We walked to the river in silence. I sat down, my back leaning against a rock, and pulled out a smoke. I pointed to the patch of dirt she always prayed at. “Have at it, sweet cheeks. I’ll wait here.”
Normally, Lilah would go straight there, but tonight she hovered. Lighting up my smoke, I glanced up at her, eyebrow raised.
“May I sit?” Lilah asked and pointed beside me.
I nodded. Tucking her dress in at the back, she sat beside me, her vanilla smell beating off the smoke and filling my nose.
Why the fuck did she always smell of vanilla?
“You good, Li?” I asked when she did nothing but watch the flow of the river, only lifting her head to watch the stars.
“You let me eat with you,” she hushed out in a tiny voice.
Pulling hard on my smoke to stop a lump building in my throat, I blew it out slowly, trying to keep from losing it. “You cook, you sit with us, and you eat with us. Easy.”
“But you let me eat with you,” she stressed, and I saw more tears fall down her cheeks. She was looking at me like she ain’t ever seen me before. Like I was something special and not some man slut forced to take care of her. “Ky…” She went on. “No man has ever let me do this before.”
As my grip tightened on my smoke, I snapped the fucking thing and threw the ruined stick to the ground. “Li, you ain’t in that place now. You do what the fuck you want.”
Her attention fell to her feet. “You complimented my food. You… you said thank you to me for preparing your meal.”
“Christ, Lilah…”
Her hand covered mine on the grass, and our gazes clashed, feeling the fucking electricity that always hummed between us. “You made me feel like an equal, tonight, Ky. Like I was a woman of worth.”
“Lilah…” I said, exasperated. “What did those fuckers do to you? How the fuck did they make you a Cursed? ‘Cause all this self-deprecating shit is hard to take.”
Lilah stared at the grass and said, “I had a family once… years ago…”
My eyebrow rose. “You did?”
She nodded but never said no more. “Then tell me,” I pushed, and Lilah’s worried gaze met mine.
Slumping her shoulders, her voice barely audible, she said, “It all happened when I was six…”
Chapter Nine
Eighteen Years Ago
Commune of The Order
Undisclosed Location
Lilah
“Child. Go play with Micah in the back room. I have business to discuss with Brother Luke.”
I nodded my head, dutifully obeying my father, and skipped down the hallway, twirling my long blue skirt as I did so. It was hot outside, but as a child, I had to wear the long blue dress of pure, modest women. I loved my dress. It made me feel pretty.
Humming a graceful melody to myself, I became distracted. Just as I was about to pass the washroom on my left, the door opened. I immediately stopped humming, immediately stopped twirling my skirt, and lowered my head in dutiful obedience.
I heard familiar footsteps thud slowly on the wooden floor and, keeping my eyes downcast, witnessed scuffed black boots halt in front of me. A panicked breath slipped through my lips and my hands began to shake. I could feel my heart beating wildly in my throat, and I bit down on my tongue. Prophet David preached that girls were not to act gleefully; they had to show restraint from sinful behavior, to display a discipline from all pleasure, at all times. I knew immediately I had failed the prophet with my dancing, humming, and enjoyment of the day. But worse, I had been caught.
Noticing a raised hand from the corner of my eye, I braced for the inevitable strike; they occurred frequently. But the blow did not come. Instead, the hand gently slipped off my obligatory white headdress, freed my blond locks, and ran its fingers through my long hair, caressing me. Then a rough thumb ran over my lips.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Rapunzel,” the deep voice resonated in a singsong melody as the hand repeatedly stroked my hair, my face, over and over and over. “Such beauty in one so young.” The deep voice was strained, sounding almost… painful?
Of course, I instantly recognized the voice of Brother Luke. He was one of the elders of The Order. One of Prophet David’s most trusted disciples. He led the commune in which we resided.
Lately, my father had started to work with Brother Luke, what seemed to me to be a great deal. My father was a writer, an artist, the most amazing of storytellers, and now my father was helping Prophet David write down his direct revelations from the Lord, for all of Prophet David’s people to read and follow. Together, my father and Prophet David were creating a book dedicated to The Order’s holy cause, our very own bible, one that contained the final, the undistorted, and the infallible word of God.