With a grunt of effort, I let Max calm me, just enough to take the edge off. To let me think rationally, try and come up with a plan, some way to separate her from my father and keep her away from him.
The Councillors broke apart and Father turned toward me with a cruel smile lighting his face. To anyone else he was just a father wishing his son a happy birthday. But I knew this was a test, a challenge, a game. And I had to figure out how to win it.
“Ah, Darius, I’m so sorry we’re late. The girls were a little excitable while we were getting dressed,” Father purred as he approached us.
“Excitable?” I asked, forcing my tone to remain neutral as my gaze stayed fixed on Roxy.
She wasn’t looking at me, her eyes were on my father as he spoke, her gaze focused on his face.
“It’s hard to concentrate when Daddy takes his clothes off,” Clara giggled, stroking his arm and running a hand down his chest. Stella stared at them venomously, but said nothing.
Roxy’s upper lip pulled back the smallest amount as she narrowed her eyes on Clara and for a moment it seemed like she was angry or bitter or…I refused to even consider the word jealous.
“Clara, be a dear and take your seat next to Xavier,” Father said, shaking her off dismissively and she pouted as she stomped around the table and dropped down beside my brother. “Roxanya, say happy birthday to my son.”
My heart stilled as Roxy turned to look my way, her gaze sweeping over me slowly, like she hardly even recognised me. She was so deep in the shadows that the girl I knew barely even seemed to be there anymore.
She released my father’s arm and he gave her a little nudge towards me so that she moved to stand so close that I could have reached out and touched her.
Max released my arm and backed up, tossing a silencing bubble over us to give us some sense of privacy as I could feel the eyes of the whole room on us.
“Happy birthday, Darius,” Roxy said, her voice rough and dark like it was swimming in sin.
She stepped closer to me and leaned in, brushing her lips against mine in a cruel mockery of all the kisses we’d shared before. Her lips were cold and her gaze empty. A shiver raced through me as I tasted the darkness on her. There was nothing in that kiss, not a single piece of the girl I loved and it felt like every part of me was breaking apart as I looked down at her in horror, wondering what the hell had happened to her to leave her so empty. How the shadows could have stolen so much and what else my father had been doing to her in the time that she’d been missing.
She pulled back but I caught her wrist, wanting to beg her to come back to me, hunt for some piece of the girl I knew in her eyes. But the moment my skin touched hers, a jolt of pain and darkness speared through me as the shadows in her invaded my body and wound their grip tightly around my heart.
My eyes widened and I struggled to draw breath as spears of agony slammed into me and cut me apart piece by piece. A smile curled up the corners of her lips as she watched me suffer and I was paralysed by the strength of her power.
“Let him go, sweetness,” Father murmured, holding a hand out to her with a serene smile on his face. “It is his birthday after all.”
Roxy tilted her head as she watched me suffer for an extra moment before suddenly drawing the shadows back out of me. She took my fingers in her grip and gently peeled them off of her arm and I watched her with my heart pounding and shattering and falling to pieces as I hunted for anything familiar in her eyes.
“Don’t you know me?” I breathed, unable to hide the raw edge to my voice as I studied the black rings in her green eyes and begged the stars to let her see me.
“You’re Darius,” she replied, that rough edge still coating her voice. “The man who promised he’d never hurt me, even though he always enjoyed it when he did.”
I shook my head, wanting to argue against those words but Father held a hand out to her and she took it with a smile which seemed painted on, but the adoring look in her eyes as she gazed at him was all too real.
“Sit down, Darius. Everyone is waiting for the birthday boy before they can eat.” Father pointed me to my chair and I fell into it, not knowing what else to do.
Max gripped my shoulder for a moment, pressing more calming energy beneath my skin before dropping his silencing bubble and returning to his chair along the table.
Father took his seat at the head of the table and heat invaded every cell in my body as he tugged Roxy down into his lap.
A growl ripped from my throat and I half lurched out of my seat, but Clara caught hold of the shadows in me and forced me back down again before anyone noticed. I sat rigidly in my chair, pain and terror shredding me apart as Roxy arranged herself more comfortably on Father’s knee.
She didn’t resist as he pulled her close but she didn’t just sit on his dick either, perching on his knee instead with her spine straight as her gaze trailed over all of the people at the table who were staring at her, before she looked away again dismissively.
Xavier’s hand gripped my knee beneath the table and I could feel his own horror at this, but I couldn’t spare an inch of my attention for it.
The first course was served and I could only watch her as Father made conversation with people around the table and Clara kept me trapped within my own body.
Stella laughed loudly at everything he said, tossing her short hair and leaning forward so that her tits threatened to spill from her dress and Father hardly even seemed to notice.
He reached around Roxy’s back and toyed with the dark curls of her hair where they spilled down her spine and she just sat there, not reacting in any way. No horror or disgust, no pleasure or excitement either. She was like an empty vessel filled with shadow and everything from the coldness of her gaze to the emptiness of her expression made me seethe with rage and fear.
“I can see what had you so captivated, Darius,” Father murmured as the next course was served and everyone was distracted. “She really is a beautiful girl. And so…tenacious. I have to say I really enjoyed breaking her in and beating that wildness out of her.”
“If you’ve laid a fucking finger on her, I’ll cut you into a thousand pieces and burn you alive in Dragon fire,” I snarled, but Clara’s hold on my shadows stopped me from doing any more than tightening my grip on my goddamn spoon. If I could get close to him, I’d gladly find a way to make a spoon lethal though.
Father didn’t bother to respond, only offering a knowing smile as he rested his fucking hand on her hip. Rage unlike anything I’d ever felt before consumed me as I was locked in my fucking chair, forced to endure the show he was putting on for me, taunting me with the girl I loved like she was just some plaything.
I didn’t eat a bite of my food as the courses came and went. I had no appetite even when Clara allowed me to move enough to eat. I pushed the odd thing around my plate, but my gaze never wavered from Roxy. And I never stopped trying to fight Clara’s hold on me so that I could rip her right out of my father’s lap.
As the dessert was served, Father leaned close and whispered something in her ear. She nodded once and got to her feet, turning and sweeping from the room without a word.
Clara released me just as Roxy got to the doors and I shoved to my feet instantly, practically running out into the hallway after her and not giving a shit who saw or what they thought.