“Your father as you know him isn’t your father,” she says simply, and I gasp, my hands shaking as they grip the chair.
“What do you mean?”
&n
bsp; “Phillip has raised you as his own. But you are the child of Richard Savage.”
My breath
My breath
My breath.
“My uncle?”
I can’t
I can’t
I can’t.
Sabine nods, and she’s unhesitant, as though this is just another face of life, as though it weren’t unnatural.
“Yes. It was necessary. Your mother did as she was told.”
“Necessary for what?”
I’m still appalled, and sickened, and Sabine hands me a basin and I vomit into it.
“Your mother and uncle came together, and you were conceived,” Sabine tells me. “Your mother fled to France with her lover, and she conceived again. She gave birth to twins… you and Finn. But you don’t share the same father.”
“Phillip,” I utter. “Phillip is Finn’s father? And Phillip is Dare’s father?”
Sabine nods, pleased that I have grasped it. “Yes. They are half-brothers.”
“And Finn, my twin, is only my half-brother?”
She nods again. “It happens very rarely in life, child. But you are rare.”
I’m afraid to ask, but I do it anyway.
“Why?”
Sabine pours more tea and hands it to me, and I can’t help but drink it because it calms me it calms me it calms me, and I’m on the verge of hysteria.
“Because you are a descendent of Judas, and of Abel. Your blood is as powerful and old as is possible. Your brother is a descendent of both Cain and Abel. If he is sacrificed, the cycle will finally be broken.”
“What cycle?” I ask and my lips are numb they’re numb.
“Cain killed his brother,” she answers. “Abel made a sacrifice to God, and Cain was jealous so he killed him. God is owed another sacrifice from this family, a true sacrifice, one born of grief and torment, to pay for the sins of your fathers.”
“I don’t understand,” I whisper. “I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t,” she nods. “Dare understands, though, because Dare is of Salome. Salome harnessed the curse of Judas into a ring. The ring you gave back to Dare. You are all cursed, and only you can stop it by making the right choice, by not betraying what is right. The Rom believe curses are real, Calla. And surely by now, so do you.”
“I…”
My lips can’t move.