Page 167 of Unholy Masks

He knew what I was really asking.

I would kill his demon—his father—-for him. I would burn the world down for him. I would do anything and everything for Ryden Sinclair.

Irene was right.

There was no hiding the feelings choking me from the inside out. It scared me. It liberated me. This love. This obsession. This… madness.

“Together,” he said. “But how did you find him?”

“Reah is incredible.”

“That she is.”

He took a deep breath and knocked twice.

The door creaked open after a few seconds. The man looked irritated, a half-smoked cigarette hanging between his lips.

He blinked. Put a hand over his eyes to squint at us.

“What the fuck do you want?” Reginald Sinclair said with a puff of smoke. “Who are you?”

“Hello, dad,” Ryden said with a smile that blazed like forest fire.

The man coughed. He saw his death right then and there. He knew this would be his last day.

He tried to scurry out and disappear as he had once done. With a shake of my head, I pushed him inside.

“You’re going nowhere, Reginald.”

Reginald struggled like a desperate rabbit stuck between a tiger’s teeth. It was so easy, so easy to subdue him, to keep him down.

Ryden pushed him to the old wicker chair, pressing his elbows into the old man’s throat. I went to the car. I brought all the tools of the trade. I went to work as Reginald watched me with terror.

He was easy to overpower, easy to contain. Time had dulled his muscles, his mind.

“What—what are you doing, boy?” He looked up when Ryden pulled the rope around him, giving me a quick smile.

“Something I should have done years ago.” Ryden’s eyes burned. “Something I was afraid to do for so long.” He closed his eyes, and I felt his heartbreak before I saw his tears. I didn’t console him. There were no words to offer for some pain.

“Thank you, love, thank you,” he breathed.

He looked down at his father. The monster who made him. The monster who ruined him.

Shadows settled peacefully around us.

I watched Ryden. I watched and drank his glory. His anger. His beauty. His magnificence.

He is mine.

“We were happy.” Ryden’s voice cracked a little. My heart cracked with it. “Why did you—why would you come back? You could have stayed away.”

Reginald’s lips parted, but no words came. His gaze darted to the door, then to the windows, searching for an escape that wasn’t there. His fingers trembled at his sides.

“Why did you kill her?” he shouted.

“I—I, boy, stop being a fool.” His eyes locked onto his son’s, desperation bleeding into his words. “I didn’t, I don’t know what you—” He stopped when Ryden laughed. Reginald knew there were no lies that could save him.

His breath hitched as he struggled against the rope.