Page 44 of Love to Defy You (The Dark Love #2)
He pulls his phone from the pocket of his jeans, and I snatch it away from him. I pull up his most recent text conversation with Willow, but before I press the call button, I read their conversation.
WILLOW
Hey, I haven’t heard from Alek. Can you try calling him to make sure he’s okay?
ME
Just heard back from Alek. He says he’s fine. *thumbs-up emoji* I told him to call you.
Yes, this has Enzo Messina’s fuckery written all over it. “That son of a bitch.” I press the call button and put the phone on speaker, but it goes straight to voicemail. “Her phone is off.”
Something isn’t right. She wouldn’t turn her phone off if she hadn’t heard from me in over a week. If it’s Sunday night like Mikhail claims, then Willow should be back from Andarusia by now.
Mikhail sinks onto the edge of the bathtub. “Oh, shit. No. No, no.”
“What?” I hiss.
His throat bobs as he swallows. “I think this is your Trial of Envy, Alek.”
I clench my fist. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
He gulps. “Last Sunday, he called me, and Willow was with him. I spoke to her on Enzo’s phone.”
I lunge across the bathroom and grab the collar of his shirt, then yank him to his feet. “And you’re just telling me this now ?”
“Alek, calm down. Let me explain.” He pushes me off, though not without effort.
“Listen, there’s no formal ritual for the Trial of Envy.
It’s tailored to the individual and carried out at different times throughout the year.
I think Enzo kept you locked up longer than the rest of the candidates to separate you from Willow. ”
I clench my fists, and it takes every ounce of control not to throw a punch at his face. “Why are you acting so surprised by this? Aren’t you in on the Order’s plotting and scheming?”
He crosses his arms. “For you, the council agreed that Enzo would try to seduce your pythia and make you jealous. The only reason I agreed was because I knew she wouldn’t take the bait.”
“You knew?” I’m seconds away from punching his face in. “You knew he was actively trying to sleep with my fiancée?”
“You know why I couldn’t tell you.” He gives me a pointed look. “But once you became a full-fledged member of the brotherhood, the trial would end. That’s what the council agreed to.” His jaw ticks. “But... I think Enzo went rogue. This is going too far.”
“Really? You don’t fucking say!” I grab the soap dish off the counter and hurl it to the ground. It breaks with a loud shatter, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. “That doesn’t explain why Willow is still missing and unreachable!”
“I’m sure she’s fine.”
“You don’t know that!” I kick one of the fractured pieces of porcelain with as much force as I can muster and roar.
“Goddammit.” Mikhail blows out a long breath. “I can’t be telling you this.”
I shove him against the wall. “No more fucking secrets, Mikhail. If you have any idea where Willow could be, tell me now, or I swear to God, I’ll kill you.”
He closes his eyes and bangs the back of his head against the wall. “The final ritual is tomorrow night, and Willow has to be part of it. Enzo volunteered to bring her himself, and I’d bet money he’s with her now.”
His ominous tone makes my heart stutter to a halt. “The final ritual?”
He nods. “The Trial of Sacrifice.”
Bile rises in my throat, and I clamp a hand over my mouth.
“It’s the most fucked-up of the trials,” Mikhail continues. “Each candidate sacrifices their pythia to the brotherhood, and they, well...” He swallows. “They rape them in front of the candidates.”
All the air is sucked from the room.
Red. All I see is red.
“NO!” I slam my fist through the wall next to his head, and he flinches. “My fiancée will not be passed around between you and Enzo and god-knows-who like a fucking whore!”
“You don’t have a choice! None of us do.
” He grabs my shoulders and shakes me. “You think you’re the only one who’s had to make sacrifices?
Josie has never been the same since, and it’s all because of me!
” He shoves me aside and resumes pacing the length of the bathroom.
“I let her get passed around to save my own fucking skin, and I have to live with that guilt every day.”
I run my fingers through my hair and pull at the ends until my scalp bleeds. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? I can’t let that happen to her!”
Mikhail softens his tone. “That’s why everyone thinks Willow is the perfect pythia. She was with a ton of guys in that porn video, right?”
“Willow belongs to me.” I jab my finger into my chest. “No one else touches her but me. I’ll die before I let anyone else…” My voice cracks.
I don’t remember the last time I cried, but I sink down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor and bury my face in my hands. Tears burn my eyes.
“I’m so sorry.” Mikhail’s voice is heavy with regret. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
“You said you would protect me like you’ve always done, remember?” I look up from my hands and glare at him. “You’re the closest thing I have to a brother, and I trusted you to get me through this.”
“And I am!” He thumps his chest. “I love you, and Willow loves you, and neither of us will hesitate to do anything for you. You might be willing to throw your life away, but I’m not, and Willow would say the same. You know it’s true.”
I would sacrifice anything if it meant saving her from this. Anything.
If I ever return to Andarusia, I will go to my father’s grave and then my grandfather’s grave and spit on them and curse them for doing this to us. For sacrificing their sons, the ones they were supposed to protect, for the sake of power and wealth.
I pray that I never have a son of my own to offer up as a lamb for slaughter.
None of us can escape this cycle of evil, and the only way out is to end the Kurochkin line once and for all.
“If anything happens to me,” I whisper, “watch over Anastasia and Willow.”
“Stop talking like that.” Mikhail’s hands tremble. “We’re all going to make it out of this alive.”
“Just promise me.” Desperation pours out of me as I beg. “Promise me that you’ll protect Ana and Willow if I can’t. It’s the only thing I’ll ever ask of you again.”
He stares at me for a long while, perhaps to determine if I’m suicidal, but at last, he sighs. “Of course I will.” Mikhail crosses over to the bathtub and turns the faucet on. “Now, come on. Let’s get you cleaned up. You’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”
I make my way across Weltner’s campus under the cover of night.
My dress shoes are the only sound to pierce the quietude of the empty courtyard, echoing off the stone buildings around me.
The lampposts light my way toward the Order’s usual meeting spot: the cellar entrance to the underground tunnels.
The clock tower counts down the minutes until I can lay eyes on Willow. I waited outside the classroom of her Monday afternoon lecture, but she never showed up, and I’m certain Enzo Messina had something to do with it.
Revenge grips my heart, and I vow to cut off Enzo’s hand if he dares to touch my fiancée. All sorts of heinous thoughts race through my head about what he did while I was strategically locked away, allowing Enzo to run around unchecked with my malishka .
I’m the first candidate to arrive at the meeting point, and I pace back and forth along the edge of the landscaping concealing the cellar from view.
Thousands of students have come and gone from Weltner College without knowing the ugly truth of what happens beneath their feet year after year—torture, abuse, humiliation, rape.
A cold voice behind me breaks the silence. “How will you worm your way out of this one, son?”
I round on my father, who sits on a park bench, one leg crossed over the other. His arm rests casually over the back of the bench as he puffs on his cigar. Grigor pins me with his cruel gaze and smirks, taking delight in my suffering.
“For fuck’s sake, leave me alone!” I press my hands over my ears to drown him out, but it’s no use. “Do you have nothing better to do in death than haunt me?”
He chuckles. “A father’s work is never done.” Grigor turns his focus to the courtyard and glances around. “You were supposed to go to university in Moscow. I can’t believe your mother allowed this. You’re both such a disappointment, not that I expected any different from either of you.”
I take a deep breath to calm the rage spewing from within. “Go away. If I’m about to spend eternity with you in hell, at least give me a few more hours of peace.”
Grigor quirks his eyebrow at me. “You’d really sacrifice your life to keep your precious American girl untouched?
Don’t be foolish. This is nothing she hasn’t done before.
” He reaches down to his groin over his pants and adjusts himself.
“The whole world saw what a whore she is. Don’t throw your life away to save her when she wants this. ”
I stride over to Grigor, and with him seated on the bench, I tower over my father’s head. He’s taller than me by a couple of inches, so I’ve never had the pleasure of looking down at him this way. “No, she doesn’t want this. She wants me and only me.”
“Are you sure of that?” He peers up at me with an amused expression. “She craves more than just your attention.”
I lean down to get into his face until I smell the tobacco on his breath. “Trust me, I make sure she is well-satisfied.”
Grigor takes another pull from his cigar as he surveys the Weltner courtyard.
“I have fond memories of my university years. What I wouldn’t give to be twenty again.
” His gaze drifts over to meet mine. “Then I could fuck your American whore for myself, just like every other member who will stick their cock in her tonight.”
I slam my fist down on the bench. “I’ll never let you or anyone else near her again!”
Grigor is undeterred. “What is it about her that makes you so willing to throw your life away? No pussy is that good, son.”