Chapter 28

A lethal dose of cyanide is what I'll kill Penny Blackwell with.

Poison will only trap her soul here, and I don't want that bitch roaming around. With any luck, the devil will be waiting to greet her at his gates.

Bones hands me two vials of the lethal concoction he crafted. "Draven will bring you in through the servants' entrance. He'll relieve the night attendant of her duties and send you up with the after-dinner drink in her place. The rest is up to you. Don't get your ass kicked by an old lady."

I snort and stuff the vials into my bag. "Speaking from experience?" I tease.

He winks. "She's got a mean right hook."

Aries clasps my hands in his. "Be careful, Lib."

I nod. "I'm not coming back here after it's done. You'll have to come visit me in Raven's Gate."

He pulls me to his chest. "You bet your ass I fucking will. Someone's gotta make sure your guys are behaving themselves."

Draven honks the horn of his SUV and flashes his headlights through the living room window. Fucking hell. I'm starting to think he wants his grandmother dead more than I do.

Mordecai pulls me away from my brother. "Let's go, little freak."

I thank Bones for his help and give Aries one more hug before we hop into the hearse and follow Draven over to Blackwell Manor.

There's no turning back now.

We drive in silence, each of us lost in our own reveries. I think back to the first day I woke up in the asylum. The first time Gormon put his hands on me. I shudder as that flicker of rage returns. My palms sweat as the memories flood me. From being restrained and fed slop and forced to denounce my own name.

My blood boils when I think about Gorman cornering me in the infirmary. The disgusting feel of his stubby fingers rubbing my freshly pierced nipples with the cotton pad. And then the relief. The pure psychotic relief of stabbing him to death. Knowing he'll never be able to assault anyone ever again.

Penny Blackwell did that to me. And to others. Never again.

"You okay, doll face?" Fabien asks as we park behind Draven.

My mouth is dry; my adrenaline spiked. "I will be."

"Only her." Draven stands in their way.

"Like hell," Mordecai growls.

Raithe pushes past him to stand by me. "We're not letting her go in there alone. This could be a fucking trap."

But I know it's not.

Our families have codes that we live by. Even as we agree to let one of our own get murdered, there's still a rule against outsiders.

I plant a kiss on each of their cheeks. "I'll be fine. This is how it has to be."

Mordecai wraps a possessive hand around my throat. "We're the only ones who get to hurt you. If something happens to you, I will follow you in death and drag you back from hell to punish you."

Fuck. My pussy tingles. "Will you punish me anyway? Please," I whisper.

He licks his lips, the look in his eyes feral. "Get your ass back to us, and I will spank it so hard you won't be able to sit for a week."

I clench my thighs as my juices trickle out. Fuck. Now I'm murderous and horny. Another reason to get this the fuck over with.

Draven looks like he might actually be sick. "Let's go before I change my mind."

"Fuck you, Draven."

"Not in this lifetime, little Thorn."

I scowl at him before finally tearing myself away from my guys. "Aries is only two minutes older than me," I mutter as we cross the yard.

Blackwell Manor is surrounded by marshlands—wet, muddy, and covered with small shrubs that scratch at my ankles as we walk. The air is warm and humid with the heady scents of bougainvillea and jasmine. It's a sweet heat, the kind that clings to your clothes and skin like flypaper.

And this is just the fall weather. Summers here are excruciating with no relief from the unforgiving Melancholia sun. But I remember those early days fondly. Despite all the trauma.

When we were teenagers, Aries and I spent our days splashing in the river, drunk on moonshine and nightshade. We'd catch fireflies in the mason jars we'd licked clean. It was my only reprieve from the horrors that awaited me when we returned home.

Sometimes Bones and Draven would go out there with us too. But that was before the family pressures set in.

As we enter the servant's kitchen of Blackwell Manor, I barely recognize the Draven that I knew when I was a kid. Something broke in him a long time ago. Now he's just a shell of the sweet boy who used to leave mudpies on our doorstep.

"When was the last time you went down to the river?" I ask him.

He ignores me while making his grandmother's nightly drink. I watch in horror as he adds a clear shot to a batch of rose tea. Fuck, this family really likes their gin. "That's disgusting."

He shrugs. "So is she. A fitting combination."

I can't help but wonder what made him like this. What sorts of atrocities did he endure in his youth? Monsters aren't born, they're made. And his inner beast lurks closer to the surface than others. A little too close for my comfort.

One of these days, Draven Blackwell is going to blow up like a fucking bomb. And I pity whoever gets caught in the shrapnel.

As if reading my mind, he snarls at me. "There's nothing to figure out, Lib. We're not kids anymore. I'm a Blackwell. The darkness comes for us all eventually."

I take the tea from him, avoiding his gaze. My stomach knots when I think about that darkness flowing through Maureen. Will she be as hard as Draven someday? I can't wait to get back to Raven's Gate to make sure that doesn't happen.

He leads me all the way up to Penny's private suite. "I'll be out here to make sure no one bothers you."

How nice of him . I'm pretty sure he just wants to hear her choke to death.

I give him a curt smile before heading in. Time for some fucking payback.

"What took you so long, woman? I'm parched." Penny Blackwell sits with her back to the door, gazing into the fire. Her black hair, streaked with gray, is pulled up into a tight bun on the crown of her head.

"I was making it extra special for you," I drawl. I try with all my strength to keep the fury out of my voice.

She tsks and waves me over, still unaware of the predator in her room. It figures that this bitch wouldn't know the voice of her own staff. She probably doesn't even know their names.

I pour the vial of cyanide into her gin-spiked tea before setting it down on the glass table beside her. She still doesn't bother to look up or back. One of the things that people like her forget is their own mortality. They think that their money and power protect them at all times. I should know. I was like her before. Unfortunately, she should be more aware of her surroundings.

She whimpers as the steaming tea hits her lips. She takes a bigger sip than I expect, relishing in the strange concoction. "What do you call this drink, Ms. Blackwell?"

She takes another sip, and I can almost hear her smile into her favorite indulgence. " An Eye for an Eye. An old family recipe. It tastes better tonight. Did you add something to it?"

I chuckle with her but for very different reasons. As I shift forward to grip the back of her chair, the scalpel I have stashed in my waistband presses against my back. "I did. A rare ingredient."

She nods. "Mmm, well, perhaps we should give it a new name."

My fingers tremble as I bide my time. I can't have her discover me yet. But I can't fucking wait to see the look in her eyes. "Yes," I agree. "How about… A Soul for a Soul. "

She giggles again. The toxin is flooding her bloodstream, making her giddy as it increases the effect of the gin. "Absolutely sinful. I like it. What is the rare ingredient?"

Now it's my turn to giggle. "Cyanide."

She freezes, her arm in mid-air with the cup hovering just below her lips. "Damn…"

I slide around the back of the chair to face her. "Did you really think you could fuck with a Thorn?"

Her eyes narrow at me. " You … You're supposed to be dead. I'll have to retire Dr. Hall once and for all."

I laugh. "Oh, I already did. She told me everything right before I poured two vials of nightshade down her throat."

Penny glares at me then looks away, turning up her nose. "Good. You made your point. Now give me the antidote."

The fucking audacity. She thinks I'm just having a temper tantrum. "That's not how this works. You stole six months of my life. My freedom . The things I went through in there…" I pull out my scalpel and twirl it through my fingers.

Her eyes dart toward the door. "I made a mistake. You are the more worthy Thorn. I see that now. Give me the antidote, and I'll give you power you've only dreamed about. I'll give you whatever you want."

I snicker as I toss the scalpel back and forth between my hands. "Well then, I definitely can't give you the antidote because what I want is for you to die."

She glares at me with those familiar gold-flecked eyes. Like burnt honey. There's a madness that runs through this family. A sickness. Maybe once she's gone, it will release its hold on Draven and Maureen.

"You wretched cunt. I should've had Dr. Hall kill you when we first captured you. Which was easy to do by the way. The amount of drugs you ingested that night did us a favor." Her lips curl into a sadistic smirk. "What a disappointment you must be to your father."

The shame burns my chest. I feel my cheeks flush as I slash the scalpel across her cheek. "Shut your fucking mouth."

She tries to scream, but her breath lodges in her throat. She coughs, and blood spurts out, staining the lace of her stark white collar.

I grab the tea and force the rest of it down her throat. "Yeah, you should've killed me, bitch."

She gasps as she claws at her own neck. I can barely understand her gurgled pleas. Her demonic whispers to whatever entity she prays to. " No… I'll never be yours ."

I lash out, slicing her neck open. Her eyes roll back in her head. Her body convulses, her chest heaving like she's possessed. White foam seeps out of her mouth, soaking her swollen lips.

"I hope you wake up in hell, strapped to a bed with no one to turn to except your nightmare man," I whisper in her ear.

I smear my hands in her blood before I take a seat across from her and watch her body go into rigor mortis. I paint my face with it, wearing it like a badge of honor.

Her skin turns a shade of gray that matches the streaks in her hair. Once one of the most powerful women in Melancholia, now she's nothing but a pile of rotten flesh and cursed bones.

I take a deep breath and smile, knowing that this vengeance wasn't mine alone. I did this for Kitty, and the Terror Twins, and Rowena. I did this for Maureen. And Draven, even though he'll never thank me for it.

Theres a bottle of private reserve Blackwell gin on the mantle. I open it and take a swig from the bottle. The last time I will ever touch this shit. It goes down smoothly. A wave of euphoria ripples through me as I pour the rest of it onto her dead body.

"An eye for an eye… a soul for a soul," I mutter as I throw the empty bottle into the fire.

When I exit the room, Draven's expression shifts. A fire flickers in his cold dead eyes. "She's gone." It's not a question.

I nod. "Forever."

We exit the front door this time. I turn my head to the sky. A rare Southern Melancholia breeze cools my heated skin. I breathe it deep into my lungs.

As I stalk toward my guys, their relief is visible on their faces. In the way they release the tension in their shoulders.

Raithe grabs me first. "My beautiful, bloodied vixen." He kisses me deeply, hungrily. I moan into his mouth.

Mordecai hugs me from behind. "You did it. I'm so proud of you."

I kiss him too. Then Fabien, who licks the blood off my face.

Draven doesn't even bother to say goodbye. The last thing we see of him is his headlights fading into the night.