Within His Reach

Chapter 23

THEO POV

Not many things in my life had ever scared me.

Walking in on my father murdering someone when I was just a child? Foreseeable. Being told that I was to take over a fucked up family legacy once my father died? Boorish. Murdering women and children or torturing their fathers before them? All part of a day's work.

But seeing Briar, my sweet little wife, hold a blade to herself- threatening to end her life with a single swipe right before my eyes? Terrifying.

My heart had never beaten as loudly as it had in those moments. The moments where I genuinely believed that there was the possibility that I was going to lose my wife. I could only thank Jona for doing what he did, using his initiative and jumping in at the last second just before she had the chance to do any real damage to herself.

Once Briar had been successfully knocked out, I took her straight to the house doctor to clean and bandage the little cut on her neck as well as talking to him about getting her some anti-depressant medication. I don't care if I was the cause for her evident misery, there was a certain way that things were done in my home and they'd continue to happen no matter what Briar was willing to say or do in an attempt to stop them. I couldn't just stop doing what my family had been doing for decades because it made my wife sad. That would make me weak. The anti-depressants, that clearly were needed, would just keep the edge off of whatever catastrophic emotions were spiraling through Briar's pretty little head.

Perhaps I had been taking the whole 'I will have the perfect wife' approach incorrectly. I had been so focused on keeping Briar innocent and pure that I'd entirely neglected preparing her for a dark and cruel world.

Most of the women who were bought into families like mine were used to the gore. They'd grown up seeing the men bring home traitors and murder them right in front of them. I'd even seen some girls as young as fifteen get involved with the festivities of gutting those who believed they could get away with screwing over those more powerful than them. It wasn't rare for the women to get their hands dirty. At the very least, we'd make sure they knew what they were getting into so that their humane shock and disgust wouldn't get in the way, like it had here with Briar. She'd been so disgusted by the murders I had committed that she couldn't bare to live any longer. Oh how ironic. If she knew just how many people I'd killed and tortured she'd be in for a real shock.

That was exactly my point.

As much as she was going to resent me for doing so, I needed to expose Briar to this part of her life. She had been sheltered for far too long, and although that was entirely my own fault it would be her who would suffer because of it.

"Jona, come in."

I called him over to where I was sitting from his position from behind my office door.

He followed his order obediently, coming to stand in front of me before I directed him to sit in the seat opposite mine. I stood up, walking over to the bar so that I could pour him a scotch to match my own. God knows I'd need a drink after tonight's events and I know that Jona was no man to turn down a glass of Glenfiddich finest.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did earlier. You did your job well, Jona."

I passed him his drink before returning to my seat.

"Of course, Sir. I'm only sorry that Mrs Emberson was able to get her hands on something that could have and was able to be used as a weapon. It won't happen again, I can assure you."

I downed the last part of my drink, the ember liquid burning my throat as it went down.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I need to expose Briar to the more... untasteful parts of our world. She's been kept from it for far too long and whilst that is my own fault, I still must correct it. It pains me that she will suffer even more in the next stage of her.... training per say but everything that I do will help her in the long term. The sooner I am able to desensitize her the better. I cannot allow her to be so sensitive to death and gore when she is living so close to such things. There is a torture chamber only feet below us yet the girl throws a fit at the sight of blood."