He tucks the walkie-talkie away again and shoves me back against the sand.
“Why?” he growls, the look on his face so full of rage that I don’t even dare to look at him.
All I can think about is how I’ve failed. I did everything right, planned it all out, knew exactly what to do … and then I fell.
“What were you even thinking, huh?” he growls. “Did you really think I’d let you go?”
I shake my head and slam my lips together, refusing to reply.
“Amelia.” When he says my name, the tears start to run.
I thought I’d be free. That I’d make it out alive.
And now my time is running out.
“What did you do?” he asks. “What did you tell her?”
“Why does it even matter?” I mutter. “You caught me. It’s over.”
“She’s in the water, goddammit!” he yells, looking up to scour the water again. I’ve never heard him swear before.
Suddenly, Tobias springs out of the forest and runs past us. He’s like a lightning bolt, that’s how fast he is. Without saying a word, he rushes straight into the water.
Is he going to look for Anna? I don’t see her anywhere. She stepped into the water, and then I was pounced down. I couldn’t see a thing. And now she’s gone. Vanished. As though she never even existed in the first place.
And it suddenly becomes hard to breathe.
“You see now?” Eli whispers into my ear. “Do you see what you’ve done?”
Tears roll down my cheeks, sand sticking to my face. “No. We were going to escape.”
“Escape is impossible,” he says. “I told you that on day one. But you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Tell me what this place is,” I reply as we stare each other down. “Tell me where I am. You owe me that.”
His eyes narrow. “I owe you nothing after what you just did.” He gets up and grabs me by the arms. “On your feet.”
He drags me up until I’m standing, keeping me in place in front of him.
“You put not just yourself in danger but Anna too,” he says. “You don’t even know what you’ve done.”
“I freed her,” I say through gritted teeth.
I’m just hoping she made it out alive.
“You think you freed her from blame? From the guilt etching a gaping hole into her heart?” he hisses, and his grip on my arms tightens as he pulls me closer to his body so he can whisper into my ear. “You don’t know everything there is to know.”
“I did what I had to do to get us out of there,” I growl back.
“And you think she needed that?” he retorts. “Wrong. If you knew what she did you wouldn’t blink an eye to save her soul.”
I throw him a look over my shoulder. “You’re wrong.”
He grabs my throat with his free hand and tilts my head up. “She’s here because her world has given up on her. You think what she told you is the full truth? That her grandparents sent her here over a lover boy?” He scoffs, snorting. “She’d be vilified if she was out there. In jail. Or worse. We saved her. She is punished for her sins here.”
“What sins? What could be so bad that you and Tobias had to lock her up and fuck her?”
Finally, it’s out there in the open. Finally, I said it out loud.
The only thought on my mind.
Why are any of us even here?
It’s quiet for a few seconds, the only sounds surrounding us are the birds singing songs in the trees and the waves crashing into the beach. In the distance, Tobias resurfaces from the deep, carrying a lifeless body in his arms. Anna.
Eli’s grip on my throat and chin forces me to watch.
“Look at what you’ve done.”
“She wanted to flee from your House,” I hiss back.
“No … Don’t you understand? She was trying to kill herself.”
My pupils dilate.
“No, that can’t be right. Anna would never.”
Why would she ever do that? She has no reason to.
“You pushed her to run. To escape the guilt that’s drowning her,” he says. “All of you deserve to be here, including her.”
“Why would she do that?” I mutter, my body shivering, not from the cold but from the sheer realization of Anna’s choice.
I can try to deny it all I want, but I saw with my own eyes what she did.
Even when the waves crashed into her, she kept on walking.
Even when she knew there was no escape from this wretched place, she still went for it.
She knew it would kill her.
And she still chose death.
The final words from his mouth undo me. “Her boyfriend was after her money, but she didn’t see it. Instead, he made her believe her parents were the enemy. And in order to be with each other …”
I can finish his sentence without thinking about it with a single breath. “She had them killed.”
Chapter 25
Eli
The second she realized what Anna had done, what her boyfriend did for her, Amelia stopped struggling. Like a meek little lamb, she gave in to the restraints and allowed me to take her away. As Tobias carried Anna out of the water, Amelia’s eyes grew solemn. Like the light had snuffed out deep inside her.
And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting.
Despite the fact that it’s much easier to bring her along when she doesn’t fight for control, the sheer defeat in her eyes still managed to crack the outer shell around my heart.
She should never have tried to escape.
As Tobias passes me, clutching Anna so close to his body, he throws me a single, maddening look. And I pause in my tracks, staring after him with both admiration and rage. I’m not the only one who has fallen in too deep. It’s not just the House that’s at stake anymore.
“Follow me,” I bark.
I’m not in the mood or have the patience for niceties.
All kindness went out the window the moment she decided to run. And to bring Anna along, of all people.
Besides, it’s not like she has any choice in the matter. Everywhere she goes, she’s watched. If she tries to leave now, I’ll catch up in no time. And she won’t be doing anything foolish with those cuffs around her wrists anyway.
I continue walking with her right behind me, determined to bring her back to the House safely and keep her there. How did she even manage to get out of her room in the first place?
“I’m sorry …” she suddenly mutters.
I glance at her over my shoulder. Those are not the words I would have expected to come out of her mouth after this ordeal. “Apologizing will do nothing.”
“I know,” she says, averting her eyes.
I raise a brow. “Then why persist? Do you think it will make me go easy on you?”
She swallows. “No. But I hope it will make you go easy on her.”
My lips part, but I don’t know how to respond. She’s throwing herself under the bus for Anna? Even after everything I just told her?
I stop in my tracks and look at her over my shoulder. “You don’t need to concern yourself with her.”
“But I do,” she says.
“Why? Why do you care?” I ask. “I told you what she did.”
“Everyone deserves forgiveness.” She looks up at me with doe-like eyes, and it hits me just how beautiful she is when she’s pleading for someone else’s life. Of course, she’d see the innocence in people, no matter how depraved they are. She’s too good for this world. Too good, even for me.
I shake it off and force myself to keep walking, despite wanting nothing more than to grab her and kiss her right there on the spot. It wouldn’t be right. She isn’t ready yet. She’s still guilty. She cannot be mine until she’s no longer consumed by sin.
“What is this place?” Amelia asks as we move back into the woods.
“The Isle of Judgment,” I reply, scaling up the rocks.
I reach out with a hand to help her up, but she leans back, her eyes like a h
awk. “Isle of Judgment?”
I expect she’ll laugh about that name, but I wasn’t the one who came up with it. My family has owned this property for generations.
“This is an island?”
Well, that’s not the question I was expecting, but I’ll take it.
A smirk spreads across my lips as I grasp her arm and pull her up to me, her body crashing into mine. “Yes, an island surrounded by water. There is no way to get off this island. No way … unless you do exactly as I tell you.” I cup her face and make her look at me. “You’ll be a good little angel from now on, won’t you?”
Her muscles tug at her top lip, her body straining against mine as she fights the idea of giving up control. But it is already far too late for that.
Suddenly, she loses her footing, and the rock beneath her foot crumbles. She almost falls, but I catch her just in time and pull her back. Her body is tight against mine, her face pressed against my chest.
“I’m curious …” I say, and I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her even closer. “How did you manage to get out of your room?”
“Like I’d ever tell you,” she hisses, narrowing her eyes.
“I think you will,” I murmur as I lean in. “By the time I’m done with you.”
Her whole body shudders, and I can almost taste the rage seeping from her lips, begging me to kiss and fuck them all at the same time. Because even when she says those things, her body leans closer to mine and her lips tremble with greed.
But now is not the time.
I grab her arm and drag her back with me. “Come. We’re going home.”
It takes a while for us to get back to the House, especially when she digs her heels into the dirt several times, to no avail. Nothing will stop me from bringing her back to my domain where she belongs.
The longer it takes to convince her of her sins, the more she’s starting to struggle. It’s about time I pulled the trigger and really showed her what I’m capable of. What I’m willing to do to get her to confess.
I bring her inside and shut the doors tightly. The light wanes from her eyes like curtains closing in front of a window. I take her upstairs and ignore the guard pleading for mercy as he stands near the stairs. I will deal with him later.
I push Amelia forward until she’s back in her room, which has been tidied as much as possible by my assistants, including Mary.
“It will take a while to clear up the mess you made,” I say as I take off the cuffs.
After rubbing her wrists, she stands in the middle of the room and stares at the broken mirror. The guard I found on my way to her had a piece of it lodged inside his neck where he lay there, bleeding out.
Her bloodied hands rise, and she gazes at them, shivering harder and harder.
I should leave. I shouldn’t be here to witness the unraveling of the only girl who has ever managed to persuade me to care. But I am, and I cannot stop myself from stepping closer.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” she whispers.
I place a hand on her shoulder. The air in the room grows thick with unspoken words.
When the moment has passed, Amelia sighs, tears filling her eyes.
“Tell me what you’re thinking about,” I say. “You can speak freely.”
She looks down at her feet. “Anything I do or say will cause punishment. Either to me or to others. It is all my fault. My fault he died. My fault that Anna almost …”
“Every action has a consequence,” I interject.
She averts her eyes. “You said that before, and I didn’t believe you …”
“I was only trying to warn you,” I say, sighing when the tear rolls down her cheek.
I slowly spin her on her heels and make her look at me. I pick up the tear with my thumb and look at it for a moment, wondering how such a little droplet of water can have such immense effects on one’s soul. And more specifically, mine.
Which is why it hurts so much to say this. “But I cannot let this go.”
I turn and walk away.
“Eli!”
Her call makes me stop. I look at her over my shoulder, one foot out the door, the other still inside her room.
“How much longer?” she asks.
“As long as it takes,” I respond.
The darkness returns to her eyes, that same darkness that appears every time she realizes she cannot get out of this, no matter how hard she tries.
But something has changed.
A whisper deep down in her soul, chattering words she never thought she’d hear from her own heart.
She’s not innocent.
She never was.
Amelia
Anna has stopped talking to me entirely. Every time I go to the vent and peel the curtains away to say something, there’s no reply. I’ve peered through the hole, and all I see are curtains time and time again. It’s like she completely forgot I’m here too.
I don’t know if she’s upset with me because of what happened. If she blames me for not succeeding. If she wished Tobias hadn’t saved her.
All this time, I thought she wanted to be freed, that she wanted to be rescued and taken from this place, but maybe her mind was already too far gone. She only wanted to disappear.
And now she has what she wanted.
She’s alone in her room … all by herself, just like me.
This room … it’s caving in on me. And the only reason we’re both stuck in these rooms again is because of me. I wish I never tried to escape.
I throw myself onto the bed and bury my head into the pillow, screaming so loudly my voice becomes hoarse. It’s the only thing that provides relief, and as I close my eyes, I am able, for a moment, to drift away in daydreams of books and vacations, far away from this House.
Suddenly, someone rummages at the door, and I lift my head. The daydream vanishes, and my heart begins to thump in my throat as the doorknob twists.
Scrambling to my feet, I pat down the bold black and red dress I put on today and comb through my hair with my fingers so it doesn’t look like a tangled mess, right in time for the door to open.
I shouldn’t be excited. Shouldn’t be remotely happy about someone entering this door. But solitude does something to a human being. It makes them yearn for contact … any kind of contact … no matter if right or wrong.
When I spot Mary’s foot, my heart stops palpitating, and I breathe out a sigh.
“Hey there,” she says, a gentle smile on her face. “How are you feeling today?”
“Lonely.” The word slips off my tongue before I realize it. I wish I could swallow it back, but it’s too late, judging from the bigger smile on her face.
“I can imagine,” she replies, and my cheeks immediately flush.
“I didn’t—”
“It’s fine,” she interjects, raising her hand. “It happens.” She steps inside for a moment. “I’m sorry, I wanted to talk to you when I came to clean your room, but Eli specifically told me not to.”
I sigh. “Figures.”
She rolls her eyes a little. “It can be quite frustrating sometimes.” She suddenly giggles. “Oh, look at me, running my mouth again.” She slaps her hand in front of her mouth. “I should just stay quiet like they tell me.”
“No, you don’t have to do that,” I reply, stepping closer. “I like it when we talk. Can we talk more?” I ask, lowering my head. “Please?”
Her lips part, and she seems stunned for a moment, but then she recaptures herself in the midst of a thought that made her blush. “Well, I, uh, I don’t know. I’d have to—”
“It can stay between us. Just the two of us,” I say, smiling.
She points up at the cameras. “They are always watching, miss.”
I take in a breath and raise my brows. “I know. But isn’t there like a corner where we can talk?”
She frowns. “I … I don’t—”
I grab her hand tightly. She tries to pull back, but I refuse to let go.
“Please. I really need a frie
nd right now.”
The look on her face grows deeper, more emotional. And I swear, for almost a second, her eyes teared up.
Her lips part. She looks back and forth between me and the cameras. Then she sucks in a breath. “I’ll call Eli.”
Before I can ask her why, she’s already walked out and closed the door behind her.
I sigh. I wish I knew what it all meant. Why she’d ever want to work here.
How much money does he pay all those guards and all the staff to keep us locked here? How much money is worth the price of chaining someone’s soul?
Within minutes, the door opens again, but it’s not Mary who steps inside. It’s Eli.
“Mary told me you needed someone to talk to.” He clears his throat. “I’m listening.”
I clamp the bedpost and stare at him for a moment. “If you want me to be compliant, you have to give me something in return.”
A smile forms on his lips, and then he laughs. “Give me one good reason.”
“Because I’ll never stop,” I retort, looking him directly in the eyes. “I will never stop trying to escape this place, and I think you know that.”
His nostrils flare as his stance grows rigid. “What do you want?”
I swallow. “I want to see the other girls.”
His eyes close, and he scoffs. “There’s no way—”
“They’ll behave,” I interject. His face scrunches up in anger over my interruption, so I add, “I promise. We all will. I just want to talk with them.”
“To discuss plans,” he replies.
“No …” I take a step toward him, clutching my own fingers, desperate for a way into his heart. “Just to share our emotions. To talk about what we’ve experienced. To feel … something.” Tears well up in my eyes. “Please. I’m crumbling here. I don’t want to end up like Anna.”
He blinks slowly, his jaw tightening as he taps his foot.
“I only wish to get to know the others. Maybe I’ll learn something from them. Who knows, we might be able to help each other see … our sins?” I say.
His brow rises, and that same familiar smirk spreads on his face. “Well-played …”
“This isn’t a game,” I retort. “At least, not to me.”
“You’re right,” he says, taking in a deep breath as he paces. “It isn’t. And I won’t allow any of it to become one.”
Dark Wish (A Dark Romance) Page 17
