ChapterForty-Nine
CALEB
“Father, forgive me,” I prayed as I knelt in the moonlight, desperate for strength and absolution all rolled into one. “I’ve done what you required of me. I’m prepared to face judgment for my part in this, but I need guidance. I’m not strong enough.”
My only answer was the whisper of wind through the trees. I blinked up at the star-strewn sky and knew that despite my prayers, He wasn’t listening. He’d stopped listening a long time ago.
“What more do you want from me?” I shouted into the sky.
I got to my feet just as the rain started, clouds having rolled in sometime during my prayers. At least it was quiet here. Heavy with the ghost of a life I’d been promised. One that had been stolen from me and painted crimson with death.
I turned in a slow circle, taking in the rolling green hills and the shadows of a small village in the distance, finally coming to a stop when my cabin came into view. The lights were on, a fire roaring in the hearth. Everything was prepared for me. Ready to welcome me home.
What a fecking farce.
This wasn’t a homecoming. It was a death sentence.
And I was the executioner.
I steeled myself to face what was waiting beyond the door. The future I’d wanted more than anything dangled before me like a life preserver to a drowning man. Forever just out of reach. I hadn’t been home in decades for a reason. Unless I counted the night I spent atIniquitywhen Sunday gave me a nearly painful glimpse of happiness.
And weren’t we all fucking paying for it now.
This place was bloody cursed. What better setting for what was to come?
My damned hand shook as I reached for the doorknob and twisted. The moment the door opened, my favorite scent filled my nose. Lilacs and fecking honey. A reminder of my weakest moment.
My gaze was drawn immediately to the dark and quiet bedroom where my fate taunted me. My heart beat like a death knell, pulling me closer to the secrets awaiting me there. Not for the first time, I hated the sound of it in my ears. It mocked me. Mocked my pain and my dreams.
She lay on the bed, eyes fluttering open, brows furrowed. “Caleb?”
“Good morning, Sunday.”
“It’s too dark to be morning. Caleb, where are we? I had the strangest dream.” She lifted a hand to her head and winced as she sat up. “I thought I’d been kidnapped.”
Her gaze moved across the room, recognition flickering in her eyes.
“Iniquity? Why are we here?”
“No, my poor lamb. This is notIniquity.”
I couldn’t give her more than that. I wasn’t ready to see the hatred in her gaze as soon as she learned the truth.
“But it looks just like...”
And there it was. The knowing.
“Caleb, did you bring me to your cabin?”
“Aye, I did.”
“To keep me safe?”
Her hope cut deeper than my shame.
“Are you going to force me to say it?”
Her face paled. “You... drugged me. Youtookme.”