Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Only that Adam was one of those people himself, and just thinking back to what the two of them had done on the blanket less than two hours ago made Gabriel want to cry with despair. Adam had watched Gabriel’s torment from behind a mask and done nothing. The shame of it made Gabriel itch to throw salt into his open wound, just so pain could distract him from the overwhelming sense of betrayal.
“Whatever you say,” he muttered, on the verge of tears, because despite it all, he already missed Adam so badly that a part of him wanted to believe that his Abaddon was Adam Benson’s lost twin, not the same young man who’d sat still while children were being tortured for his pleasure. Did it even matter that he didn’t remember that past, as he claimed?
Adam didn’t bother speaking as he washed Gabriel’s wound with water, disinfected it then applied wound glue before wrapping the injury with a bandage. It hurt. But at this point, everything did.
Gabriel’s life was an absolute mess. He didn’t want to think about tomorrow, because once they were done with Mrs. Benson and Father John, the time would come to worry about a heavily pregnant nun locked under the pyramid, cops looking for one of their own, and the fact that he’d fallen in love with a monster.
“Let’s go,” he whispered as soon as Adam was done securing the dressing. He extinguished his second cigarette, not feeling any calmer.
The other man—because he was no angel, and Gabriel had been foolish to believe it—glanced at his watch with a soft sigh. “If I drive you to the orphanage now, I should arrive at Benson’s home after midnight.”
Gabriel looked up, alarmed. “What? So you can warn her? I’m coming with you.”
“It’s gonna be dangerous,” Adam said, but Gabriel ignored him and sat in the passenger seat, already closing his seatbelt. Sister Beatrice’s disappearance would not go unnoticed, and that meant they only had until sunrise to get rid of the two vilest monsters in this horror story—Adam’s mother and Father John. There was no time to waste.
“I’m ready.”
19
ABADDON
Abaddon froze when the back door opened, and a young woman in a plain gray uniform stepped out of Mrs. Benson’s house. Her movement triggered an automatic light, and its glow reached Gabriel and Abaddon’s position in the massive tree growing close to the rounded wall at one end of the facade.
It was past one, but in this house, staff could only leave when dismissed, and she hunched her shoulders the moment the back door was locked behind her. Were she to look around, she might have spotted two men perched in the arms of the nearby oak, but now that she was free, her cell phone was the single thing on her mind. She took a narrow path through a line of trees and bushes, to where staff and various workers were allowed to leave their cars.
Gabriel, who’d settled behind Abaddon’s back, exhaled when the lamp dimmed, and relaxed further as the roar of the maid’s car dispersed in the wind.
“That’s the last one?” Gabriel whispered, and while his question was sharp and devoid of emotion, at least he was talking to Abaddon, which was an improvement on the drive here.
“Yeah. Probably just served Benson her herbal infusion. She has trouble sleeping sometimes,” Abaddon whispered and adjusted his gloves, taking in the house reminiscent of a small castle. It was more apparent from the front, but even in the back, the stone cladding, the shape of the roofs, and the tower-shaped structures on each end were recognizable as medieval-inspired. Well crafted, but as fake as Mrs. Benson’s life.
This place was haunted and no child should have been raised within its walls.
“So you think she’ll be up?” Gabriel asked, moving up the branch. He wore a plain black hoodie they’d picked up at a gas station, but even though Abaddon could barely see him in the dark, he remained very aware of the boy’s injury and hoped it wouldn’t affect their climb.
The cut was shallow, but it could have been dangerous if the blade had hit him at a different angle. Injured, Gabriel would be slower than usual, and since Benson was an unpredictable snake, Abaddon needed to stay alert and make sure the boy remained behind him.
“Yeah,” Abaddon muttered and flattened his form against the thick branch that reached a roofing under one of the windows in the back. “Don’t follow until I get off,” he warned before crawling along the wooden arm that kept grabbing at his clothes with its moss-scented bark.
Gabriel huffed, but had enough sense to stay put instead of being a rebel without a cause. It helped Abaddon keep his mind clear on his way to the window. This whole place was like an elaborate déjà vu, and no matter how much he hated the revelations thrown in his face within the past few hours and didn’t want to accept them, tapping into his knowledge of the building had helped them choose this spot as a good place of entry.