The Camp (Chateau 2)

I watched him walk away and couldn’t hold back my retort. “You don’t want to fuck with me either, brother.”

He halted in his tracks, his muscular back rigid and tight. A few breaths made him expand and decrease in size, processing the rage I’d just provoked within him. Just when it seemed like he might turn around and face me, he walked off.

And blended into the darkness.

Fender didn’t speak to me.

I worked the next day without seeing him or crossing his path. He must have been in his cabin the entire time, going over all the reports that Eric took for me and dropped off.

This had never happened before. Whenever Fender was angry with me, he charged me like a bull. He spoke his mind and engaged me directly. This was completely unlike him.

At the end of the working day, I approached the clearing to get Raven and escort her to the cabin, and that was when I noticed the torches.

They were lit.

Adrenaline dumped into my heart, and I jogged across the earth to get closer to the clearing and see what was happening.

There were three nooses set up now.

And the three women had already been chosen.

The girls struggled against the guards as they were yanked below the nooses. They screamed and cried, begging for God to help them. The woman I had spared days before was one of the three.

Raven immediately looked at me once I was visible, and the relief in her eyes showed her faith in me. I would put an end to this and spare their souls.

I marched past the table, with my eyes focused on Alix. “What the fuck are you doing? I made my stance on this perfectly clear.”

Alix turned around and left the woman on the ground. The mask covered the bottom half of his face, but the shine in his eyes showed his hidden smile. “I don’t take orders from you, asshole.”

I pulled my knife from my pocket and held it at the ready. “Let them go, or I’ll cut off your balls, your lips, and your nose.”

Alix wasn’t scared, as if he had a more formidable foe on his side. He looked behind me, like he saw someone standing there.

I already knew who it was.

I slowly turned around and met my brother’s look. He was the only one in jeans and a shirt, never wearing the uniform. His focused stare was full of anger and disappointment. “Because of your foolishness, I will take three lives instead of one. The women can thank you for that.”

We looked so much alike, had so many identical features, but in that moment, we couldn’t look more different. The women and guards stared at us as the torches flickered in the breeze. “You’re better than this.” I dropped my voice, so only he could hear what I said.

“Sorry to disappoint you, brother.” His eyes shifted back and forth as they looked into mine, his anger slowly fading to a subdued state.

“It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Yes, it does.” He looked past me and nodded at Alix, telling him to continue with the butchering.

I turned around and punched Alix so hard in the back of the head that he fell to the ground and didn’t get up again. My knuckles burned at the contact with his hard skull, but there was so much adrenaline in my veins that I was immune to pain. I turned back to my brother and stared him down.

The two other guards with the women didn’t move forward, having seen their enormous comrade collapse on the ground from a single hit.

I stood my ground and didn’t back down. “I’m not going to let this happen.” The line in the sand had been drawn, and there was no going back from this. I’d proclaimed my loyalty, and it wouldn’t falter.

Fender took a step toward me, his expression starting to boil with rage. “You’re weak.”

“And you’re deranged.”

“Step aside, Magnus. I mean it.”

“Or what?” I challenged. “You’re going to kill me?” I asked the same question that he had asked me. I didn’t believe he would, but I’d put him on the spot with a public audience, so he might have no other choice.

He looked slightly insulted, like the suggestion was offensive. But the anger quickly swallowed him again.

“The only way you’re gonna stop me is by killing me. So, I suggest you pull out your knife and do it.” I rolled the dice and waited to learn my fate.

My brother stared and stared, his feet planted on the earth and still. All eyes were on him, and he had to react. He had to do something to regain the power I’d just taken from him. If he didn’t, he would forever be humiliated.

“We can do this another way. I promise you.”

His eyes remained focused and didn’t change, like he didn’t hear a word I said.