“Saw it between the two of you, fucker. The fucked-up thing is that you didn’t, King. You’re that fucking detached from feeling any kind of emotion that you couldn’t even feel the reason why you switched off those feelings in the first place is standing right in front of you. In the flesh.”
My eyes begin to water, but I swallow them down angrily, not wanting them to spill over my cheeks and expose my vulnerability. Did I feel it with King? I don’t know. I felt something, but I always brought it down to hormones and me being a girl and him being him.
“Give them back to her. Now.” King slides down the wall, landing on his ass.
I finally bring my eyes to his. I wish I didn’t, because I feel my heart split open in my chest and a sob leave my body. His usually somber and stoic expression is filled with turmoil and pain. Regret, maybe? “I’m sorry,” he whispers, reaching for a bottle of scotch and downing it.
I bring my eyes to Killian, ignoring his silent apology. “Give them back to me.”
“Well, I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try. One thing you have to understand, Perse.” King sucks in a hiss on the other side of the room. Killian continues. “Is that along with those memories will come the pain and anguish that was taken from you. My father didn’t remove the memories from your head because that would be some sort of vampire shit. He merely hypnotized you into thinking you did not need them. He put them into a box in the corner of your brain and trained your mind to not open it. But hear this, Little Bird,” Killian’s fingers wrap around my chin, bringing my attention to him, “once this box is opened, everything could come back to you tenfold. You will know, feel, sense things that were put into that box. You may not feel like yourself after.” I want to say that I haven’t felt like myself for a long time, but that would mean I know who I am. Which I don’t.
“I don’t care,” I whisper, swallowing past the pain. “I want it opened.”
“Lie back,” Killian murmurs, and I do, lying on the sofa. Someone enters the room just as Killian’s fingers come to my temple.
“Let me, son. She’ll have a better chance if I do it.”
Killian steps backward, and Keres takes his place. We lock eyes for a second, but before I can say anything, my eyes are rolling to the back of my head, my back arching off the sofa. Images flash before my eyes.
“King! You can’t do that! It’s cheating!” I scolded, reaching for his deck of cards.
“Nah-uh, Little Bird. Kohen is the cheater.”
My eyes flick, my head thrashing from left to right. Keres continues to whisper an ancient language, his tongue wrapping around the dead syllables softly.
“Persephone, you can’t go to the beach house today. I need you to stay home.”
My breathing deepens.
“She can go, Klaus. Stop being so overbearing.” My mom walked toward me, kneeling in front of my face. Her long blonde hair was like a curtain, shadowing over half of her face. “You want to go to the beach house, don’t you, Persephone?” I nodded, excitement shaking inside of me.
“Can I see King?” I asked, tilting my head. My father was a Kiznitch, only not like King, Kohen, Killian, Kyrin, and Keaton’s parents, but my sister Dove and I weren’t allowed around them sometimes. The Brothers of Kiznitch were originally from a small town called Kiznitch in Romania. Essentially, my father was a civilian, so I didn’t actually know how he became involved in this world. But the Kiznitch brothers were all part of a founding family. The Axton family, Cicero, Nero, Cornelii, Kournikova—all founding families who created Kiznitch. Back in the 1600s, a show called Midnight Mayhem was created by the Patrovas to entertain the people of Kiznitch. Well, that’s what Daddy told me, but King told me the shows covered up all kinds of evil. The Kiznitch families were all branded as babies and now wear their patch with pride in the art of a tattoo. Cartier was getting hers soon, and she’s two years younger than Dove and me. She’s just lucky she had Kyrin as a brother. He always protected her, and Kyrin didn’t care about anyone, but we all knew she had a big crush on Keaton. Kyrin once tried to drown me when I was four years