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When I’m all cried out, I lay there, hiccupping. My head pounds, my heart aches, and a kaleidoscope of memories of Chase and I begin funneling through my head. Every moment with him from the day we first met until now plays inside my head like a movie.
I’m unsure how long I lay there, lost in my memories of Chase. The key rattling in the lock brings me back to reality, hope flaring inside my chest. Everything hurts as I struggle to move.
The door opens, and I blink against the light from the flickering candle.
“What are you doing on the floor?” Her veiled figure looms over me before she reaches down, grabbing me beneath my armpits and helping me to my feet. “The power is out from the storm. Some of the rooms in this house run on an emergency generator. The attic isn’t one of them.” She pulls out a flashlight from inside the pocket of her dress. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“Rosario. He was here. Orpheus. He took Chase…” My voice is coming out in panicked gasps, unable to finish speaking.
“I know.” She tilts the flashlight up toward our faces, and I see the sympathy shining in her eyes. “It’s okay. Daemon is with them.”
I don’t know why that makes me feel a little better, but it offers a small shred of relief. Rosario locks the door behind me, her arm wrapped around my waist. “Come on. Let’s get you upstairs. I need to see if you’re injured.”
Confusing thoughts blur my mind as we make the slow ascent up the stairs. Once we reach the top, Rosario shines the light on the mattress and helps me toward it. She wraps my trembling body in the two blankets before helping me sit.
“Stay here. I need to grab more candles.” Hurrying away, she disappears down the steps, leaving me reeling. As much as I don’t like fraternizing with the enemy, Rosario is the only one I have right now. I need her if I want to know what happened with Chase.
When she returns, her arms are laden with candles. Placing them at strategic points to illuminate me. After lighting each one around me, she moves to the table where Chase and I eat, placing one on it. After lighting it, she takes a step back, her eyes widening.
Her eyes are fixed on the cut ropes still hanging from the ceiling. Signs of the struggle are illuminated by the flickering candlelight and the storm, including my fingernail marks on the floorboards.
“What happened?” She turns her pale, veiled face to mine, her eyes wide. One hand flies to her throat, twisting the rosary that is hanging from her neck beneath the veil.
“C-Chase and I were asleep. O-Orpheus came in and…” I swallow hard, my mouth as dry as the desert. “He must’ve injected Chase with something.” I point to where an empty vial lay on the floor. “Then he pulled me from the mattress and… raped me.”
Rosario looks sick as she takes a step back, her hands trembling. “No. He had no business doing?—”
I stare at her, begging her to finish. But Rosario clamps her mouth shut, her panicked expression telling all.
“Where were you tonight, Rosario?” My tone is gentle, inviting conversation.
“I had to deliver a baby. I’m a nurse and midwife.”
“Oh. That’s nice.” I look away, my mind filled with the horror of getting pregnant by Orpheus and bearing his child. Thank God Rosario secretly injected me with birth control. “Was she… Like me?”
Rosario is quiet for a moment before moving closer to me. “No. She is married. They are part of the Divinity of the Chosen Ones.”
“She’s not a…” I pause, knowing Rosario won’t like hearing captive or victim. Finally, I use the term Orpheus uses for us, cringing when I whisper it. “Sacrifice.”
“No, she’s not. But there have been a couple of young ladies, like you, who weren’t sacrificed and chose this as their world. As it is mine.” She says the last part so quietly, my ears strain to hear her.
I shudder at the thoughts racing through my head. Curiosity wins out. “They changed the narrative. Became something other than a sacrifice?” A loud crack of thunder makes me jump and yelp.
“It’s okay, Mackenzie. You’re safe from the storm in here.” Her trembling fingers twist and turn the rosary, her movements agitated before she finally says, “Yes. They became like me.”
Shock fills me. I can’t imagine choosing this life. But if you have no other choice, or if you’re suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, it makes sense why they agreed. But being Orpheus’s slave, like Rosario is, fills me with revulsion.
Surprised that Rosario is opening up to me, and terrified to be on my own, I pat the mattress beside me, my voice pleading when the words come from my lips. “Rosario. I-I’m scared. W-Would you sit and talk to me?” My pulse thrums against my skin. I’m certain she’s going to say no, but I’m surprised when she lifts the hem of her long dress and settles on the mattress beside me.
“T-Thank you.”
She nods, then shocks me again when one pale hand gently touches my arm. “Your boy. He’s okay.”
My heart kicks up a couple of notches inside my chest. “You mean Chase?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God.” I close my eyes, hoping that remains true. I couldn’t bear it if anything were to happen to him. “What are they doing with him?”
