Page 77 of Seduce & Destroy

My feet led me to the mess hall. Past the training rooms and the security office that had held some loving memories of Kenna and I, but I guess our chapter ended too. I just hadn’t realised it yet. Our memories now tainted too.

The mess hall was nightmare material. Bodies were piled on top of each other, evident holes in each man that laid there. My feet clinked against the metal of the bullet cases that had fallen.

There could only be one culprit to this crime. The Karsteins traded in weaponry and drugs. Their fingerprints are all over the estate. It was revenge at its finest. Did they not know that Grandfather wanted to keep the union? He mourned that loss just as much as losing it to the arrogance of his son. Father lit the match to end it all. He didn’t represent the Ravencrofts, I thought to myself, but that wasn’t the truth. He was me and I had to face his mistakes. I was his mistake.

I stepped outside to escape the smell. Fear didn’t clamber at my lungs like I thought it might. Instead, an eerie acceptance flowed through me.

I’d already lost everything. Everything else that I had was irreparable now.

Men and women with red bands moved rapidly around the back garden. None of them paid me any attention. It was like I was floating between them. Invisible. It hurt more than I’d thought to be ignored by the enemy. I wanted them to scream at me, to invite me to war, so that I could live with the fact that I deserved the loss and not that I was blindsided by their victory. I wanted to earn our downfall.

Moving toward my mother’s courtyard, I was struck by the sameness of the forest hugging the estate. Untouched. Unaware of the horrors that it witnessed. If nothing else, it was a small comfort to know that some things don’t change.

I sat in the courtyard, the surrounding brush cocooned me into relative quiet.

This was Kenna’s plan. To destroy me. To destroy my entire family’s existence like my father did to hers. It’s only fair, I guess. But why’d she have to do it like that?

Like a strategy.

Seduce and destroy.

I let out a long breath and put my head in my hands.

In the distance, footsteps and conversations could be heard. I flinched at each major sound but kept my head down. Until two voices came near, but not close enough to prompt me to move. I could hear their conversation crystal clear.

“Is that all of them?”

A slap echoed from the walls of the house, presumably a slap on the back. “We got ‘em.” The other guy laughed.

“Wow. Didn’t take much, huh?”

“Ask our sister, she set the ball rolling to cripple them.”

“Pretty neat, yeah.”

“Who’s still alive?”

“We got Richard and the Novelli guy, Aldo. He’s arguing like a bitch. Richard barely breathes, I got him good.” He chuckled.

“Not good enough. He still breathes, brother.”

“Hey!” There was a shift in fabric. “That was Kilina’s job. She can finish it.”

Oh my god, her brothers. A beat of silence passed.

“Nah, I’m just kidding. Can’t let the fucker go easy, they’re taking him to the Ravencroft torture chamber in the dungeon now.”

“Serves him right.” Another slap could be heard. Maybe a high five? It made me sick.

“What about the cute girl?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t seen her. Though secretly I think Kilina has her hidden in the woods or something.”

“No way. We’d have found her before then.”

“You know what she looks like?”

He scoffed. “I know cute when I see it.”