Page 92 of Raine

You were wrong, just like you’re wrong now. No matter what you all do, I will always be two steps ahead of every move you make. You four are a school of little fish in the depths of angry seas, with sharks circling around you.

There’s no use trying to find me because it’s fruitless, and by the time you’ve read this note, I will have been gone for some time. You see, I followed my daughter to the little bungalow in the middle of nowhere and saw her mother’s diary on the little table inside while she fucked a man much older than her. I didn’t need to read it to know it was Winter’s, I’d know that handwriting anywhere. You see, my little bird was always a cunning one, and I’ll let you in on a secret, I did rape her, and I fucking loved it. Almost as much as watching my daughter grow and blossom into the little druggie whore she’s become, knowing I helped mold her from afar. And my son, well, Acheron, you are something different completely. But I see you, son, and I raised you.

You forgot along the way that you are the student and I am the master. It’s time for another lesson, boy — one you’ll never recover from.

You four are hiding something, and when I find out what it is, I’ll be back with vengeance marring my palate. I’ll be watching.

- Avernus.

I hand the letter to Justyce for him to read, then haul myself up to sit next to Acheron on the bed. We don’t say anything while he reads, instead we sit in silence. I replay what Avernus wrote in the letter, wondering how he grew into the abomination that now occupies his body.

I think of my mother and father, of Arrow and his pain, of me and Acheron and a lifetime of not knowing we were related, of Justyce and his upbringing with Draconis, and I hate the affliction we’ve all suffered at the hands of these people.

When Justyce curses, I look up, knowing he has finished the parting gift Avernus left us — that myfatherleft me. The mere thought of that man fathering makes my flesh break out in goosebumps, realizing his evilness runs through my veins.

“That fucking piece of shit,” Justyce bellows, and I huff out a breath.

“Who was the guy?”

“What?” I ask, turning toward Acheron.

“Who was the guy my father saw you screwing?”

I flinch at the anger behind his words, a splinter of guilt working through my body. Swallowing, I turn away from him and stand up to pace around the room.

“Raine.”

Flicking my gaze back to Acheron, I see him standing with an unreadable expression on his face. “Gabe.”

I watch him work his jaw and see Justyce looking between us, and it’s the first time since this occurred that I’ve had a moment to think back on all the inappropriate shit that’s happened between Acheron and me over the last few months.

“Gabe? As in Clandestine Moments, Gabe?”

“What does that club have to do with this?” Justyce questions, sounding confused.

“Let’s wait until Raine answers.”

Heaving out a deep breath, I nod my head. “Yes, that Gabe.”

“I told you to stay away from him, Raine.”

“And I’m a grown ass woman, Acheron. I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”

“You’re too good for him.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“I fucking do, and if you knew an inkling about him, then you’d know that.”

My anger and frustration brew under the surface, ire seeping into my flesh and burning underneath the epidermis as I glare at him. “That I don’t know he’s done business with you, with the Tartarus Mafia?”

Acheron’s eyes flare wide momentarily before he schools them.

“Yeah, he told me, asswipe, so what else?”

“He fucks young girls, Raine! He’s into that daddy kink shit.”

“You mean he fucks young, consenting women, and so what if he’s into daddy kink? We all have our vices.”