Sins of the Innocent: A Novella Read Online Free PDF Page B

know. What aren’t you telling me?”
    Bex didn’t respond.
    Their secrets felt like a knife in my back, and Bex’s silence was the hand twisting it.
    “You’re supposed to be my best friend. Do you really think keeping anything from me will help? Let me rephrase that. Do you really think keeping me in the dark will solve anything? How does it improve the cause exactly?”
    Bex’s expression softened. “C’mon, Eden. Don’t make me feel worse than I already do. I’m just trying to respect my brother’s wishes.”
    “So, it’s Dad, not Mom.”
    He straightened. “I didn’t say that.”
    “Yes, you did.”
    I spun around, rushing toward the house as if someone were chasing me. Dad was already standing by the door when I slammed it behind me.
    I glared at him but didn’t speak.
    “Eden …” he began.
    “Don’t. If you can’t trust me, then I’d rather we just not speak.”
    Mom hurried into the foyer just as I reached the stairs. “Eden, what on earth?” she screeched, noticing that I was covered in dirt.
    “I’m sure Dad will tell you in three hours,” I snarled at my dad, “after explaining everything in excruciating detail.”
    Bex spit out a laugh, but Dad didn’t find it quite as funny.
    Dad frowned. “Why did you allow that, Eden? Have you lost your mind? What if he wasn’t just testing you?”
    “I don’t know. I just had a feeling that he wouldn’t hurt me and that I shouldn’t hurt him. I can’t explain it,” I said.
    “Allow what?” Mom asked. “Who did this to you?” she asked me.
    “Leviathan,” Bex said. “He’s been watching her for a while. Don’t worry, Nina. We had it handled.”
    Dad shot Bex a death glare, and he winced.
    “Who is we ?” Mom asked, her voice echoing across the marble floors and down the hallways.
    Our house had tall ceilings and numerous vast rooms. The wood was imported Italian, the craftsmanship unequaled in the state of Rhode Island, much less the city. It’d been constructed by my grandfather to be strong, to protect my mother who was meant to be the last Merovingian, the descendants of Jesus Christ. She was supposed to be the last … until me.
    That fortress was my second home, the first a loft my father had built. But my family had needed to work together to raise me for whatever lay ahead, and that required more room than the loft had offered. Jack Grey’s was the only house I remembered, but it had never felt like home. I wondered if anywhere ever would.
    “Samuel,” Dad said.
    Mom looked around the room, waiting for an appearance that wouldn’t come.
    “First drudens, and now this,” I said. “I told you. Culmination.”
    “For the love of … Eden. Try not to upset your mother,” Dad said, his teeth clenching.
    It was too late. Mom paled, her lips parting as she sucked in a breath. “Jared,” she said to my dad. Her tone warned him that she demanded an answer before she could ever ask. “What are you not telling me?”
    Dad reached out, and she did the same. He pulled her into his arms, as he’d often do when she was rattled by something from our world. “Nothing, sweetheart. It means absolutely nothing.”
    My face fell as Dad rested his temple on Mom’s hair, and then he glanced at me. He didn’t want to upset Mom, so he was asking me to let it go.
    I trudged up the stairs to my room, leaving behind soiled footprints on the carpet.
    Mom touched the banister and called up to me, “Eden, come back down, honey. We’ll figure it out.”
    “We’re all liars,” I said under my breath, knowing Mom couldn’t hear.
    I lay back on my bed, looking at the ceiling while thinking about the familiar irises hovering above me earlier that afternoon. It hadn’t been murder in Levi’s eyes but curiosity, maybe even a bit of excitement. The book my dad had studied spoke of prophecy, one that included Leviathan and me and a great battle with spilled blood. Levi, the son of Satan, would threaten the balance, and one of two things