Page 37 of Blood and Thorns (Twisted Ever After #1)
Sebastian
“I’m sorry, Sebastian,” Margot said, kneeling in my growing pool of blood while my brothers whimpered in pain and dad roared. “This is all your father’s fault. He left me no choice.”
My back burned, as did my shoulders as I tried to wrench my wrists free. Wrapping her fingers in my hair, Margot lifted me up so I was on my knees.
“Stop this!” Dad thundered, being held back by the same two men who had just raped and then murdered his wife. “Margot, please.”
“Maybe you’ll grow into the man I need.” Margot caressed my face, her nails lingering on my bottom lip before she leaned forward for a kiss.
I tried to jerk back, but she held me to her, her tongue teasing against mine until I bit down. Margot screeched, and as she pulled away, I spat the blood in her face.
My neck jerked to the side, her slap stinging my cheek.
“Bas?” Caden lifted his fist, his knuckles knocking me back hard enough my teeth clashed together. “I need you to stay with us. Seriously, we don’t know it’s her. ”
Langdon was frantic in my peripheral, but I couldn’t concentrate on him while this energy beat inside my head. The memory calling for pain. For vengeance for my family that were nothing but ghosts.
“The photograph could be fake. Dad said she was dead, that he dealt with it himself,” Caden insisted. His knuckles were red from where he’d just hit me, and I needed the pain again, because when I closed my eyes all I could see was my father’s mistress holding that knife.
“You spoiled little brat,” Margot snarled at me, blood trickling down her lips. Her eyes were dark when she slashed down my face, pitch black.
Pain erupted, so sharp before she did it again, then again.
“Margot, stop!” Dad cried, his voice scratchy from screaming.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I couldn’t open my eye, the skin around it already beginning to swell. I swayed on my knees, my body feeling hollow. Empty as I struggled to stay awake.
But I had to, for Noah and Beau.
“Why didn’t you pick me?” Margot cried, her once beautiful face made uglier with despair. “You should’ve picked me, Mael. We could’ve ruled this empire together, but now, you’re just going to watch everything you love burn.”
Another blow to my jaw, forcing me back into the present. Caden swore beneath his breath, shaking his hand out with a wince. “Bas, you good?”
The rage choked me, all consuming as I tried to force the memory of the woman who destroyed my family to the back of my mind.
She was once the nanny, but behind closed doors my father was promising her a life where she could run his empire beside him.
When in reality she was nothing but a hole he’d toss away once bored.
He’d done it before, I knew, being the eldest. My mother knew too, and I saw how each woman he took to their bed broke her heart just a little bit more. So I’d begun to hate him long before I watched my mum be raped, and then my brothers beaten until they no longer moved. All because of him.
I felt nothing as his throat was slit, my chest hollow as the man who I’d planned to kill left his children alone to defend against his fucking mistress.
It was my brothers’ cries that broke me, their smaller bodies fighting with everything in them. All while Margot watched, laughing. Then she set them alight, forcing me to watch while I bled out.
A blur flashed to my right, and I caught Caden’s next hit in my hand. Dropping his fist, I turned to Langdon, who stood stiff, an edge to his eyes that worried me.
“We need to tighten everything up,” I gritted out, ignoring how my palm ached along with the welt on my jaw.
His nod was stiff, his hands coming up to sign. “No mistakes.”
“Agreed.” Caden stepped towards us, clamping a hand on Langdon’s shoulder. “And if she’s back, then we take her out.”
“Same page,” Langdon signed.
“Same fucking word,” I snarled, feeling this wrath pulsating inside my chest. “And call Alexander to meet us. I think it’s time he explained what the fuck happened.”