“Well…” Rae paused. “First, tell me how you knew it happened outside my window.”
Ruby was just as perceptive as Severin. “I must admit that it was a wild guess. That room was mine once. You know that, right?”
“Yours? I didn’t. But how would that have been possible?”
“Before the war, Severin built me this place. It was only one tower then, and we didn’t have much. It was where he trained and raised me,” she said. “We eventually had to leave because of the wars. This was a border zone toward the end, and too many conflicts made it dangerous. Eventually, Cassian took this section, but we made it. We’re free.”
Without warning, Rae took her sister’s hand and led her toward the closed door. She opened it and pulled her into the hall.
“Hey, where are you taking me?” Ruby asked, curiously allowing the pull to keep happening.
After meandering through a series of dimly lit halls and passing through the strictly bowing male guards, Rae took Ruby into her room and shut the door with force. “There,” she said and pointed at the window. “Down there, by the cornfields. I swear on my children that I saw them.”
Closing her palm into a brutal fist, Ruby lashed back and hit Rae’s jaw, nearly dislocating it, then reached into her pocket and grabbed a set of black gloves. She quickl
y covered her bruised knuckles with the leather and exhaled sharply.
“What did I do?” Rae wheezed.
“My children,” she said. “They are my children!”
“It won’t happen again,” Rae said.
Ruby turned and unlatched the windowsill. Outside, the wind was picking up and raging against the barn. A few storm clouds were rolling in, which was odd, since the weather predicted cloudy skies all week. Either way, there was no life outside except the sullen cornfields.
“Where did you see them? Don’t just point. Tell me exactly where,” Ruby demanded.
Rae ambled close to her sister but kept her hands balled up near her cheeks. When she was close enough, she barely pointed her knuckles toward the edge of the barn. “There. I saw them there, peeking through the cracks in the wood.”
“You’re sure it was them?” she asked.
“Yes, but their hair was long. They each had lengthy beards, and their eyes held a different air. Still, I know it was them. Unless…” Rae dropped her head and sighed.
Ruby finished her sentence. “Unless your mind is playing tricks on you.”
It happened to far too many prisoners trapped in the hallucinatory dark, and Rae was not immune to obsessive fantasies. She was full of them. A rich storyteller, she practically dreamed out loud. “We can go down there and check,” she said. “It’s the only way we’ll find out the truth.”
Ruby shivered through the cold and shut the window. “And what will happen if we get down there and no one is waiting for us? What then, hm?”
Silence.
“Better yet—what if we get down there to find I have walked into an ambush?” she asked. “Is that what you’re trying to do with me? You want me killed, so you can steal my babies? You’re perverted. You’re sick!”
“No! Please, you must believe me. If anyone, you understand when I’m lying and when I’m telling the truth. This was real. If they aren’t down there, you may… you may beat me into a coma. I don’t care any longer.”
“I’ll beat you senseless if I damn well please,” Ruby said, spiraling into resentment. “You know, at one point, I was just like you. An aging, pathetic cunt.”
Rae’s eyes lit up with fire. Her body shook, and a manic appearance took over. Was the pressure of her past trauma coming back to haunt her? Would she react worse than Ruby expected? “No… please, stop your insults.”
“A fatherless bitch. A childless mother,” she sneered. “What is worse than someone who cannot rise above their means?”
Shaking, Rae pointed again toward the window. Ruby did not turn. Lost in her anger, she hit Rae’s cheek, forcing her to the floor. Every time Rae pointed, she received another blow. Over and over, the woman smashed and cut her fingernails into easy facial flesh. Blood and saliva dripped to the floor. Ruby only stopped when her sister’s hand fell limp near the bed.
“There. Now that you have shut that wicked mouth of yours, I will search for your beloved alphas outside. They are, however, dead, so you will come out empty-handed.”
Rae kept her mouth shut, but inside her head, she could hear her children screaming as if they were feet away. Their unbridled tears cut into her heart, shaking the very core of her being. As soon as Rae’s sister turned and peered out of the window, she noticed the silver brush underneath her bed. Quicker than a hunted hare, she grabbed it and pulled it into her breast.
I can’t take this anymore…