The Merciless (The Merciless #1)(48)

I press my face against the door to the bedroom. Muffled voices sound inside—more arguing, but I can’t hear what they’re saying. Cursing, I pull away.

“We have to get inside,” I say to Grace. “Can you think of anything?”

Grace’s face lights up. “Riley kept a key in a drawer in the kitchen. I don’t know if it’s the master, but . . .”

“It’s worth a try,” I finish. “Come on.” I grab Grace’s arm and we start down the stairs.

I take them two at a time, nervous for every second I’m not in the bedroom with Riley and Alexis. I see that desperate, broken expression every time I close my eyes and urge my feet to move faster.

Alexis releases a shrill scream. “Riley, no!”

I jump to the landing as a shadow falls past the arched window overlooking the staircase. Something crashes into the bushes next to the house, sending a shudder through the floor. A thousand pins prick the back of my neck. I freeze on the landing.

“Oh, god.” Grace’s body stiffens behind me.

“What was that?” I whisper, terrified I already know. I don’t want to look, but I turn toward the window anyway and lean into the glass.

Alexis’s body lies crumpled in the dirt. Her white-blond hair glows in the dim moonlight, and a halo of blood pools around her head. I lift a trembling finger to the window, my breath misting the glass.

“Move,” I whisper to her broken body. But she doesn’t. She stares at the sky with milky, lifeless eyes. Her arm twists above her head, and her fingers curl toward her palm, almost like she tried to grab onto something as she fell. Her cracked lips hang open in a silent scream. Her final words echo through my head. Riley, no!

The door above us creaks open, and footsteps pad across the floor. I lift my head as Riley stops at the top of the stairs, her face white as death.

“Alexis jumped,” she says.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE


Riley wraps her fingers around the banister at the top of the staircase, her eyes unfocused.

“Our Father who art in heaven,” she whispers, barely loud enough to hear. A tear slips over her cheek. “Hallowed be thy name . . .”

“Don’t.” I step away from the window, hands trembling at my sides. “He’s not listening.”

“Sofia,” Grace murmurs. She tries to touch my arm, but I shake her hand away. I can’t stop thinking about Alexis’s cloudy eyes, her broken body, the way her fingers curled toward her palm. I don’t want to be comforted.

Riley considers me for a long moment, until the anger burning through my chest cools, just a little. “You’re grieving,” she says finally. “I get that. But we have to pray for the Lord to forgive Alexis’s sin.”

“No!” I shout. The word is a death sentence, but I don’t care. Maybe I want Riley to kill me next. “You’re wrong about everything. God’s not helping us. He’s not fixing Brooklyn, and he can’t forgive Alexis, not anymore.”

Riley’s feet pad down the stairs soundlessly. She crouches in front of me.

“You don’t know that, Sof,” she says, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “Come back up to the attic. We have to finish what we started.”

“The attic?” My voice sounds so shrill I hardly recognize it as my own. I swallow, trying to steady it. “We have to call the police. Alexis is dead.”

The word sounds so final as it echoes through the house.

Grace sobs into her hands. “Don’t say that,” she hisses through her fingers. “Maybe she’s just . . . just . . .”

“Stop it! Alexis is dead, Grace! She committed suicide.” Riley’s voice caresses that word. Suicide. It’s like she’s trying it out on us, seeing how the story sounds when she says it out loud.

“Think about it,” she continues. “What would happen if we brought the cops here now? What do you think they’ll do when they see Brooklyn? They’ll think we’re monsters. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail. Do you?”

Grace shakes her head. “Shit,” she whispers. She hangs her head and starts to cry, her movements already slow and clumsy from the wine.

Every emotion I’ve forced down since entering this house explodes out of me. I try to speak, but the most I can do is release a gasping, ugly sob. My chest tightens, and I cry like I’m five years old again, like it’s something I just discovered I could do.

“Sofia.” Riley grabs me by the shoulder and squeezes. “Sofia, you need to calm down.”

I can’t stop. I realize, for the first time, that none of us is ever going home. Even if I somehow get out of this house alive, I never get to return to my old life. Tears race down my cheeks as I heave and choke for breath. My head starts to feel fuzzy.

“Sofia, look at me.” Suddenly Riley’s voice is soft and even. My eyes flutter open, and I focus on her face, my lips trembling as I struggle to breathe.

Riley presses her lips together, considering me. The deep shadows under her eyes make her look older, wise even. She’s given up on the ponytail, and now her hair falls limply around her thin, angular face. It hides the bite mark on her cheek, so she looks almost normal. She squeezes my shoulders again.

“I know you don’t realize it now, but everything that’s happened is Brooklyn’s fault,” she explains. “The devil compelled Alexis to jump out that window. There’s nothing we can do for her now, but you need to be strong—you need to keep the devil from taking control of you, too.”