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“What I think isfunnyis how blind you are,” I growled and attempted to lunge at him, knowing the restraints would hold me back.

The restraints on my neck and wrists dug into my already raw skin. The time in the second dungeon of the Castle palace, locked up for hours in such a similar way, had already done a number on my skin.

His hand tangled in my hair and jerked my head to the side.

“Not blind enough to ignore how you prepared for this,” he said, his eyes coming to where magic concealed my tattoo. Cedar’s magic hadn’t worn off. “I know about your little outings to the witch’s den.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” I asked. It was a surprise to me that he actually knew. Of course the family used magical items here and there, but the organization that ran us warned about working too closely with the witches.

No doubt for fear of what we would learn. Nothing bad had ever happened to me while working with the witches. Both Levana and Cedar had kept their word. Helped me when I needed it.

So what was it that they didn’t want us to know?

Why was it that Father could get magic-infused items from them to torture his children with, yet we couldn’t communicate with them on our own?

“I wanted to see just how far this rebelliousstreakof yours would go,” he snarled and tossed my head to the side. Pain radiated from my temple.

“Or maybe they didn’t allow you through their wards,” I said with a bitter smile. “Maybe you knew I was meeting them, but you could never get close enough yourself. Must suck, doesn’t it?”

He let out a growl and reached for a knife attached to his belt.

“Don’t test me,Vesper.”

“Do you know what thisprophecyhas done to me?” I spat out the word “prophecy” like it was a curse. “All the lives I’ve taken? All the families I’ve ruined? How do you even know that they were worth all this? Have you ever even talked to one of these people or?—”

The next slap stung more than the others.

“It is not our job to care for thesemonsters,” he retorted, his voice barely above a whisper. Almost as if he was ashamed we were even having this conversation.

I thought I had seen the end of my father’s cruelty. Throughout the years of “training” and the punishments whenever I didn’t act like the cold-blooded killer he wanted me to be.

The truth was, I was every bit the monster he made me. The problem was that he and I had different moral compasses.

Well, apparently, he didn’t have one.

“We are the monsters,” I said in a low voice. “No better than thosehunters.”

“We are nothing like them!” The booming of his voice had me flinching.

Yes, we are, and all the vampires saw right through it.They had a longer lifespan than we could ever hope for. They saw what the hunters had done—how they brought the world to the brink of chaos before disbanding.

Only us and all the other families involved in this organization couldn’t see it. We were the ones who tried to deny the truth for what it was.

“You’re not getting anything else out of me,” I swore. “I did what I could. That’s all you need to know. Hitting me won’t change that the prophecy is no longer valid.”

His eyes narrowed at me, his mouth set in a snarl.

My eyes shot to the basement door as it swung open with a creak. Mother’s tired face peeked through, her wrinkles looking much clearer on her face than they had in years. The stress of my return was obvious on her face. But she wasn’t alone.

She pushed into the room, a small body following behind her. Tate.

I thought seeing my brother again would give me some sort of joy, but all it did was give me a renewed sense of fear.

They wouldn’t dare.

But one look at Father’s face told me that he had even more sinister plans for him than I could even imagine.

I jerked against my chains with a growl.