Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Emil just laughed under his breath, dropping his gaze. “She could be the face of the seventh family,” he told Michael. “We like her.”
We like her.
He didn’t want half of the resort. He wanted something much more valuable. A stake for his family in ours forever.
I looked at Eslem again, still staring at the table in front of me with a gleam in her twenty-year-old eyes.
Poised. Calm. And completely aware.
My lungs emptied, the pulse in my neck throbbing.
She was the heir.
She was the one in charge. Not Emil.
“Send her to Deadlow Island tonight to celebrate with us,” Emil told Michael. “We’ll bring her back.”
Michael rose, and we quickly jumped to our feet.
He buttoned his jacket. “We celebrate Devil’s Night in Thunder Bay.”
Deadlow Island wasn’t far off the coast, its lighthouse visible from here, but it was surrounded by a jagged coastline, and couldn’t be easily reached. Especially in the storm brewing.
No one had ever thought to build on it, given its inaccessibility, but somehow they had. Amongst the wild coastline and forest of the island laid a grand house that the Moreaus enjoyed seasonally when they weren’t sleeping upside down by their feet.
Emil stood up, the six members of the Moreau family straightening. “I think you’ll be surprised where the tide takes you tonight, Mr. Fane,” he said.
Then he dipped his chin in a small bow at Michael’s daughter, Valentin and Victor behind him with excitement in their eyes. “Athos,” he said, bidding farewell.
Spinning around, one by one, they all left, the heels of their shoes descending the corridor toward the entrance from where they came.
But Eslem stayed rooted in her spot, remaining in the room.
I watched her watch Athos, the younger woman not shifting an inch under the scrutiny, and giving it back as good as she got.
Who wanted Athos? All of them?
Or just one of them?
Eslem’s dark brown eyes gazed at her, her presence suddenly more imposing than her five brothers.
“See you soon,” she whispered to Athos.
Then she met Athos’s parents’ eyes before twisting on her heel and walking out of the room.
No one breathed in the thirty seconds before we heard the door slam and bolt shut far at the end of the hallway and Crane returned to verify we were now alone.
Michael spun around, ordering Crane. “I want her at Delcour, all the entrances locked, and get David and Lev back in town immediately.”
“No!” Athos cried.
“The safest place for her is with us,” Rika argued.
“I agree with Michael,” Damon chimed in. “Get her out of town. Now.”
“You think they’re going to care if it’s Devil’s Night or not?” Banks pushed back her chair and walked around the table. “We can make her safe tonight, but there’s no stopping them coming back tomorrow or the next day.”
“I’m not going into hiding,” Athos told her father, a tendril of hair hanging in her face. “I’m not some prize to protect. I’m probably a distraction, so they can keep you occupied worrying about me instead of protecting something they really want here.”
“They wanted her at the island tonight,” Kai pointed out. “It’s her they want, and they’re going to tear apart this town coming after it. If we don’t go to Deadlow Island, they’ll bring the war to Thunder Bay.”
“I’m not going to that island,” Rika said.
“If they want us there, they’ll find a way to draw us there,” Alex told her.
“She needs to be under lock and key,” Aydin told Michael. “One of those little shits knocks her up, you’ll never escape that family.”
“Yo, fuck nut!” Damon barked, telling Aydin to shut up.
Aydin lifted his middle finger, rubbing his temple with it.
Athos rolled her eyes at her uncles, standing firm and glaring at her father. “I’m staying,” she said. “What do I learn by hiding? It’s your responsibility to teach me to survive without you someday.”
Michael stared at her, everyone around us falling silent as we watched Rika and her husband be the first ones to confront the day that we all feared, yet knew was coming.
Athos couldn’t be sheltered anymore. She was a beautiful young woman, and an heir to a powerful family that she would help lead one day after we were gone.
She was right. She had to learn.
The lump in Michael’s throat moved up and then down, and then…he reached down, underneath the table, and took out a box, hesitating for a moment before handing it to his Athos.
She opened it and peeled back the tissue paper, taking out a half-mask, red, just like her father’s.
Except it wasn’t a plastic paintball helmet. It was a lighter, form-fitting leather skull that covered the top half of her face, leaving her mouth free.
Her chin trembled, her eyes shooting up to Michael.
“The Red Death?” she whispered.
She loved Edgar Allan Poe.
He smiled down at her, all of us reaching under the table and pulling our masks out from our individual compartments.