Siccitas: Inferno

Inferno Series

Inferno

Cinere

Sparks

Embers

Incendiary

Maelstrom

Deluge

A New Beginning

Scorched by Yolanda Olson & Jennifer Bene

Blurb

He told you that I died, and you believed him.

Why?

Haven’t you learned not to trust his lies?

Haven’t you seen what he’s done to us—all of us?

He’s ruined so many lives, including mine, and we still love him.

I hate to say it, but I know it’s the truth, and while I’ll never be able to stop, it has to end.

My body is not as able as it once was.

My heart has been turned to stone.

My eyes are void of any hope.

What he did to Darby is unforgivable. You witnessed it, and you still loved him.

While I can’t deny that I still do too, I only hope that when this is over, you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me.

It has to be this way.

It’s time for it to be over.

Prologue

Dalton

I watch as she raises the cup of warm, chamomile tea to her full lips.

She’s different.

She doesn’t have the feral look in her eyes that the rest of them do.

At least, not the way I know that he wants.

There’s a peace dwelling within Jocelyn Greene, but it’s not as whole as she’s spent the past few weeks pretending it is.

Thank you, she says in her quiet tone, setting the chipped cup down on the cracked saucer, then placing it on the small side table next to her.

I hope it’s decent, I reply nervously as I wipe my sweaty palms against the thighs of my sleep pants. I don’t know how long that box has been sitting there.

It’s fine.

Okay.

She has a way about her when she communicates.

I’ve come to learn when conversations are over. Her responses become curt and damn near brittle.

When she wants to know more about something, she’ll use her eyes to extract the answer from me.

His eyes.

My eyes.

Our eyes, I think solemnly as I follow her gaze out the living room window.

She holds vigil there, but not like Hailey. She was sick, always holding her breath for a moment she knew would never come, but not Jocelyn.

She actually sees the world outside.

One that’s far greater than the hell he created for all of them. The one where he ruled on a throne of misery and vitriol, where none of his children were good enough.

Except for one.

But Jocelyn doesn’t like to talk about Darby, and I don’t press her.

Some nights she still cries because she didn’t save her.

I can hear the soft whimpers through the thin walls of Hailey’s home.

We have to get those kids out of the house, she says, a heavy sigh punctuating her sentence. I can’t ... not with them there.

I’ll do it, I promise in a quiet tone. I have no fucking clue how I’ll convince them, but I’ll figure it out.

Thank you, she says again, letting her eyes drift up to mine.

I nod as I wipe the sweat from the palms of my hands and turn away. Shuffling the few steps to the couch across from where she sits, I drop onto the seat, lean my head back, and stare up at the cracked ceiling.

I smile.

I don’t mean to, but I can’t help it.

The spiderweb of decaying plaster makes me think of this goddamn family.

How far do those lines run? They disappear into corners we can’t see, and no one will ever really know.

No one except him.

Chapter One

Jocelyn

I sit in a now eerily quiet home, doing my best to focus my thoughts.

Dalton left three hours ago, after he swore to me that Darby’s children would be safe with him. The same blood may flow through our veins, but that blood belongs to the worst monster of all, and I think he knows I’ll hunt him down just the same if he harms them.

They’re innocent in all of this, and I’d like to think that, at one point, I was too.

I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear, and let a breath slowly escape me, then square my jaw.

Luke Greene stole my innocence long before I ever knew there was such a thing.

To me, that was just a fairy tale, a fable I would read about in books whenever he would allow me such a comfort. The time I spent teaching my brothers a basic education as best as I could, I would steal some of those moments to lose myself between pages of worlds that I knew I’d never find.

Worlds where children weren’t repeatedly bred by their father.

Worlds where women had choices.

Worlds where families were normal, and not what we were led to believe that they were.

And even now, as a grown woman, I find myself longing for those worlds I read about as a child, when I would lay my head down and sleep next to his sweating body.

A cloud slowly drifts by the moon, meticulously blotting out the light for a few seconds, engulfing me in darkness.

Being in the dark is something I should be used to... but the time I spent down in the oubliette with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, and the time I spent in the old, abandoned home that I took refuge in on the outside of town, have done nothing to change how I feel about it.

To me, it’s not a welcome thing.

It’s where monsters throw the innocent to rot.

I chuckle slightly as I reach for my cane, then get to my feet as steadily as I can.

Perhaps I was innocent at one time in my life, but I can’t remember when that was, and I don’t like to dwell on it either.

I start to walk through Dalton’s home, seeing the essence of our shared monster everywhere. Whether he knew it or not, this home is a damn tribute to Luke.

I try to tear my thoughts away from him, because maybe it’s my own obsession that sees