Of its own volition, the door swung open onto the dark hall, but a candle burned in my office.
Had there not been a power outage, I would have blamed it on black witches’ love of theatrics.
“We’re in here,” Aedan called. “We’re playing Monopoly.”
Wracking my brain, I combed over possible meanings if the board game was a code word, but nada.
Aedan smiled, tight and wary, when I arrived in the office. Then he gestured to my desk.
They really were playing Monopoly.
Weird.
I didn’t own any boardgames. Colby preferred to play online.
Aedan wasn’t restrained that I could tell. He wasn’t hurt. He was anxious, but that was understandable.
The man sitting opposite Aedan, his back to me, had perfect ringlet curls a cherub would envy.
A memory tickled the back of my mind when candlelight glinted off the golden locks.
The kidnapper played his turn then raised his hands where I could see them and stood slowly.
As he pivoted toward me, and I got a good look, I fought the cold sweat drenching my shirt.
Thanks to hours spent memorizing the photo Colby gifted me for Christmas, I recognized his face.
Hiram Nádasdy.
My father.
“No,” I breathed. “It’s not possible.”
“Hello, Cate.”
Cate.
Cate.
Cate.
The echo bouncing between my ears shook loose a certainty that quaked through my marrow.
Catheryn.
Cate.
Only two people had ever called me by my birthname, and they were both dead.
I killed them.
“Who are you?” I locked my knees to keep from bolting. “What are you?”
“Let me show you.”
Ink dribbled from his pores, masking his features in magic so dark and vile, I lost sight of him in its midst. A foul breeze stirred his hair, and fetid whispers breathed down my neck, hot and rank and putrid. What stood before me resembled a man dipped in tar, plump dollops dripping onto the floor, and the smell…
All those teas the director poured down my throat when I was a kid drowned me in memories, but I couldn’t trust them. I couldn’t trust him. Either of them. I had to remember caution, because I didn’t remember anything else. The director saw to that. I learned the history as he taught me, without ever questioning its authenticity.