AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My name is Nina Thorn, and my brother is Magnus Thorn.”
I blink. “I don’t know who those people are.”
She sighs. “I know. Because unlike the Elite Kings, they very much keep to the other side of the spectrum. In the dark. I don’t have time to go into explaining of the complexities of Thornhill, but Magnus put me in your life so that I could watch your father. Within the first year, they both came to a silent agreement that they’d stay out of each other’s way. Neither of them addressed one another, but they stuck to their agreement. My family, Halen, are nothing like yours, but are in the sense that we don’t follow a set of rules. It’s more of a family business, than a society.” I hear the faint sound of a car coming in the distance and I squeeze the phone in my hand. “Don’t leave, Halen. These people, they are bad. He is a bad man. Magnus can help you. Hehas history with these people and knows what he’s dealing with. Please let me help you get out of this.”
I swipe the tears from my eyes as they fall. “It’s not me who needs to be helped. You cannot tell Dad. You’ll put people I care about in a dangerous position.”
“I won’t,” she whispers. “I won’t say a word to your father. I’m going to get you out.”
I shake my head, my eyes flicking up to the van that’s heading this way. “You can’t help. Goodbye, Nina.”
I toss my phone into the snow as a van pulls up to the curb. The doors slide open to an empty back seat. I take a deep breath and step inside, shutting the door behind myself. The driver’s face is hidden behind a ski mask, as he turns the van around and drives off the same way he came.
“You have anything on you?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“How’d you get here?”
“Taxi.” I rest my head against the window and watch trees fly past my window.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
I glare at him in the rearview mirror. “I really don’t care.”
He doesn’t speak again.
Hours later, my body jolts in my seat. I blink through the haze of my sleep.
In the van. On my way to be the sacrificial lamb.
The sliding door squeaks when it slides open onto the man who gave me the video.
He widens his arm out to the side. “Out of the car, Hayes.”
My boots hit the cloud of snow when I follow his instruction.
“Follow me.”
Shivers break out over my body when I finally lift my head to take in my new surroundings, while maintaining a safe distance behind him. A scattering of office-size pods circle a largerbuilding that sits right in the middle of the broad field. The ceilings are all low and flat, the style simplistic and kind of… weird. Like cubes that blend with the snow.
Blankets of sleet cover the crops and gardens, and there’s a fenced-off corner that keeps in smaller animals.
I follow the small path behind him as he leads me to the main building. Stark white walls encase the mustard yellowing of the door. It opens, and his long arm gestures for me to enter.
I pause for a moment, my feet stuck to the ground. There’s no second-guessing myself. I’d do it over and over again if it meant protecting the people I love.
My foot lands on the carpet inside around a bright flickering light that beams down from the ceiling. The space is empty, with nothing but a rectangular table that stretches down half the length of the room. Chairs are stacked and pushed against the far side wall, and my head tilts up to the enclosed box of glass that covers the entire size of the room.
“Do you like it?” he asks eagerly.
I tense. “I don’t know what it is.”
He makes his way to the other side of the room and opens yet another yellow door.
“You guys like yellow?”
His withered face twists, tracing his goatee with his leathered hand. “I didn’t choose it.”
