Page 535 of Coal Hearts

“He didn’t say anything.” I looked up and stepped back. “And that’s the problem.”

Peter studied my eyes. His own gave too much away. Asking me to seduce Henri hurt him. His love for me exceeded the bounds of friendship. And every day he grew stronger, I feared he’d step over the line between us and force me to admit that I loved him as deeply as I did my brother, but...the tormented beast I slept with conjured a different sort of—

Not love.

Never that.

What I felt for Henri had no title, no definition.

It was just...ugh.

Kissing Peter’s cheek, I smiled at the girls and backed away. “Look, I’ll try again tonight. I’ll do whatever it takes to find out if Henri can be trusted. I’ll see you later.”

Slipping out of the kitchens, I broke into a run.

Henri would most likely be in the library working.

That would give me time to figure out how the hell I could get through to him...before it was too late.

Chapter Eighteen

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Henri

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THE CURSE OF BLOOD & DARKNESS

by

Henri Mercer

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THE BOY WHO WOULD NEVER be my brother, despite the shared blood in our veins, appeared in the wing of the house where we were kept.

He emerged covered in blood. A gun in his hand and murder in his eyes. He looked at us as if we were something he’d scraped off his shoe. A hoard of children sired by his father, a harem of women who’d been his chattel.

Two of my little sisters crawled into my arms, breaking into wails as Quincy strode amongst our midst. Counting us, he nodded, then spun on his heel and left.

A day later, the locks on the doors and the bars on the windows were removed. Our mothers were interviewed and given rooms. Their children going with them.

By the time my mother and I were dragged before the new lord and master, my mother had pissed herself in fear and I prepared to kill him if he laid a single finger on her like our father had.

Instead, he’d handed her an envelope and offered to send her home.

We’d been flown far, far away.

I didn’t get to say goodbye to my half-blooded siblings.

And that was when the loneliness set in.

Amnesia wrapped my memories in forgetfulness far stronger than the blackouts of before.

I’d deliberately forgotten what my father did to those women so I didn’t pass on the curse to my sisters and brothers.

But now I deleted those siblings from my mind so I didn’t have to suffer heartbreak every time I remembered I’d once had a family, and now I had none—