Page 9 of Ashes to New

Shifting her weight to her left hip did little to relieve the aching in her limbs. Slowly, she reached out and stroked the cold steel. The metal stung her flesh but warmed slowly stealing her body heat as she palmed the unforgiving steel. “It’s not your fault.” She sniffed to hold back the tears. “You can’t let him win.”

He groaned and pulled himself up until he could bear his weight. “Elsbeth,” he said with an agonized sigh, “I’m sorry.”

The first night she’d met him, they were twelve, less than a month’s difference in their ages. She’d held him until morning. Sodomized, broken, and bleeding, Forest had been given a sternintroduction to his new home, and with a whip, Clark Preston had taught him what would happen to the little girl he now called his foster sister if he disobeyed.

“Don’t let him win, Beanpole.”

His head sagged from side to side, ponderous in its movement. “The things I did—”

“Weren’t your fault.”Shoot, the things she’d done to him were worse.

“I need you, Bean.” She tried to portray confidence, but her need for his strength tunneled right through her words.

His head snapped up. The agony etched into his proud features revealed deep cracks in his control. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

As was she, but they would get through this. They always got through it.

“We have each other, Bean.”They’d always have each other.“Don’t let them take that away. Don’t disappear, not when I need you the most.”

“Snowden is spending the summer with us.”

Yes, she had heard the men talking. Clark Preston had spoken of John Snowden moving into the guest room on the upper level.

But for the whole summer?

“I love you,” she said.What else could fill the emptiness stretching between them?

“I love you, too,” he answered. “But I can’t take another night of…of…of that.”

“Do what you’ve always told me to do. Pack up everything important, and lock it up where they can’t find it. It’s a body, Forest. It’s only a body.”

Forest’s icy-blue eyes turned up to focus on the door leading to freedom.

The lock turned.

She gripped the bar, leaning forward, as if that would give her a better view. The landing wasn’t visible from where she crouched. The stiffening in Forest’s frame told her everything she needed to know.

He had returned.

Clark Preston descended the half flight of stairs into the basement, his steps sure and determined.Light even?The anticipation in his tread raised alarm bells in Elsbeth’s mind. Something was different, and that didn’t bode well.

Their guardian paused before Forest, taking a measured assessment. After devouring Forest with his eyes, Clark Preston then caressed Forest’s skin with his knuckles.

“You are miraculous,” he said with a hint of awe. “I admire your strength.”

Forest hung his head, pulling deep breaths in and out of his lungs. He didn’t speak. He wouldn’t, not until commanded. Elsbeth feared what would happen if he did.Could Forest stand much more?It would break him; of that, she was certain.

Bending her legs beneath her, she assumed the pose for greeting, hands pressed to the floor, forehead touching the backs of her hands. The entire cage shifted with her intent, doing exactly as she’d hoped. Clark Preston’s heated gaze turned her way. And, while her stomach trembled with what would come next, she cheered for the result. Forest would sit this one out.

Only Forest didn’t sit. Clark Preston forced him to remain on the Saint Andrew’s Cross. When his legs buckled, he groaned against what must have been tremendous pain.

Clark Preston came to the cage, released her, and drew her to the far corner of the room. “We’re going to try something, my pet.”

It wasnoon before she was set free.

Hours of screaming had made her throat bleed. The forced orgasms had taken a different toll. Clark Preston’s face had filled her mind and commanded her performance. When she’d failed, he had attacked Forest with a cane until she begged to be allowed another chance to come.

Pleased with her progress, Clark Preston left her with instructions to release Forest. It was Saturday, and they had the rest of the day off but were warned that Sunday would bring more guests.