?”
It was Karl, not Magnus. “We’ve been hit. Camp is on fire. The girls are loose.” He was out of breath, like he was running from something that very moment. “We can’t save the cabins. They’re all torched.”
I jumped out of bed and grabbed my clothes. “Where’s Magnus?”
“No one’s seen him…”
My heart fell into my stomach, picturing him burned alive in his cabin that he couldn’t escape because he was trapped. “Who…the fuck…did this?” I’d take my men and hit them now. Kill them, their entire family, and destroy any legacy they could have had. My jacket was thrown on, and I was out the door and marching to war.
He hesitated, as if he didn’t want to say. “The girl…”
I halted at the second landing and looked down at the foyer, where she’d stood just weeks ago, twisting an invisible knife into my brother’s back to get what she wanted. Gilbert ran into the foyer because he must have heard me, his hair messy, dressed in his pajamas.
“Sir?” he asked, half asleep. “What’s happening? I’ll get the car…” He sprinted outside and shouted to one of the men.
The blood that pounded in my head began to pound everywhere, a headache for my entire body. My heart pumped as hard as it could, giving me every ounce of blood I would need for what I was about to do. My fingers squeezed so tightly that I nearly crushed the phone. “I’m on my way.”
I got there in record time, but it didn’t make a difference.
Every single cabin had been destroyed.
&
nbsp; There was hardly any snow because it had melted from the heat of the fires. The piles of wood still burned gently because there was still more destruction to be had. The drugs had been destroyed. The clearing was unrecognizable. The camp had once been an organized congregation of cabins and civilization.
Now it was just a pile of garbage.
The only building that was spared was the stable.
Horses were fine.
The men grabbed what women they could and sent them off to our headquarters to hold in the meantime. But we’d lost over half of our labor. We’d lost a quarter of the guards in the fire.
And we lost every single ounce of the drugs.
I walked through the rubble, passed the men who’d stayed and waited for my arrival. Some of them rummaged in the cabins to see if anything could be salvaged. Others were being treated by the doctor, their broken arms wrapped in casts. Soot was all over their faces, burns on their skin.
They all looked at me as I made my entrance to the camp, aware of my presence the second I left my horse.
But my eyes were on only one man. Like the aim of a sniper, my eyes pierced his skin like fucking bullets. My gait quickened the closer I came, rage taking over my body, my mind fading because reason lost all control.
He watched me approach, his eyes strong but his posture weak, like he knew what was coming and accepted it. He had a few scratches and marks on his face, but other than that, he looked perfectly fine.
He shouldn’t be fine.
When I made it to him, I stopped and stared. My jaw trembled uncontrollably because I was just so angry, so angry that there wasn’t enough room inside my body to contain it all. I felt the headache pounding in my temples because the fury hadn’t calmed once since I’d gotten that goddamn phone call. Tendons stretched in my hands, my flexed muscles pulled on all my bones, and I resisted the very real temptation to kill him. “Everything I built is ash—because of you.”
His face tinted red because of his own anger, his eyes penetrating with rage, just as angry as I was that she did this.
“The cabins. The drugs. The men. Because of you.” I got in his face. “Because you helped her. You didn’t just humiliate yourself. You humiliated me.” I inhaled a deep breath and kept my hands to myself even though I actually wanted to kill the only family I had left. “You lied to me—for someone who turned around and stabbed you in the back the second she had the opportunity.
His breathing intensified, like my speech angered him even more.
“She will pay for this—”
“Kill her.” He said it with such conviction, spit flying from his mouth.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than killing her, but that wasn’t an option. “You will rebuild this camp, with your own money, and it will be better than it was before. You will pay me for everything I lost. I will bring that cunt back here to work for the rest of her life…since she loves it so much.”
The vein in his forehead popped, like her servitude wasn’t enough for what she’d done.
Even in my rage, I pitied him. Because I knew exactly how it felt to trust a woman—and have her turn on you the second the opportunity presented itself. To lie beside her every night and believe it meant something, and then for her to turn around and bite you like a fucking snake. His humiliation and pain seemed like enough punishment. His hatred was enough to make him forget about this woman who didn’t deserve his obsession in the first place.
But I had to punish him. “The only reason I will spare your life is because you’re my brother—and I haven’t forgotten what that means to us. You’ve been disloyal to me, but my loyalty to you continues. I hope this moment has taught you a lesson that you’d obviously forgotten.”
He dropped his gaze for the first time—ashamed.
“But I have to punish you. I wouldn’t respect myself if I didn’t.”
He looked at me again, facing it head on.
I pulled out my knife then nodded to my guards. “Hold him down.”
The guards were eager to force him into the chair, one of the few things that had survived the fire, and restrained his hands.
Magnus didn’t fight. A calm defeat was in his gaze.
I held my knife at the ready. “Drop his pants.”
Surprise and fear moved into his gaze when he realized what was about to happen, the punishment we reserved for the worst betrayals. But he still didn’t fight. He breathed harder and let them reveal his nudity.
I stepped forward, and with a straight face, I held the knife to the flesh.
He breathed harder and harder, but he refused to look weak.
I looked at him before I sliced through the skin. “You can thank her for this next time you see her.”
Five
A Promise Kept
Melanie
As the months passed, life became more normal.
I worked as a barista in a coffee shop, and even though I was bad at my job, the manager didn’t fire me. My salary wasn’t much, but it was enough to cover half the rent, along with food and utilities.
I never officially asked if I could be her roommate. It was just unspoken. After being apart from each other for so long, I couldn’t imagine us wanting to be apart ever again. Raven went on a few dates, but I didn’t.
It just…didn’t feel right.
I thought about him often, wondering if someone had replaced me in his bed, if he was back to his French whores.
I wondered if he still thought about me. Often. Occasionally. Or not at all.
I expected retribution for what we’d done, but as the weeks trickled by, I started to wonder if it was really over. The camp was destroyed. The girls were free. It was too much work to start the business up again, so they must have chosen to retire.
I couldn’t picture a man like Fender retiring.
Raven walked through the door after work, carrying a bag of takeout. “Hungry?”
No. “Sure.” I left the couch and joined her at the kitchen island. We grabbed utensils and napkins then ate across from each other. “So, how’d your date go the other night?” We lived together, but there were times when we didn’t see each other because of our work schedules.
She shrugged. “Eh.”
“Eh doesn’t sound good.”
“There was just no chemistry.” She sliced her fork into the lasagna and scooped it into her mouth.
I pushed my food around with my fork, still missing the food from the palace even though I’d left months ago. Food never tasted as good. Wine was never strong enough. My bed was never warm. Arousal was never the same either. Attractive men hit on me at the café all the time, but their numbers were always tossed into the wastebin.
“You haven’t dated at all.” She took a bite then watched me as she chewed.
Like a deer in the headlights, I froze. Accusation blanketed me, like she was trying to make a point. My eyes moved down to my food, and I sliced my fork through the layers of pasta, sauce, and cheese. “Yeah, I…” My voice drifted away when I heard the sound of heavy footfall against the hardwood in the hallway.
Raven turned at the sound, the noise immediately triggering the same memories that jumped into my mind. Even though we had been in different cabins, we’d experienced the same terror, the sound of those heavy boots approaching the front door.
I held my breath and waited for the boots to move past our door.
But they stopped right outside, the shadow of the feet visible in the crack underneath the door.
Raven immediately spun and pulled out two knives from the drawer. One was slid across the surface of the counter to me. “Just like you did with the executioner, alright?”
I gripped the knife and nodded, but I was terrified, just like I had been on that cold night.
Raven grabbed my hand and pulled me behind the kitchen island so they wouldn’t see us.
They tried the knob discreetly, and then the knob turned slightly and shifted, like they were picking it the way Raven had done in the
camp.
My heart pounded. The anxiety hit. But I gripped the knife tighter because I knew it would be either them or us—and it wouldn’t be us.
The door opened, and their boots stepped inside. There were three of them, as far as I could tell. One gave orders in French before the other two scattered, searching for us throughout the apartment.
I peeked around the corner at the door, hoping we could sneak out of the apartment. But the guy remained in place, blocking our exit. Raven moved around me then inched around the kitchen island, getting closer and closer to him so she could lunge out and catch him off guard.
I held my knife at the ready.
She went for it and slammed her blade into his stomach.
“Ahh! Bitch!”
I sprinted around the island and jumped on him, stabbing him just the way I did with the executioner. He collapsed to the floor in a bloody mess while the other two ran to us.
“Go!” Raven shoved me out the door.
I fell but quickly got to my feet, leaving the blade behind. But then I stopped.
Two men were stationed at each end of the hallway.
Raven knocked into me and grabbed my hand to prepare to run. But when she saw what we were up against, she stilled.
The two men stepped over their dead comrade and walked into the apartment, yelling in French.
We shouldn’t have gone back to the camp.
It was a mistake—a big fucking mistake.
Raven held on to me, protecting me even though there was nothing she could do.
The men marched toward us and grabbed Raven first. “Fucking cunt.” They shook her by the arms then threw her down. “You thought we wouldn’t come for you?” He pressed a boot to her back. “Tie up this bitch.”
Ropes were bound around her wrists, right there in the middle of the hallway, like they didn’t care if they were seen by anybody.
I lowered myself to the floor and lay beside her, knowing a fight was pointless so I should just cooperate.