Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I want to make a toast,” my mother says, raising her glass of wine. She looks at Brom and smiles at him warmly. “I want to say how absolutely wonderful it is for you to be back in Sleepy Hollow, Brom. And not only that, but to be attending the institute. I know the school was never on your agenda growing up, but now that it is, I’m sure we can all agree that it makes a lot of sense.”
I snort at that, and my mother looks at me sharply. Brom’s brows nearly disappear into his hairline.
“Katrina?” my mother says testily. “Did you want to add something?”
I exchange a look with Famke, who just gives a barely noticeable shake of her head before hurrying to the kitchen.
“I find your choice of words amusing,” I say before having a sip of my red wine. “Because absolutely nothing about all of this makes any sense. And you know it. You all know it!”
“Kat,” Brom says in his gruff, quiet voice, his expression telling me not to rock the boat. But I’m sick of how everyone is acting like all of this is normal.
“What? None of this is normal!” I cry out, ignoring him. “Brom has been gone for four years, and he doesn’t remember a single thing. He should be at the doctor’s, at a psychiatrist. If you want to use witchcraft, then he should be going through regression hypnosis, reverse divination, anything. But you’re all just accepting it!”
“Katrina,” Emilie says, her hand shaking slightly as she folds her napkin. “We are all in shock, dear. We know it’s not normal, but we are doing the best that we can. Brom is back, and that’s all that matters now. Doesn’t that matter to you? That he’s back?”
My heart sinks, as if they think it doesn’t matter. I give Brom a pleading look, hoping he knows that it matters more than anything. “Of course it matters! And I’m in shock too. This is all I’ve wanted for so long, but…we have to know what happened to him. There has to be an explanation. I can’t just sit here and not find out what the truth is.”
I look around the table. Everyone is staring at me with such sympathy it makes me want to flip the table over. Only Brom remains bothered, a fist curling over the knife in his hand, his dark eyes focused on his plate.
“I think you’ve been spending too much time with that Professor Crane,” my mother chides, and Brom’s gaze turns sharply to mine. “Always wanting an answer to something and asking too many questions while missing the big picture. I was kind enough to let him stay over, but really, I think your focus should be Brom.”
What are you doing? I want to scream at her. Why are you bringing up Crane in front of Brom like this?
I dare a glance at him, and his grip around the knife is so tight that his knuckles are going white, his eyes blazing with unmistakable anger and betrayal.
“Professor Crane,” Emilie muses. “I’ve never heard of him. But perhaps with Brom living on campus, he can get to know him too.”
“Brom’s…living on campus?” I say. I look to Brom, but he’s still looking at me with fire in his eyes.
“Yes,” my mother says with a smug smile. “Brom will be moving to campus this weekend.” Her smile gets even deeper. “And so will you.”
Chapter 20
Brom
Darkness.
For a moment, I only see darkness. Hot. Putrid. Oozing. Black nothing. Black everything.
There’s a flame in my heart, dark fire. It consumes all, eats everything, leaves nothing.
Destroy her, the voice inside my head says, malevolence dripping with its every word.
Fuck her.
Capture her and fuck her.
Defile her.
Listen to her beg for mercy.
Make her take your seed.
Destroy him.
Drill a hole in his eyes with your cock.
Fuck his brains until they’re coming out his ears.
“Brom,” my father chides from beside me. His voice is fearful. He’s always sounded afraid when he talks to me, but tonight, it trembles with it. It’s enough to pull myself out of the black ooze, to separate from the thing I fear is inside me.
The other man.
The other me?
I look down at my hand. I’m gripping a knife. So tight my knuckles look dusted in snow.
I glance around.
No one is paying attention to me.
Everyone is paying attention to me.
Kat looks flabbergasted. Her mouth open. She’s upset with her mother. She’s been upset the whole night. Because of me and not because of me.
“What do you mean I’m going to live on campus?” Kat says, her voice high and brimming with confusion. She’s been operating at this level ever since I reappeared.
Reappeared.
As if I’m a magic trick.
Here in one hand, then appearing in the other. A coin behind the ear when there was nothing before. A rabbit in a hat.