“You swore you’d bring back my sister!” he shouted, his face mottled and angry as he leveled that glare at Gray. The Vessel was unimpressed, cleaning beneath his nails with the dagger he’d since picked up from the floor as if he feared I may try to stick him with the pointy end.
I would, determined to repay that favor.
Charlotte advanced on my father, that slow gait of hers eerie and terrifying as she raised a single hand. My father gasped for breath, releasing the knife he’d held to Ash’s throat and grasping his own as he clawed at his skin. As he tried to free himself from the witch who was suffocating him without ever laying a hand upon him.
“Only the worst kind of man would harm his own daughter,” Charlotte said.
Ash bolted from my father’s side, running into the center of the Tribunal circle. I dropped to my knees on the tile as he slammed into my chest, knocking me back onto the balls of my feet as I curled him into my arms.
“Low,” he murmured, loud sobs wracking his little body.
“Shhh,” I whispered, forcing a fake smile to my face. Even knowing he couldn’t see it, that he’d buried himself in my chest too fiercely, it felt like an important act. “It’s going to be all right. I promise you’ll be all right.”
I squeezed him tightly as I watched Charlotte approach my father. She stomped her foot on the floor of the Tribunal room, and the stones and tiles separated beneath her. The pit that opened between her and my father was small and cramped, and she stepped around it to grab him by the back of his shirt.
“Let us see how you like living in the darkness,” she growled and tossed him into the hole.
He screamed as she waved her hand over the pit, clawing at the dirt that fell back in and slid to surround him. The stone and tiles repaired themselves in a slow wave, spreading across the top of the hole until there were no signs of damage.
Charlotte had buried my father in the ground beneath the school, and as her gaze came to mine and she raised her chin, I understood.
She knew. She knew what I had suffered when I disappointed him. Knew of the little coffin-shaped alcove he kept off the corner of his basement, where the only way out was through a locked door at my feet.
She knew the way dirt trickled through the cracks in the wood to touch my face, knew the way the darkness had settled itself inside my soul.
I swallowed, standing as she approached. Ash fastened himself to my legs, wrapping his arms around them tightly and refusing to let go. I didn’t speak a word of what Charlotte knew as she approached, that understanding arching between us as she rested a gentle hand atop my brother’s head and lowered herself in front of him.
“Juliet will take you back to your father now, Bug,” she said.
I shook my head, wrapping my arm more tightly over his shoulder and pressing him into me. Charlotte’s gaze was sympathetic and sad as she looked up at me.
“Don’t make me say goodbye again,” I begged.
“This goodbye is not forever, just for the moment,” she said, looking at the Vessel over my shoulder. Juliet stepped up, holding out a hand for Ash as I looked down at him and shook my head again.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
Charlotte rose in front of me, taking my face in her hands and brushing her thumb through the tears that had gathered beneath my eyes. “You’ve not yet fulfilled your destiny, my darling. It is not safe for him here until you do.”
I closed my eyes, turning my face down to press my lips into the top of Ash’s head.
“No, Low,” he begged, pleading as Juliet took his hand and tugged him gently away.
“I love you,” I said, my nostrils flaring as I tried to fight the sob rising in my throat. As I tried to control the endless flood of tears that came with the overwhelming emotions. “I will always protect you, even if I’m the one that you need to be protected from.”
“Low!” he screamed, latching on to my hand as Juliet pulled him into her arms.
She was gentle with him, wrapping him up as if he were as precious to her as he was to me. We shared a look, and she nodded her understanding as if she’d heard my words.
If anything happened to him, I would Unmake her Vessel and trap her demon in a circle to play with for weeks.
Ash’s fingers slipped through mine when I didn’t hold on to him the same way, and I felt every bit of his skin slide against mine.
“I assumed I’d already played my part in bringing you back,” I said, the melancholy of my voice sounding odd even to me. It wasn’t natural for me to feel so hollow, for the emptiness that I kept trapped within the well inside me to rise up and swallow me whole.