Page 18 of Smoke

Nothing made sense. My head spun. Was I imagining things? Had I even left my room? Maybe I had fainted from hunger or thirst, and I was dreaming the whole thing. That had to be the case. Otherwise, there was no explanation for the horror I was facing.

“It doesn’t matter whether or not I want it, Alina. It’s simply the way things are going to be.” Just like that, his hands tightened around mine and held them in place. “And there’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well get used to it. Bear with it. The sooner you do, the easier life will be.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ll make it easier for you.” He stared into my eyes, and I stared into his.

There was nothing there. He was empty inside. Empty and struggling, straining to fill his emptiness with something. Anything.

“Bradley’s family name will unite with ours. Together, there’s no chance of any of the other clans upsetting ours. Not ever. They wouldn’t dare, not with the money and power we’d possess. I will not jeopardize that for anything. Not even you. Whatever gave you the idea I cared about your happiness or well-being?”

“You just said…”

“Oh, yes. It bothers me greatly whenever I see that a man has hurt a woman. But in this case, my dear Alina, the ends justify the means.”

“I won’t do it. I won’t.” I sounded weak, pathetic even to my own ears. But I had to say it. I had to make him understand what it meant to me.

“Won’t you?” His smile was cold, nasty. “I think you’ll change your mind under the right circumstances.”

“There are no such circumstances.”

“You’re sure about that?” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Not even when I tell you I know your sister is alive out there, somewhere?”

My heart stopped for a second. No. He was bluffing. It couldn’t be.

“Oh, come on, Alina.” He dropped my hands with a look of mock sadness. “I gave you more credit than this. You’re an intelligent girl. Surely you didn’t think your stories would convince me.”

“They’re—they’re not stories.”

“They are. They are fabrications which you put together in order to explain away your sister’s disappearance. I wasn’t born yesterday. I’ve known you your entire life. I know what it looks like when you’re telling the truth and what it looks like when you’re telling a lie—especially when that lie is a big, important one. A lie so many other things hinge upon. You’re terrible at lying, by the way, and you always were. Even your beloved papa knew this.” He chuckled, then sighed. “He used to laugh at what a bad liar you were. Much worse than your sister.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is, Alina. And you were lying when you said you found your sister’s car. You lied when you said you hitchhiked. That dress you wore looked as though it had been laundered and ironed, for the sake of all that’s sacred. It was a pathetic little story, not worthy of someone with your intelligence.”

He was right. It was all pathetic. I was a fool to think I could lie and get away with it.

“What does any of this have to do with Bradley?” I asked.

He stood, clasping his hands behind his back. “Good question. You see, if your sister was willing to run away and you were willing to fabricate a blatant lie to cover up for her, there must be a compelling reason for it. Especially since lying is against your nature. I ask myself, then, what you’re covering up. What did your sister do, or not do, that brought all of this on?”

He began pacing back and forth in front of me. “Furthermore, there’s the blood oath. The blood oath has been broken. All of our seers, every expert I’ve contact has confirmed this for me. There’s no way of knowing how it broke, but the oath is no longer valid. That much is indisputable.”

“You spoke to the seers?”

“I spoke to everyone I could,” he snarled, “long before you returned. The moment the oath broke, Bradley contacted me. I took it from there.”

“Oh. I see.”

“Now, I can’t understand how it happened. I admit that. But that’s neither here nor there. I can’t do anything about it. What I can do, however, is make sure we hold up our end of the bargain. It might not have been struck in blood, but it’s just as valid if I say it is. Understand?”

I only nodded. There was no point in arguing with him.

“I go back to the reason why you’re covering for your sister. What happened? What did she do? Where is she now?” His empty eyes bored holes into my skull.

I refused to so much as flinch in case it gave anything away.

He frowned. “You might think there’s no way for me to find out, but I have to disagree with you there. There are many ways. And you won’t like them.”

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