AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ruth…” I utter, broken, shocked, unable to process.
Her body rips from his in surprise, spinning with her hand over her mouth to face us. And I’ve never seen anyone look so completely caught off guard. We might as well have walked in on her mid-orgasm.
“Shit,” she breathes into her hand.
Dessin is the first of us to move. Taking a murderous step forward while I’m still here in the helpless form of a statue.
“Take your fucking hands off her.” The careful steps forward are those of an apex predator creeping in on its prey.
Kaspias smirks at his brother, lifting his hands to show he is no threat to her whatsoever.
“Did he hurt you?” I finally find my voice.
The length of Ruth’s throat ripples as she swallows deeply. Her soothing brown eyes search mine, and to both my relief and horror, she shakes her head.
“Ruth?” Warrose’s voice cracks.
“Are you going to tell them, darling?” Kaspias purrs with smugness written all over his grin.
“Tell us what?” Dessin grits.
Ruth looks down at her bare feet, wipes her mouth with the pad of her thumb. She glances over at Kaspias, though not in fear or disgust. She looks at him for support.
The tall, edgy commander gives her an encouraging nod.
What the fuck is happening right now?
“The assignment I was given didn’t seem hard at the time. But then, I didn’t expect to love you all so much,” Ruth says, releasing a shaky breath and pinning her meaningful gaze to me.
“What are you talking about?” I have no idea if I’m speaking or if it’s Niles or Marilynn. I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like I’ve stepped into an alternate reality.
She bites her lip, twirling a curl around her index finger. “I was assigned to watch you all. To report back on everything I learned. It was an honor to receive these kinds of orders…but once I met you and went through everything we experienced together…”
Ruth’s eyes fill with tears as the new reality sets in. It weighs me down like a house has collapsed on my shoulders. Sure, it’s convincing. But I don’t fucking buy it.
“No.” I breathe through my nose to steady myself. “He can’t force you to say these things, Ruth. We’re soul sisters. I know it in my heart.”
Ruth sighs miserably, looking back to Kaspias with an extended hand. He holds it in his, and at this, I take an offended step backward. No. NO.
Dessin’s muscles flex, then go rigid beside me. He turns his head, staring at me like he’s partially convinced.
But it’s a lie!
“I love you, Skylenna. That wasn’t a lie. I’m not some monster without feelings,” she explains with watery eyes that look two seconds from spilling over. “But I was given an assignment that I had to carry out.”
“Shut up!” I flinch, heat rising to my face like a vicious sunburn.
“You’re good people! But this is how I was raised!” She’s crying now, snot forming in her nose, which she repeatedly sniffles.
I flip my attention on Dessin. “Tell me she’s lying. Look at her body language. Tell me she’s been drugged or brainwashed.”
Dessin’s mouth parts like he wants to give me the honest answer that his instincts are telling him. But his dark chocolate eyes flick to my shaking hands, my twitching eye. He raises his chin at the challenge, examining her the way he would do to anyone who entered his room in the asylum. Patient Thirteen, the entity that could pick you apart, the being that could pull your secrets from your grasp like a loose thread.
Warrose steps forward, fists clenched, but face lacking any emotion.
“Tell me the truth. Is he forcing you to say this?”
She looks at Warrose with slumping shoulders. “I wish he was.”
