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“You think you’re so smart, Clementine. Marry into the Prince fortune so I wouldn’t be able to touch you, is that it?” He laughs a quick short laugh. “Gabriel doesn’t scare me.”
“You don’t know about Gabriel and me?” I ask, wondering if he even knows about how I was forced into this marriage.
“Know what?”
If he doesn’t know, I’m not going to be the one to tell him every detail.
“All I know is how you’ve been lying to me for years, and now I’m here to collect my property.”
“Over my dead body,” I sneer.
“Duke, get her inside,” Bishop says, nodding over to a small hut next to the ocean.
Duke steps closer, and I all but growl at him not to touch me. I follow him into the straw dwelling, because there’s no sense in running.
When I step into the tiny shack, there’s a small chair and Duke pushes me down on it. “What now?”
Bishop enters, sucking out all the air with him, like a black hole ready to do the darkest deeds of the devil. “I’m debating how I’m going to return you to Gabriel. In pieces or not at all.”
I gulp down some air, unable to get enough into my lungs. I’m about to have a full on panic attack, and I try to calm down.
Breathe in. Breathe out. A loud explosion rocks the silence, and then there’s shouting and chaos all around me. My arms fly over my head, shielding myself from the mayhem.
“Hands up,” I hear a male voice shout from outside.
Bishop only laughs, the sound more sinister than his looks. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“And now here I am.” Gabriel steps over the threshold of the hut and I choke on a sob. I can’t believe he’s really here.
He glances over at me. “Are you all right?” he asks.
I nod.
“As I was telling your fiancee,” Bishop says, stepping closer to Gabriel, “I just want what’s mine.”
And then, I think I must be dreaming. I have to be imagining this. A dream so vivid, it seems real, but isn’t. There’s just no way.
“Even in death, I couldn’t escape you,” my sister says, stepping around Gabriel.
I blink. I scrunch my eyes, because surely they must be deceiving me, but when I open them, she’s still there.
“Let them go,” she says, “and you can have me.”
“Savannah?” I whisper.
Eyes the same color as mine look over at me. “Clem,” her voice breaks, before she presses her lips together and turns back to Bishop, saying, “Let hergo.”
Gabriel’s eyes ground me, urging me not to freak out. Tears flood my vision. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. I’ve mourned her and never ever forgotten her. And now she’s here. In the living, flesh and blood. I’ve carried this secret about Tennyson all this time, not knowing she was still alive.
I shake my head. “No, we’re not leaving without you.” Tears stream down my cheeks, my whole system about ready to crash and burn, and Gabriel inches closer to me.
“And I’m not leaving here without what I came for.” Bishop says, stepping closer to Savannah. “I knew you’d return from the dead, just like a phoenix. And I knew if I took your sister it would flush you out. I always suspected you were alive.” He stares at her like she’s an enigma. “I caught wind of the possibility of it when that crazy old man, Joseph Prince, died.”
Savannah shakes her head. “Let her go.” Savannah’s voice is stronger now. Like she’s in control.
My heart bangs in my ears as my stomach clenches. I feel like I could puke, but I don’t dare move. Sweat trickles down my forehead, and I clench my fists tightly together in my lap.
Behind Gabriel’s shoulder, I see Ronin. He doesn’t take his eyes off Savannah.
