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“An ass that wiped my memories and yours, too, apparently.”
I ran my hands over my face, and looked up at her. “I never knew I had sisters.”
She opened her mouth to spit something back at me, and stopped short, tilting her head to the side in surprise. “You—you believe me?”
I hoisted myself up off the floor again, standing to my full height. “It’s kind of hard to deny when you’re standing in front of me with that face on. Not to mention the fact you got past the estate wards. Those things are backed up by decades of Devereaux magic. Neither one of us would have the chops to mess with those.”
Her eyebrows reached for her hairline. “Good. That’s at least one thing I can put in the win column.”
“Maybe so, but it still doesn’t explain why I'm here. It doesn’t explain why you tried to make me kill my husband.” I shifted my weight and one of the boards under my heel sank a few millimeters into the ground. My heart sprang into my throat. If I moved quick enough, I could pry the boards apart and break the circle.
Poppet laughed. “You’re right, it doesn’t.”
“I just want to understand.” I pressed my heel a little harder into the floor, and the wood gave a little more. “You’re my sister.”
“You want to understand? Okay. You might want to sit back down again,” she said. “It’s a long story.”
“How about the abridged version? This floor isn’t exactly comfortable.”
“Tough,” she said. “You’re stuck.”
“Whatever, just speak. I’m tired of trying to figure this out,” I said.
“Matteo found the block in my memory. He removed it and the first thing I remembered was a name, myrealname: Penelope Devereaux. Then came the actual memories, and they led me to you. We talked, and you convinced me to confront Viktor. It was exactly the kind of conversation I had hoped for. I was even excited to meet our uncle. I thought for once in my life I was gonna get the truth. I thought I’d finally get to learn everything there was to know about me and where I came from. But you…you went in there and exploded. You attacked him and then he tried to send me away. He actually tried to re-wipe my memory.”
“So, you killed him in self-defense?”
“You could say that.” She shrugged.“You’re not the only one in this family with a temper.”
“Great. Did you learn anything from him before you killed him?”
“Nothing I didn’t already know. He essentially told me that he didn’t want me, and that I should go back to where I came from.”
“God, that man was an ass.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “He was an ass. Really? That’s all you have to say? I was locked in a Wallachian torture box for five years because of you! She’s in my head because of you.”
“A what?” I was beginning to understand her fractured thinking and anger towards me.
“It must have been nice growing up knowing you were wanted. Viktor certainly didn’t want me. He never did. He picked you. You’re the chosen one. The golden child, raised with the silver spoon in your mouth.”
I laughed. “Viktor put me through hell!”
“You think your life was hell. You have no idea how good you had it.” Poppet’s eyes flashed. “Hesoldme to the highest bidder, and you watched him do it!”
“I don’t remem—”
“Enough. We tried this the easy way and it isn’t working,” she snarled. “I know you don’t remember. But you will.”
Her hands shot out in my direction, flashing with red and black energy. It sparked across the circle line and a bomb went off inside my skull.
33
Remember Me
It was probably less than a minute before I passed out, but the pain followed me into my dreams. It felt as if I’d swallowed a swarm of bees and a mountain of broken glass. Every breath hurt. My arms and legs burned as if I’d been flayed alive from the inside out.
The darkness behind my eyelids transformed into a cloud of smoke, and a herd of voices crawled up from the silence. One after another, a cacophony of noise. I tried to catch a phrase to make sense of the sound, but every time I caught a word, it slipped away.
