“How can ye be so casual about death?” Lavina gasped, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. She needed air and distance.
“We are all destined for the grave, Lavina. It is how we live that’s most important. And after years of growin’ stronger—me rage fuelin’ me every move, vengeance the force behind every decision—I finally came across them again. A decade had passed. The men I had wanted to fight had grown old and feeble. That’s when I realized that life is the punishment.”
Lavina pulled away. The fragile little world Theo had created vanished in an instant. The fur dropped from her shoulders, and the firelight illuminated the stone walls of the chamber.
The dream was gone.
“How did ye do it? How did ye find the ones who killed yer family?” she asked, scrambling off the bed and folding her arms over her chest to secure her loose corset.
“Are ye seriously nae listenin’ to a word I’m tellin’ ye?” Theo barked as she hunted for a way out of the room.
The urge to get away from him was overwhelming. But where could she go? It wasn’t like she had a haven to flee to. Any place outside the keep was a danger zone.
And then it hit her.
Lavina turned to him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion as she found the words. “Ye’ve spun a tale of forgiveness and mercy tonight. Why?”
Theo shrugged his shoulders. “The better question is, why wait five years to confess the need to hunt down yer family’s killer? If the need was so strong, why didnae ye go and find the killers before now?”
“Jonah swore to me he would look into it,” Lavina answered. “And for the first few months after their passin’, he was busy lookin’ into it and then he stopped.”
“Did he tell ye why?”
“Said that he couldnae chase smoke and that we’d have to just come to the undrstandin’ that our family was taken before theirtime. Micah wasnae very helpful either, and it was hard, but it was Maisie who helped me just as much as I helped her.”
“And when ye asked questions? Did he give ye any answers?”
Lavina chewed on her lower lip and shook her head. “He was understanding at first, but his patience snapped, and I barely got any chance to ask. Then, he had me thinkin’ of Maisie. He’d been eyein’ her for so long that I had to protect her.”
“Tell me what connections yer uncle has to pirates.”
“What? Pirates? How would I ken what devious things me uncle does or plans, let alone who he invites to social events?” Lavina scoffed, feeling heat flood through her.
“I say this because the brutes who tried to take Maisie hailed from Yorkshire. All four men bore the same mark on their wrists. So I’m goin’ to ask again—what is yer uncle’s connection to such people?”
“I dinnae ken… I dinnae ken about the marks…” Lavina trailed off.
She closed her eyes for a moment, but the memory consumed and chewed her to bits.
“Ye will do well nae to wake up the castle. I doubt me braither will let ye leave with yer life. Now, pledge yerself to me…” Micah’s voice was low and gravelly.
Lavina held her breath, terrified the floorboards would creak under her weight and give her away. Out of all the places Maisie could have left a book, she had to leave it in the room her uncle happened to be using.
“Me loyalty is to ye, I swear it,” the man said, before shoving the leather strap of his belt in his mouth.
She dared to peek around the corner, only to witness her uncle towering over a strange man with a hot iron in his hand.
The horror and pain on the man’s face had haunted her dreams for months. Deep down, she could have sworn she had dreamed the whole encounter up.
But as she clung to the memory, the prick of reality shot through her like an arrow to the heart.
“Oh Lord. I think I need some water,” she gasped, feeling incredibly lightheaded.
The room spun as she pieced together the past she had locked out.
“Lavina?”
She looked at Theo as the name formed on her tongue. “Micah… He killed them, did he nae?”
