Page 105 of Stormhold

“I asked what are we going to do?” I raised my voice this time, stepping closer. My hands itched to shake him out of whatever trance he was in, but I simply fisted my hands and waited.

Father finally jerked up, his eyes finding me. “Arkane,” he whispered, as if he was only now noticing me. “Good, you’re here.”

“What are we going to do?” I gritted my teeth. “We can’t let that fucker live for long.”

Father shook his head. “No, Arkane,” he said. “This fight ends with me. I don’t want any more bloodshed. We have a traitor among us. Until we figure out who that is, we need to lay low.”

My pulse thundered. “What do you mean?”

“We will sign the truce.”

Rage boiled my blood. “But…”

He raised a hand, eyeing me firmly. “This is my decision, and as long as I’m the head of this family, you’ll listen to me.”

I could hardly recognize this man in front of me. At least before, even though he was a lot less smart, he had the resolve, but now, all I could see was a pretender. Someone who prided themselves on leading this family but was hell-bent on sinking us through the drain.

“You’re a weak man, Victor Stormhold,” I said, and didn’t even bother waiting for his reply as I stormed out of there.

If he wanted a fucking truce with the enemy, then he could fucking have it.

But when I took over, it’d be a different story altogether.

The one where I put an end to this once and for all.

That much I promised myself.

CHAPTER 28

BELLE

Age 16

Thirteen years ago

It has been seventeen days since those five men sold me to this place. Seventeen days since my family died. Seventeen days since I lost my sisters. Seventeen days of hell.

“Dumb shit.” A heavy hand pushed me forward, and my weak body lost its balance, and my knees smacked hard on the floor. It hurt. But I was used to it.

The hell was a place called the farm. It reeked of blood, piss, and death, and ruthless men who wouldn’t hesitate to do sick things to you.

I was only spared because of the man in charge of this place, the man in his dirty white suit, who announced leeringly that he had special plans for me before he left. It has been seventeen days since then, and he still hasn’t returned. And every day he didn’t was another day I was safe. My stomach twisted at the thought of what those special plans were.

For now, I was simply tasked with being their cleaner. I spent my days scrubbing the blood and insides of countless men and women from the floor and discarding the remains in an overflowing pit on the ground.

The farm, like its literal name, was just that. A farm. Instead of animals, they farmed humans. Or everything a human has to offer. Only no one here offered. It was taken by force because these men thought they had the right.

It took about a week for my stomach to settle. But the slight nausea still lingered. It only stopped because I was beaten to death after I puked my guts out in front of a head farmer. Even then, the screams weren’t something I could get out of my head. It stayed. But my mother’s screams were louder, and that hurt my chest with unrestrained anger.

I knew in my heart I wouldn’t last long here. The leering gaze and the off-handed remarks from the men were getting harder to fight back every day, and I feared the day the man in the white suit would return.

It was late at night on the eighteenth day when I added another crooked line on the wall. A reminder that I survived another day in this hell. I put the stone back inside the small pocket inside my skirt where I hid my mother’s ring. The stone was gray and flat with a rugged surface and one pointy end. I picked it up when no one was looking.

A sudden sharp sound made me jerk. My heart pounded, and my hand instinctively held the small stone to my chest. It wasn’t like it was going to do much, but it was at least something.

I held my breath as my eyes scanned the shadows, ready for anything.

I usually slept in the barn. A dirty corner covered in hay and mud, with the stains of years-old blood seeped too deep to be washed off. And no one ever came to this part this late at night.