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But his knelt legs were set like roots in the ground, his arms unmoving under each blow.

Oh, Allfather, each one of his arms looked practically the width of my waist. . .

“Women are deceitful,” Eli said, glancing between us. It was impossible to miss how my brother looked at me. “An immoral woman has lips like honey and a belly full of poison.”

Rhyder said nothing, but I saw the next blow on his back force a brief exhale of air from his lungs. Nausea and bile burned in my throat, my fists clenching together.

His eyes were unblinking, fixed completely on me.

I wanted to get up, but my legs were like jelly. Each blow made me want to shrivel up inside. Each one brought me closer to being completely owned.

How many were left?

When the final blow came, Eli’s foot collided hard with Rhyder’s knees, knocking my brother onto the ground.

The other men were silent, watching.

The Enforcer seemed infuriated that he hadn’t gotten so much as a moan of pain from Rhyder, and he halfway raised his arm to strike another blow, but my twin’s arm shot out and gripped the cane, and I heard the wood crack under his strong fingers.

“12 blows, Enforcer,” he said, and his voice was harsh and gravelly. “That’s what you are permitted under the Holy Writ.”

There was another crack and the cane split in two, both halves falling on the ground.

I wondered if the other men would say anything, but I wasn’t surprised when they did not.

“Correct,” Eli said, and he didn’t make another move toward him.

Rhyder stood up to his full height and walked toward me.

His eyes seemed to gleam the closer he got, darker and darker intensity.

Surely he must be in incredible pain

But if he was, he didn’t show it.

He bent down and picked me up gently, setting me back on my trembling legs.

Although he had shown no emotion during the caning, I could see his big chest heaving now as he looked at me.

With one finger, he gently pushed a sticky strand of hair away from my face.

“No wonder it took me so long to find you,” he breathed. “They carried you so far away.”

He bent and kissed my cheek, his fingers tight on the back of my head, one low jagged noise breaking from his chest.

I’d always known this, hadn’t I?

Thishad been the thrumming, pulsing undercurrent to my entire life.Thishad encircled me with chokingly dominating power.

This had meant I was never free. But my mistake had been thinking getting rescued from the Congregation would free me. It hadn’t freed me at all.

This is my truth.

My twin loves me far beyond the way a brother is supposed to love his sister, with a dark twisted love, a jealous unholy obsession.

His mouth moved to my neck, his lips against my throat, his beard rough on my sensitive skin and I felt my insides contract.

“Oh, Temperance,” he almost gasped, his voice so low that no one else could hear him, his fingers curling possessively into the hair at the nape of my neck. “I knew the Allfather would bring you back to me. He knows how much I need you.”