“Hello, brother.”
I drag my gaze to his. “Helena.” I don’t look at her. “Go upstairs. Now.”
“She responds better if you call her Willow Girl. Teaches her her place,” Gregory says.
She’s right. I’m going to fucking kill him.
“Helena,” I say one last time.
“I’ll go.” I release her, and my brother and I don’t take our eyes off each other as she disappears into the house.
Gregory walks around me to pick up a glass, fills it with whiskey. He sits down in his chair at the table. I didn’t bother lighting a fire tonight. I wasn’t in the mood.
I sit down, drink the last of my whiskey.
He pours more for me.
“Do you care about her?” I ask.
His eyes narrow.
“Or do you just want to hurt her? Because if you make her go through this, she will hate you.”
“She already hates me, brother.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. She doesn’t.” I shake my head, pick up the glass, then set it down again. “You’re a fucking sadist, you know that?”
“And you’re a saint?”
“What will you get out of this?”
“You should be thanking me. I’m saving you from yourself. You do this, and you get to keep it all, including the girl.”
“I don’t fucking want it. I don’t want anything but her.”
He stops at this, then shakes his head and drains his glass.
“Think of this as karma coming to collect. For the first time in your life, you have to pay. Well, she pays for you, I guess. Story of your life. But I wonder if you’ll ever be able to get the sound of her screams out of your head when you put the branding iron to her skin.”
“We’re finished after this. You’re not my brother.”
“That’s fine,” he bites through gritted teeth. “You and me, Sebastian, we were finished the day you laid eyes on her. You threw everything away for her, even me. So that’s fine.” He shoves the chair back and gets to his feet. “Tomorrow night. We do this then. Then I’m gone. And neither of you will ever have to see me again.”25HelenaI haven’t been able to keep food down for days.
I’m terrified. I’m so afraid of the pain.
Tonight’s the night.
In under an hour, in fact.
I haven’t left my bed all day. When Sebastian came up to see me, I sent him away.
I’m lying here reading my Aunt Helena’s journal again for the hundredth time, trying to syphon strength from it, trying to muster the courage to get through this.
The sheath I wore on the night the Scafoni brothers came to the Willow house and Sebastian Scafoni made me the Willow Girl hangs from a hook on the door.
We’re back at the beginning. We’ve come full circle.
I never thought this was where I’d be when he took me. I hated him. And I wanted to keep hating him. Hating them. Yet, even now, even knowing Gregory is forcing this, I don’t. I don’t hate either of them.
My door opens, and Sebastian enters. His face is unreadable, as if made of stone. His jaw is tight. He’s struggling against this.
“Is it time already?” I ask.
He gives a short nod.
“Don’t do this, Helena,” he finally says. “Don’t make me do this to you.”
I push the covers off and climb out of the bed. I’m naked but it hardly matters.
Walking past him, I pull that hated sheath off its hanger and slide it over my head. Ceremony. I have to wear this rotting thing again.
I look at the stain of pig’s blood on the front. It was supposed to save me.
Maybe in a way, it did.
I look up at him, touch his face.
“I love you.”
He takes my wrist but doesn’t pull my hand away.
“I don’t know how you can.”
“Where will it be?” I begin to tremble.
He knows what I’m asking. He reaches behind my neck and a little to the side to touch a spot. “Here.”
I nod.
“Take these,” he says, holding out two pills.
“What are they?”
“They’ll knock you out. You won’t feel it, not when it’s happening.”
“How?”
“Sedative. Same stuff they gave you after Lucinda. You have to take them now and walk out with me. If you pass out at the post, Gregory will think you passed out from fear.”
I nod, take the pills. Swallow them dry.
“What about when I wake up?”
“I have pain medication already. Strong stuff. You can take it until it heals. Until you don’t feel any pain.”
I nod again. What can I say that won’t make him feel worse than he already does?
“I’m sorry, Helena. I’m so sorry.”
It takes all I have to force the smallest smile. “Let’s get this over with.” I’m already feeling the pills.
Sebastian holds onto me as we descend the stairs. The scent of the fire outside makes my stomach heave and I think I’d throw up if I had eaten anything more than the two crackers I managed earlier. The patio doors are open, as usual, and I shudder at the cool air when we walk outside.