this sickening vignette is my fault, and my fault alone.
Norm shakes his head. He wears his hair like the baron’s — something else I never noticed until now. In my mind, a distorted figure prances behind an illuminated sheet.
It was him in the library, imitating the baron. Mocking him, mocking me.
“I know you can speak — don’t stop now.”
Norm’s eyes flash up to me. “Yeah, you liked it when I sounded like the baron, didn’ ya?”
My skin crawls at the sudden deepness in his voice. He does sound just like Brandon, but his words are all wrong. Brandon is a baron, and Norm…he’s a beast.
“I did,” I murmur, nod. “I really did.” A tear races down my cheek when I beckon him and take a step back. “Come. Come talk to me.”
Norm’s laugh scrapes like nails down my back. “Alaine liked it too. Didn’a know the difference.” Norm slowly sets Rose in front of him, but his movements are more absent than cautious.
I move to the side, lick my lips, and curl my mouth into a smile. Please don’t let him step on her. Please, God, spare her sweet, suffering soul.
Norm steps over Rose and lunges at me. I’m crushed between him and the wall. Things rattle above us, disturbed by his sudden movements, and it’s all I can do not to look up. The sound they make isn’t familiar, but the smell in this rancid hidey-hole is. I know, without looking, what dangles above me. Above Rose. Above every inch of this foul altar.
He shoves his hand between my legs. I gasp when he squeezes me, and stiffen when his hot breath cascades down my neck and breasts.
“Got a bigger cock than ’im,” Norm whispers in my ear. “But ya know that already, don’cha?”
My body quivers with terror, rage, humiliation as he works at his laces with feverish intensity. But I hold still, let my gaze drift away, and with it, my mind.
Rose is still squirming on the floor. It must be so cold. But I’ll get to her soon. Just a little longer.
He pushes into me, a spike of pain accompanying his pleased grunt. My body threatens to collapse until I straighten my legs and hold myself steady for him.
Almost. My fingers tighten, relax a little, tighten. Norm grabs my throat, and from how tender the flesh is beneath his grip, I know he did this to me before—just moments before.
The marks, the blood, his seed on my skin.
Alaine thought it was the baron, but it wasn’t. Norm must have drugged her too. That’s how she only saw the evidence while having no memory of the man who’d left it behind.
Tighten, relax.
Tighten, relax.
A prickle in my palm. Sensation slowly returning and, with it, strength.
Tighten, relax.
He’s moving faster now. Eyes closed, mouth caught in a rictus snarl that can only hint at the madness boiling in his mind.
Tighten, relax.
A horse’s tooth pricks my flesh. The sign I was waiting for.
I draw back my arm and plunge forward as fast and hard as I can.
The horse’s splintered jawbone slides into Norm’s neck, snags, and jars from my hand.
A wet shriek escapes him as he staggers. I push away from the wall, my splayed legs barely supporting me as I fall against him with a ragged yell of my own.
We tumble to the floor.
I’m on top of him, my hands slick with blood as I try to wrestle the glistening bone from his neck so I can plunge it back inside. Tear him open, rip out his throat. He knocks away my hands, twists his hips, and sends me flying.
Air knocks from my lungs. I gape as I haul myself onto hands and knees.
Rose.
Norm’s got hold of her foot. She wails as he drags her tiny body over the floor.
He got the bone out of his neck. It’s raised high, so high. Rose opens her mouth, a bubble of blood bursting as she howls.
That wicked sliver of wet bone plummets down.
A boot slams into Norm’s wrist. The beast’s pained scream merges with those of the babe’s. A dark shape descends like Satan himself, and when it straightens, it drags Norm up with it.
Brandon.
His back is to me, but there’s no mistaking him even in this dim light.
He hoists Norm up by a grip on his bloody throat and punches him. Blood spurts down Norm’s face, but the young man hardly seems to notice. Instead, he lifts his foot, and aims for Rose’s head.
My body moves on its own. Pushing past the