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My mind spins–from the drugs and the realization of being in her car that night.

“If you want me dead so much, why didn’t you do it that night?”

“If you’d recognized me, I would have,” she admits. “But you were standing on the side of the road, hands stained in blood, looking like you’d just been through war. When you asked to go to Strong Manor, I decided to let you release your wrath.”

It doesn’t make sense. None of it does.

“Tonight, feels more appropriate doesn’t it? Edging on the Equinox.” She holds her hands up toward the ceiling. “Right here in God’s former house, a true and righteous sacrifice.”

“They’ll be here soon. My Barons,” I tell her. “They’ll catch you and end this for good.”

“Will they?” She tilts her head, a mocking grin tugging at her lips. “Or are they deep underground, combing the tunnels to find the sisters? Are they exactly where I knew they would be?” Her smile falters. “Although, I am surprised they left you here all alone. Foolish, really.”

“I’m not alone,” I remind her, thinking of Slade’s body in the hallway. “And when they find out I’m missing, they’ll kill you.”

“You mean your Shadows?” She makes a face. “That one in the hallway fell like a tree and the ones outside are busy with a fire I set behind the dormitory.”

I can still feel the pain from the injection in my neck. She must have drugged Slade like she did to me. And a fire? I inhale, but smell nothing but lingering incense.

“It’s nothing that won’t wear off in a few hours.” She waves her hand. “By then this will all be over and I’ll regain everything I lost.”

I’m tired of Amber’s games. Of being chased and hunted. Of worrying about girls locked in cages that may never see the light of day.

“I see that look,” she says. “You think I’m a monster, but it’s not like that. I’m here to fulfill a destiny. I don’t kill at random. My sacrifices are chosen carefully, just like I was chosen.”

“By who?” I ask, even though I’m not sure I want the answer.

“Benji,” she says with a hint of wistfulness. “Like every affair, it wasn’t intentional. I was a lonely mother, with a husband too busy with his work to notice I was struggling. Timothy loathes weakness of any kind, particularly of the mind. He thinks everyone should be able to will-power through it.” She shakes her head. “But Benji was there for me. He always had been, in his own less than ambitious ways. We’d had fun in college. He was handsome. Wealthy. Adventurous. Ultimately, I married the Baron I thought would give me the life I wanted, but Benji always had a tragic quality I couldn’t resist. That sexy bad-boy attitude.” She gives me a knowing look. “Some of it was entitlement–he had the family name and legacy to fuck around and travel, to push himself intellectually. He dared to really think about life and what it meant to be part of this society and explore beyond the surface level of the Barons traditions.”

There’s no mistaking that she was enamored with Benji. Not just physically, but mentally.

“The more Timothy worked, the lonelier I became, and I just found myself back here again, roaming the halls of the House of Night, the one place that truly felt like home.”

The drugs slowly start to wear off, and I test the tension in the binds around my wrist and ankles. It’s looser on my legs, but I’m only able to wiggle my fingers. My gaze darts over to where I dropped the knife.

Amber walks toward me and lifts my chin, forcing me to look in her eyes. “Am I boring you, Arianette?”

“N-no,” I swallow, my jaw moving under her grip. “I’m thinking about my Barons and their demands. These men… like my uncle. They always want something and give little in return.” I let the lie build. “It’s exhausting.”

A slow grin spreads across her face and she releases me. “Being back with Benji was exhilarating. We snuck around, using the tunnels and passageways to conceal the affair. We spent hours studying literature locked away in the restricted parts of the library. We found crypts and chambers long out of use and learned more about who we were energetically–what we were supposed to uphold and it was more than cleaning up after the drug dealers and gun runners and sex traffickers. Forsyth hadn’t always been about those things, but more and more it was the trend. Daniel, Lionel, Rufus… those men were dangerous–evil–and Benji didn’t want the Barons to fall in the same trap, and we started testing the veil.”

I frown. “The veil?”

“The veil isn’t a wall, Arianette. It’s a doorway, and blood is the key. We learned that life doesn’t end when the body dies. It leaves something behind, something that can be carried through and returned. Sacrifice is the oldest way of opening that door. One life given willingly—or taken in the right way—can restore what has been lost, awaken what has gone dormant, and keep the bloodline alive. The Barons forgot that. They replaced the old rites with greed and violence, and Forsyth has been rotting ever since. I was going to put it back the way it was meant to be.”

I blink, aware that Amber believes every word she says, and who am I to argue. I’ve been through the veil and survived–twice. I came back different both times.

“It was all theoretical until I became pregnant with Whitaker. I knew Benji was the father. I felt his seed take hold that very night. This child was given to me to fulfill the old covenant, to carry the blood of the past into the future and restore what the Barons had abandoned.” Her hand moves to rest on her abdomen. “He was a legacy–borne from the Kaye’s bloodline–all I had to do was keep his lineage a secret from Clive and Timothy.”

Discreetly, I wiggle my ankles, feeling the bind loosen slightly while Amber continues to speak.

“I’d assumed that Timothy was so busy that if he barely noticed the child he had, he wouldn’t overthink it when I became pregnant with another, but he’s a bastard, not an idiot. We hadn’t had sex in months, and he knew the child wasn’t his. He suspected from the start that it was his cousin’s, which wasn’t a stretch–I’d been their Baroness after all, I’d spent the last two years of college sharing their beds.” She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, forehead creasing. “He must have been the one to tell Clive–that I’ve never been sure of, but the old man was just happy that his son was going to give him a legacy.”

I think about myself for a moment, how I would pick and choose from my men. It feels like an impossible decision. One I’d never want to make.

“I did my best to play dutiful wife, although it became harder and harder to do. The few friends I had left noticed, particularly Sarah, but she’s always been intuitive. But I managed to keep up the image of a happy family until the baby was born–that’s when Clive found out about our plans for Whitaker.” She exhales, her eyes growing glassy. “From there everything fell apart–my family and my future dissolved in front of my eyes.”

It’s a fast and easy way to say your lover and his father were both murdered.