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When I lean back, her lips thin and tighten. “Hemlock.”
A smirk spreads on my face. She’s smart. Always has been. That’s how she came up with this idea, of course.
“What will your silence cost me?” she asks.
Poisoning your husband in front of six patriarchs is a risky business.
Especially when one of them catches you in the act.
“You know I’ll help you …” I mutter, and I look her deep in the eyes. “But you have to help me out as well.”
She mulls it over for a few seconds, eyeing her husband and Natalie from the corner of her eyes before returning her attention toward me. Then she nods.
It’s all I need … To secure this brilliant idea and use it to my advantage.
Chapter 20
Natalie
In the middle of the night, I wake up to a face perching right beside my bed.
I scream.
Nothing comes out of my mouth. A hand has been placed over my face.
The person whispers, “Quiet!”
It’s only then that I notice the scars on her face.
“Mom?” I mutter, barely awake. She’s not wearing her golden mask, which is what threw me off.
What’s going on?
Why is she here?
And why is she wearing a coat and shoes?
She places a finger on her lips and shakes her head, then peers over my shoulder. Noah’s lying beside me. Somehow, during the night, he found his way into my bed. I smile when I look at him.
My mother nudges me. “C’mon.”
I blink a couple of times to get rid of the sand in my eyes. I’m still completely delirious from sleeping and have no idea what she wants from me. “Why?”
“Just come with me,” she whispers, tugging at me.
Eventually, I let her drag me out of bed, and she covers me with a robe. “Here, put this on.” She places some loafers on the floor and grabs a scarf, which she wraps around my neck. When I’ve put the shoes on, she says, “Now follow me.”
She immediately rushes out of the room and down the stairs, and I’m having trouble keeping up. She skittishly glances around the hallway, pausing for a few seconds before running down the left hallway and into the auditorium. She bolts down the carpet lining the floor all the way to the big wooden doors in the back that lead directly into the community.
There, she freezes, and she touches the wood with the palms of her hand.
“What are you doing?”
She puts her ears against the door. “No guards tonight. Good.”
“Where are we going?” I whisper as I stand behind her, watching her every move.
She fumbles in her pockets. “Out.”
Feverish adrenaline rushes through my veins when she says that word.
Does she mean escape?
But we already tried that, more than once, and it always failed. Why would it be different now?
“It won’t work. They’ll catch us in no time. I tried at night,” I say.
“No,” she hisses over her shoulder. “We need to be somewhere on the grounds.”
I frown, confused. “Why?”
“You’ll see. Now, c’mon,” she says, and she opens the door. Just like that. That door that has kept us prisoners for so long is unlocked easily as though it wasn’t ever closed at all.
But it was … I remember … because when I first came here, I searched through this house and jerked at all the doors in the hopes that they’d set me free, and they never did.
“Did you find a key?” I ask as I follow her outside.
She looks around to see if anyone’s there before traipsing down the stairs. “Find?” She snorts. “Stole is more like it.”
“From where?” I ask as I come down to walk beside her.
She moves so quickly that I can barely keep up without panting. “Your father.”
My eyes widen.
“Don’t ask me how. You don’t want to know,” she says.
I stop her in her tracks by grabbing her arm. “Yes, I do.”
She eyes me down. “I did what I had to do.”
I narrow my eyes. “What did you do?”
She jerks free from my grip. “What anyone in my position would do.”
“Did you … kill him?” I mumble, shocked.
“No, of course not.” She sighs, rolling her eyes. “Not yet, anyway.”
I don’t know whether to cry, laugh, or smirk at that statement.
“There’s no time for this. We need to go. Now.” She grabs my hand and pulls me along with her.
If she won’t tell me, that must mean she did something out of line and dangerous. And I’m totally here for it. Even though I’m scared to death of getting caught, the thrill of knowing we’re doing something against the rules revitalizes me like nothing else can. I’ve not felt this alive since I last jumped over that fence and ran off into the woods.
And we’re getting damn close too.
“Here,” Mother whispers. She runs up to the hut’s door and knocks five times, with three of them being faster than the first two.
