Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I can’t let her fall into that trap.
I thought back to my own initiation ceremony—the one that solidified my name in the East.
The blood.
The screams.
The stench of death so thick in the air, it still clung to me years later.
I was only fourteen when I went through it, just a boy forced into a man’s world by the most brutal of tests.
He’d put me on that stage to battle thirty-six men—hardened killers.
Thank God I had prevailed.
But had I truly?
It took a year for the nightmares full of dead men to leave me.
Another year for me to get the sound of my fists connecting with flesh and cracking bones out of my head. That sound had haunted me while I sat in class, in church, in the fucking bathtub.
Even now, after all these years. . .whenever I was alone in my bed for too long, I would feel the warm blood splattered across my face and smell it.
I earned power that day.
Sure.
But I’d been absolutely devastated, traumatized, and so fucked up in the head that I knew I wasn’t completely normal.
However. . .after that day of violence and death, I didn’t need my father to stand next to me anymore. I had garnered his concept of power.
The East feared me.
And since that day, no one questioned my strength.
And not many dared to challenge me.
But. . .what is his plan for her?
Moni wasn’t born into this violent world. She wasn’t shaped by it the way I was. She wasn’t meant to endure this kind of darkness, this violence.
How will he make her powerful?
It scared the hell out of me because I knew my father would teach her something fucked up and there would be no normal way for him to do it. His form of education broke the person down until there was nothing left but the pieces of what they once were. Then, he’d build the person back up in the image he wanted.
I can’t let that happen.
I looked back down.
TT was watching me. In fact. . .I was pretty sure she had been staring at me the whole time as I tried to figure out what was going on in my father’s head.
She’s not a typical little girl. I knew that when I first met her but now. . .I understand that even more.
I leaned my head to the side. “Tell me something.”
She quirked her little brows. “Yes?”
“Are you studying me?”
“Yes.” She blinked. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I do that.”
“It’s fine.”
“My teacher said I shouldn’t because it is rude.”
“You actually should do it in the East. The more you know about a person, the better.”
“That’s what your father said, when he caught me studying him.”
“I bet.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “TT, when he talked about making Moni more powerful what were his exact words?”
“He said that she would need to be truly initiated into the Four Aces.”
No.
I closed my eyes and tried to stay as calm as possible.
There would be some form of death. That’s the only way we initiate.
That was what it always came down to with my father.
His idea of power was death. How one dealt it, how one survived it, and how one used it to control others.
Moni would have to face an initiation dealing with death.
That terrified me.
She wasn’t built for that kind of brutality.
Not like I was.
And even if she did survive whatever twisted trial my father had planned for her, what would it do to her mind?
To her spirit?
I’d been trained for that kind of darkness from the moment I was born.
But Moni… her spirit was different.
She wasn’t cruel.
She wasn’t heartless.
She had fire, sure, but there was a softness in her too. Something pure that I couldn’t bear to see tarnished.
Goddamn it.
“Lei?” TT’s voice broke through my thoughts, pulling me back to the present.
Devastated, I opened my eyes and tears spilled from them. “Yes?”
“Moni is stronger than you think.”
“I agree, but. . .” I wiped those tears and crouched down to TT’s level, trying to keep my voice steady. “I made her my Mountain Mistress so she wouldn’t have to be strong anymore so. . .she wouldn’t have to lift a finger, worry about anything, or even deal with problems. She was only supposed to be spoiled. Pampered.”
“But that’s not how life works.”
I swallowed hard, trying to process these wise words from a smart eleven-year-old—a kid who had already lost both of her parents.
TT spoke. “You’re not as scary as your father.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Yes and no.”
“Why no?”
“It means you can’t stop what he is going to do with Moni tonight.”
Another tear left my eye.
Why can’t I control my emotions right now? Is it because I’m high?
TT continued to speak. “It’s okay that you can’t stop him Lei, because Moni is strong and he won’t hurt her.”
I wiped the tear off my cheek, disgusted that I’ve cried so much in one damn night. “She told me to take care of you and your sisters.”