Chapter One
Ares (10 years old)
“I love you, Ares. You know that. I’m doing this for you. Forus. Don’t you want to be together? Don’t you love me?”
I feel sick to my stomach as Mom’s fingers dig into my shoulders. Her ice-blue eyes, too wide and too bright, like they’re on fire, won’t let mine go. Everyone tells me I have her eyes.Do I look this crazy and scary?
Just the idea makes me feel cold, like I’m about to throw up. I don’t want to scare anybody with her kind of craziness, especially not the girl I met since Mom brought me here.
I can’t afford to give in to the urge to hit Mom. It’d only get my hands tied to the old wooden chair, too. So far Mom has left my arms free, but tied my torso, legs and ankles tightly to the chair. I’ve tried to get free, but can’t. Mom’s a good sailor, and knows a lot of ways to knot a rope. Maybe I should’ve gone sailing with her a few times when she asked so I could’ve learned how to undo her knots. But by the time I was old enough, my parents’ marriage had begun to fall apart, eventually ending in gunshots, a 911 call and a lot of ugly publicity that Grandmother says brought shame to the family. Now they’re in the middle of a vicious divorce. Well, Dad is forcing it, even though Mom doesn’t want to leave him.
And now she’s trying to avoid it by kidnapping me. She would’ve gotten the twins, too, but I fought and made it impossible for her to grab all three of us. Bet she regrets that. I’mstubborn, but I’d give in if she’d threatened to hurt Bryce and Josh.
She must see something in my face, because she relaxes her grip and pulls back, giving me some space. Finally, I can breathe without smelling that gross floral perfume. Even the shampoo she uses smells like flowers—makes me want to puke every time her pale golden hair brushes over me.
The air inside the cabin is stale, like old bread. A small window behind me is open to let fresh air in, but it isn’t enough to hide the smell of old fungus. Twigs and dirt cover the floor, and the dusty spider webs over the fireplace mean that nobody’s been here in a long time.
If only I could get loose…!The door is just a few feet away, right behind Mom. I doubt she stays anywhere near the cabin after her daily visits. There isn’t any electricity here—I haven’t seen any lights, and when the sun goes down, the cabin plunges into absolute darkness. The pitch-black nights combined with the sounds of rustling animals and bugs are torturous enough to make me want to agree to whatever Mom wants, which is why she’s doing this—in the name of love.
Mom sighs harshly and looks around. Then she gestures at the plate of freshly baked cookies with a maternal smile, her exasperation disappearing faster than a drop of water on a hot pan.
My empty belly twists hard. The cookies smellso good.
“I brought them for you.” Mom’s voice is calmer, more in control. I don’t trust it. She always appears sane and sweet, like those fairytale villains who pretend that they’re good guys before they show their real selves. “Why don’t you have some? You haven’t had anything to eat in the last five days.”
“I’m not hungry.” But my stomachreallyhurts. I’ve never been this hungry before, but I’m not gonna let her see it.
Of course, my belly decides to growl. Triumph flashes in Mom’s eyes. “Was that a sad little sound from your tummy?” She shoots me a teasing smile. “Are yousureyou don’t want—”
“I don’t like cookies.” My voice is shaky with betrayal and helplessness. I never expected Mom to drag me to some cabin in the woods. Our fight made her lose Bryce and Josh, so she then put something in my food that left me unable to think or move. “No more defiance,” she said with a softtut-tut.
Once I figured out that the food was making me unable to fight, I quit eating. I don’t care how bad the hunger gets; I’d rather die of starvation than be under her control like that. I might not understand everything, but I know enough to realize she wants to use me to get Bryce and Josh—and manipulate Dad. I overheard Grandmother say Mom wasn’t getting anything—no alimony, no custody. Words I know because our whole family is lawyers.
Mom cradles my face in her delicate hands, stroking my cheeks and chin with a tenderness that makes my skin crawl. Her unblinking blue eyes focus on me, studying my eyes, my nose, my mouth. “You’re so much like your father. He’s the only man I ever loved,” she whispers, her gaze softening briefly. “Flowers. Fireworks. Torrid confessions and whirlwind trips everywhere so we could mark the world with our passion. You’re the fruit of that love.”
I grit my teeth, trying not to throw up. If I weren’t hoping for the girl’s secret visit again, I’d puke up the uncomfortable acid in my belly.
I don’t know who she is—she wouldn’t even share her name. She’s much smaller than my twin brothers, and they’re two years younger than me. She has messy golden hair, a pointed chin and different-colored eyes, one green and one blue. Dirt and leaves stick to her bare feet, and her skin is almost as pale as the grass-stained white dress she wears. She looks like some kind of awild forest fairy, except she’s always carrying Wonder Bread and bottled water.
Three days ago, the first time she broke into the cabin, she asked me if I was hungry. I was starving after not having eaten for two days. She gave me a slice of the bread, and I gobbled it down and regretted it when it was all gone within a second. She nibbled on a slice of her own, focused on chewing like it was the most important thing in the world. She offered me another slice. “I can’t give you more because it’s for the whole week. But if you want, I can come by tomorrow.”
Then she shared her water with me. She kept her promise to come back. But she wouldn’t tell me her name, even when I threatened to call her “Bread Fairy.”
That only made her giggle. “Ew.”
“Then what? Princess?”
“Nope.” She tilted her chin up. “Princesses have no power.”
“Yeah they do.”
“Haven’t you read any fairytales? They get bossed around. I wanna be a queen. Nobody tellsthemwhat to do.”
“So you want to be called ‘your majesty’?”
“Nope. Just ‘Queen’ would do fine.”
“Of course. Queen Wonder Bread,” I said, making it sound all formal, and she giggled again.
