“I don’t care about your stupid ideas,” she says. “I want to go home. I want to go back to my old life. I want to go back to Mirroean.”
“You don’t have a home anymore, Fiona.” My words are harsh, but she needs to hear them in order to move forward. Even if no one else wants to tell her this, even if no one else wants to be honest, I’ll be honest. I’ll tell her. I’ll explain what’s going to happen.
“I do,” she whispers, but she sounds less sure this time.
“No,” I tell her. “You have open wounds where your home used to be. You have wounds where your family was torn from you, where they ripped out your heart and threw it to the wolves, baby.”
“I have friends,” she says. Her voice cracks, and there are tears streaming down her face. She’s trying so hard to hold on. She’s trying so hard to be brave.
“You have nothing on Mirroean. There is nothing left for you. That ship has sailed, Fiona. Those people, that life? It’s all gone, but I’m not. I’m right here and I can offer you something more.”
At that, she somehow stops crying and looks up at me, suddenly curious.
“More?” She asks. “What are you talking about? What do you have to offer besides a cage?”
“Vengeance,” I promise her. “If you help me, I’ll make sure your family pays.”
“And Darin,” she says.
“And Darin,” I repeat. “We’ll make them all pay, Fiona. You and me.”
Chapter 13
Fiona
It’s an interesting promise, vengeance.
I’ve never considered myself to be the type of person who took out vengeance on another. I’ve never thought of myself as the type of person who needed vengeance to heal, to recover.
Then again, that was before.
That was before my world crashed and burned.
That was before my own family betrayed me.
I’ve had a lot of time to think. I’ve had a lot of time to consider why my family decided to have me offed and I think I’ve come up with a reason.
The engagement.
On Mirroean, engagements are legally binding. They’re socially binding, too, of course, but the legal part is the aspect that matters the most. That’s the part that means Darin is now set to inherit my father’s money and his company. That’s the part that means he’s going to get my inheritance.
And it’s the part I don’t understand, not really.
I don’t understand why they had to go through all the trouble of making me disappear in such a horrible way.
I don’t understand why they didn’t just quietly kill me.
I don’t understand any of it and that terrifies me.
And when Quinn promises me vengeance, I instantly want to tell him yes. I want to tell him I’m all in. I want to tell him I’ll do whatever he wants as long as my family pays. I want to tell him all of this.
I thought I could hurt him when he came back into the room, but I’m tiny and he’s big. That’s the way it’s always going to be. He’s smarter than me, braver than me, bigger than me.
He’s quicker.
“I can help you,” he promises, kneeling down in front of me. “Let me help you.”
Finally, I nod.