Tarnished Embers: A Dark Stepbrother Fairytale Retelling (Dark Retellings)

I watch the rise and fall of her chest as the beep from the heart monitor fills the hushed silence of the private room. I breathe in time with her, knowing that I’ve failed her more than I’ve failed anyone else before and wishing that my heart would just stop beating.

That would be too easy though, too light a punishment for the sins that rest on my shoulders. So I stand sentinel, my brothers around her as we watch and wait.

Odette somehow got the ambulance to take Ember to a private hospital, and it’s the only thing I’m ever going to be grateful to her for because the care has been incredible. Well, the second thing I’m grateful to her for, the first lying in front of me, sedated to give her some rest.

Cas and I rode with her, the twins having to ride with Odette as Davis drove them here. The old driver stopped them before they left though, telling them to call him if any of us needed his services. He told them his loyalty is with Ember, not Odette, and then gave them his private number.

As her legal guardian, Odette is here but is in the waiting room. I think even she didn’t want to push us and insist that she be in here with Ember. It’s given the guys and I a chance to talk, and we’ve decided that with the obvious injuries from her assault, we need to confess all to the cops when they turn up.

The door opens and I expect it to be police officers, but instead, the doctor who has been overseeing Ember’s care walks in.

“How’s our patient?” he asks in a hushed tone, walking over to her chart and taking it off the end of the bed.

“Same as before, doctor,” I reply, Kit’s hand tightening around her much smaller one as he holds it from his position next to the bed. Fuck, she looks so fragile lying here, white bandages wrapped around both forearms, her purple bruises stark against her pale skin. “When will she wake up?”

“Oh, in an hour or so, I imagine. Her body needs rest,” he says kindly, placing her chart back on the bed.

“When will the cops be here?” Oct questions, voicing my thoughts from earlier. I know we’re all eager to get Odette to pay for her crimes. My chest tightens with the thought that if we’d reported her years ago, Ember would never have been hurt.

“Police? I don’t see why they need to be involved,” the doctor replies, his brows dipped. “It was an attempted suicide, son. She needs medical help, maybe physiatric, but not the law.”

“What about the…r–rape?” Cas stammers from Ember’s other side. He looks like a wreck, dark circles under his eyes and her blood still crusted under his short nails. It’s no surprise really, this must be extra hard on him given what happened to his parents and that he was the one to find her.

“Rape? There were no signs of rape,” the doctor answers, glancing away, and the hair stands on the back of my neck. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other patients to see.”

We sit in stunned silence as he quickly leaves the room before any of us has even processed his words, the door shutting quietly behind him. My cheeks burn as soon as he leaves, amazed at his refusal that I didn’t even argue with him, none of us did. Or maybe Odette has drilled into us not to argue, to just take shit lying down. Either way, we keep failing Ember and it makes my stomach turn.

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Kit snarls, his voice rasping like the words hurt. His other hand indicates the purple marks around her throat and the fingerprint-shaped ones along her upper arms. “We know that happened, fuck, I could see how torn up she was. Those fucking bruises didn’t appear by themselves.”

Bile fills my throat as my hands clench into fists, realization making the edges of my vision go red. “Odette somehow covered it up.”

“The fuck?” Oct breathes. “How?”

“I don’t fucking know,” I growl out, running my hands through my hair and pushing off the wall where I’d been keeping vigil. “But at least this way we get to decide her punishment. Going to jail would have been too good for her.”

“She needs to hurt the way Ember did,” Cas murmurs softly, stroking the side of Ember’s face. My stomach dips when she doesn’t even twitch, let alone lean into his touch as she would have done before.

My phone vibrates, and I pull it out of my pocket to see an unknown number flashing on the screen.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Prince,” I answer, my heart thudding inside my chest, knowing who it is before they even speak.

“We have your information,” Lucifer’s deep tone tells me, and chills race up and down my spine. “Meet us tonight at ten, the skate park along Southbank.” Then the line goes dead before I can say anything. My mind races, my nerves tingling at what they may have unearthed, and what impact that will have on my brothers.

“Who was that, Prince?” Oct asks, and I look up to find their eyes on me.

Swallowing and remembering Ember’s words telling me that it’s not my fault, I hold his gaze.

“Lucifer, from the Fallen.”

“The fuck!” Cas curses, letting go of Ember’s hand to stride over to me. “Why the fuck was Lucifer, one of the most feared members of the Fallen I might fucking add, calling you?”

We all know who they are, the secret society that deals in favours and can do just about anything you ask them as long as you pay the price. A sigh heaves from my chest. It’s now or never.

“I asked them to look into the deaths of your dads, after Robert’s supposed accident,” I tell him, watching as his eyes narrow then widen.

“What do you mean, ‘supposed?’” he questions, but I can see by the way his eyes race from side to side that he’s working it out. “You think she killed him? And our dads too?”

“Yes.” He staggers, and I glance beyond him to see Oct and Kit both sitting next to Ember, faces pale and shocked expressions in their eyes. “I think that it’s too much of a coincidence that all your dads died not long after she married them.”

“Shit,” Kit breathes out as he rubs his hand over his face, the other still gripping Ember’s tightly.

“I’m meeting Lucifer tonight to see what they managed to dig up,” I tell them.

“I’ll come,” Cas offers without missing a beat. “The twins can stay with Ember. We can’t leave her alone. Never again.”

“We’ll stay. Just come back right away and tell us what they find, yeah?” Oct says, holding my stare.

I give him a nod, my gaze sliding back to the woman lying in the bed, the other part of my soul that is hurt because of me. How can I believe that none of this is my fault? And if it turns out that Odette, my fucking mother, killed all their fathers, what then?

I lower my eyes, unable to look at any of them, at what my lack of action has caused. Large hands cup my cheeks, bringing my head back up, and copper eyes that are dull stares deep into mine.

“Whatever we find is not on you, Prince,” Cas assures me, his thumb soothing over my skin. “This is all her evil, you are not responsible for that.”

I swallow, my eyes stinging as my jaw works.

“I’m so sorry, Cas,” I whisper, the words barely audible.

“You do not need to apologize,” he tells me, his voice unwavering. “Remember what Ember told you? It’s not your fault. None of it is.” He brings our foreheads together, our lips so close that we share breaths. “And we will make Odette pay in blood and pain for all the sins she’s committed against us and ours.”

I let the wave of pure rage at the sound of her name flow over me like a soothing balm. It burns away some of the self-loathing I feel, lending me strength and focusing my mind. He’s right, the person who needs to pay the most is waiting outside, and I will dole out the punishment with my bare hands if I have to.

Then I will spend the rest of my life making it up to the people in this room. The people who mean more to me than anything else in this life. That is my vow, my pledge.

You will not go unavenged.