AIDEN
All of them were bound with ropes, their eyes covered with black cloth.
Steven had been whipped, his tattered clothes stained with blood, and his back exposed. The welts were deep and long, and my stomach turned at the very sight.
Charlotte’s face was marred with bruises and scars, surely inflicted by some sort of blade as well as physical blows.
Emma—thank the goddess—looked relatively unharmed but was visibly terrified, clinging tightly to her mother and whimpering.
A lump formed in my throat and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to retch or shout in anger. Evelyn’s family had already been through so much. And now this? I couldn’t get rid of my rising guilt and knew that I probably never would.”
“You have five minutes,” Oakley said to me in a low voice. “Don’t remove the eye masks. K
