Page 42 of Her Dark Promise

“Oh no, don’t let us interrupt you.”

He looked up and asked me, “Is that what you meant earlier by seeing everything? Did you somehow go into my mind? Does it always hurt when you do that?”

Bastian gave him a patronizing look. “Is that truly what is pertinent, Ren?”

He set his notebook down before trying to pull at the rope.

“I wouldn’t do that, the more you pull, the tighter they get.”

He turned his head swiftly toward me and asked in an exasperated tone, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said. If you continue you will end up cutting his hands off and that would be a shame. I have plans for those hands.”

“Does that mean they are spelled?” He stopped trying to free his brother and reached down to write in that notebook again.

Was he taking notes about me? What a curiously weird human.

I wasn’t struck speechless often, but I didn’t understand how this boy could not care that his brother was strapped to a chair, practically nude.

The hunter must have been thinking the same thing because he said through his teeth, “Soren, put that fucking notebook down and pay attention!”

He lifted his finger, finished whatever it was he was writing, and then said, “From my calculations,” he pushed the brim of his round glasses back up his nose, “you came out here to kill the beast to placate father and end the Reaping, but instead you found her and pissed her off enough to land yourself in this situation.”

This boy was quicker than I thought, and far more intelligent than his brother.

“Wait, if you’re here then who is looking out for Joséphine?” Bastian panicked and started struggling against the ropes. “You can’t leave her alone with him! He is going to sacrifice her! You have to go back and stop it! Take her away! I don’t care, but get her away from him.”

“Stop moving.” He was going to injure himself even more if he didn’t calm down.

“Why do you think I’m here?”

Bastian stopped struggling. “What are you saying?”

“I told you she was real.”

The hunter widened his eyes as they fell back onto mine. “Thisis the woman you were talking about when we were kids?”

Soren nodded his head. “I came to beg for her to help, Jo.”

“And he has yet to explain why,” I interjected. “Why would I help you when you lied to me?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Oh, yes you did. Well, not all of the truth. Your sister is not the only reason why you came to see me after all these years. So, why?”

I saw the ball in his throat bob as he carefully thought about what to say next. “I came here for you. I have been wanting to return since the day I saw you.” Soren walked to me and knelt,bowing his head. “I will do anything to save my little sister, but I wanted to see you again.”

“Me?”

“I’ve wanted to see you and this place since I was a boy.”

I gave him a smile that I hoped felt condescending. “Am I supposed to be flattered by finding out I’ve had a child stalker for years?”

“I’ll do whatever you tell me to do, be whoever you want me to be, if you save my sister.”

A slow smile spread across my face as my eyes met Bastian’s, who was devastated by the turn of events. I put my eyes back on the bowed head before me, just like his brother yesterday. However, this one was way more submissive. I loved seeing a man on his knees.

I leaned forward, grabbed his chin between two fingers, and raised his face to mine. His eyes were so transparent that I could read him so easily. He meant every single word he said.

---