“Well, until you betrayed me.”
He stooped down beside me, careful to balance his weight on his toes and not touch the filthy ground that surrounded me. I kept my sight on Talon until Edmund’s long fingers turned my head toward him, so that my eyes had no choice but to stare into his. I would not give in. I would not close my eyes in fear, not in these last moments.
“Tell me, how long did Cail help you? How did you help him to block the ?tít?”
My confidence broke, confusion weaseling its way into my expression as I looked at him. I had no idea what he was talking about. I wasn’t going to tell him that, however. I wasn’t going to give into the game he was obviously playing. I would not place myself inside of his trap.
“Did you do the same to Ryland?”
I waited, his eyes digging in to mine. He glared into me, his patience leaving as he slammed my head into the metal bars behind me.
“Answer me!” he roared, his hand pushing me back into the bars again. I howled at the pain, my hands moving toward my head in an attempt to ease the pressure.
They had only made it halfway before the heavy iron shackles snaked through the air to wrap around my wrists. The large bands jerked me away from the bars, my body dragging against the stone as the chains pulled me back against the wall, my arms extending above my head.
“What did you do?” Edmund roared, his face coming within inches of mine. I looked away from him and toward my father, who stood by the stairs with a wicked smile turning up his lips. I looked at Sain, who sat against the bars of his cell, his green eyes narrowed at me in both warning and expectation.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said, my voice strained from the awkwardness of the position that Edmund had placed me in.
Edmund’s eyes narrowed at me, his face moving in close until his nose was only an inch away from my face, his polar blue eyes the only thing left for me to focus on.
“Don’t lie to me,” he warned. “Tell me what else he did when he stopped your father’s curse and tried to save your life. Tell me what happened when he put those pretty marks on your skin.” Edmund dragged his finger along the dark marks as he spoke, his finger pressing painfully against my bruises.
I cringed against the pain, my eyes narrowing at him. Cail didn’t try to save my life, he had tried to kill me. Just as my father had, but the curse misfired and instead marked my skin.
“N…no,” I managed to stutter out, my confusion growing.
“What secret did Cail hide inside your pretty little mind?”
“What?” I gasped, unable to keep my confusion at bay any longer. But Edmund only smiled as he closed the gap between us and pressed his cheek against mine. I felt the uncomfortable warmth of his skin and the iciness of his blood pulsing just underneath the surface.
“Don’t worry, Wynifred, you will remember everything soon.” He smiled and moved away from me, the chains around my wrists tightening, lifting me up so I could only balance on the balls of my feet.
“I’m sorry, sir, but what exactly are you saying?” I guess I wasn’t the only one who was confused. My father looked between us as he too tried to fit together the missing pieces.
Edmund, however, seemed to be enjoying keeping more than one person in the dark. He smiled as he turned to face me again.
“You remember that night, don’t you, Timothy?” Edmund taunted, his eyes feeling like warm lasers cutting into my brain.
“Texas, 1867. A simple assignment – kill Thom. After four hundred years of flawlessly killing every person I commanded her to, Wynifred here missteps. She tells me Thom is in Texas and not in Italy as I had already ascertained. So off she goes to Texas, to kill the father of her child. But I see through it, and I follow her…”
My mouth opened automatically, my jaw working in disbelief. Four hundred years of working for Edmund, a child, Thom…none of this was my life.
“That never…”
“That never happened?” Edmund asked, his cynical voice twisting the meaning behind my words. “You don’t remember it? Then tell me what you do remember.”
He arched his eyebrows, his lips curling in a wicked half smile as he waited.
That night. The night when I got the marks, I remembered it perfectly. The flash of light, my brother’s face, the yelling. I remember feeling scared. I remember…I don’t…what was said? My jaw worked its way open and shut like the jaws of a fish as my brain tried to find the words to answer his questions.
“Don’t remember what happened? How about your childhood? What happened then?” He had moved closer, but I barely noticed. My childhood…I couldn’t remember. I could see faces, feel emotions, but exactly what happened…how…there was nothing there.
“Can’t remember can you?”