Page 24 of Uncrowned

We’d rushed home, but she wasn’t alone. Katherine, my infant sister, was already dead on the floor, and a younger man held a knife to my mother’s throat. She’d been covered in blood and already been stabbed a couple of times. Her body shook so hard from the sobbing. My dad had tried to reason with him, but the man hadn’t hesitated. Blood had poured from her like a faucet. I tried to run after the killer. The stranger had been too fast. Even so young, I’d tried to help—to do something. My father hadn’t. He’d ran right to my mother, holding her as she died in his arms. And me… I did what came naturally. I’d walked forward and picked up Katherine’s blood-soaked, cold little body, mimicking my hero—my father.

“Penelope.”

The name came out strangled in my constricting throat. From as controlled as my body was, inside me was a storm—a tidal wave of raw emotions that refused to be denied anymore.

I kept fighting this. Fighting my wants versus my needs.

What was right?

What was wrong?

I used to know. My direction had been so clear.

Until her…

Ringing.

Ringing.

“Answer. Answer.”

Darkness was all I saw in the distance as I came up to her house. There was a reassuring comfort in that. She could be sleeping. Sleep meant she wasn’t dead. Sleep meant I wouldn’t lose her like I’d lost everyone I’d ever been close to—loved.

Was I making the right decision?

I threw the car in park wondering if I should end this connection with her now. Penelope would be better without Lord Allford. I did put her in a position for a better life. But better than with me? Sure, I was The Black Line. Yes, everything was a war. But I could give her the world if she wanted it. I could… have her… for me. And didn’t I deserve that? Deserve her? She was the perfect choice. Even Redmond thought so. And I could make her into the perfect queen.

“Answer.”

“Answer.”

I wouldn’t lose someone again.

I wouldn’t lose her.

And I could. I’d seen how fast everything could be taken. I had lived it. And if I couldn’t protect her from the world, I would hide her from it. They couldn’t hurt what they couldn’t find.

Yes…

Penelope would be mine.

With me.

For. Me.

CHAPTER 9

Penelope

“Shit. Let me see. No, be still. I won’t hurt you. You’re okay.”

Words blurred, slipping in and out. A cross between a cry and sob drew me from a deep sleep.

Had that come from me? Had I done that?

“I’ll be right back. I’m going to make it better. Shh. Go back to sleep, Penelope.”

But wasn’t I already?