[THIS STORY WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2024]
He had hunted me, captured me, and locked me in a tower.
Season 3 'Of Crows and Thorns'
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While in RISING, Tabitha discovers something peculiar that may assist Nelle in her plan to escape the...
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Penn glanced down at her thighs and smoothed a palm across the dull black material of her skirt. "I never knew Tabitha Crowther. I came here under..." Her eyebrows rose, and she shook her head as if she were trying to understand it herself. "Well, under rather strange circumstances."
I tensed.
Why the hells was she talking about Tabitha Crowther?
I didn't want to hear about her.
She was the reason why I was here.
But that wasn't true. I was here because of my parents.
Penn's gaze lifted. "She lives and breathes in the walls of this home and in the staff too. She's loved by those who served her... Miss her still."
"Staff?" I queried, raising an eyebrow, but a small memory reminded me that Graysen had used the same term. "You mean servants?"
She unconsciously tapped the book with her fingertips, the sound whisper-soft yet shotgun loud in the quietness of the room. "Graysen's mother is the one who made the changes in House Crowther, one of them being the term. Staff—sounds so much more inclusive doesn't it?" She cocked her head to the side, staring intently at me, I suppose wondering how much I knew about the Crowthers' mother. "Did you know that Tabitha was once a servant?"
No, I hadn't known that. Very little of Tabitha Crowther had ever been discussed in my home. It all made sense now, far too late, as to why. My mother inadvertently revealed Tabitha's secret, and my father betrayed her to Master Sirro—all to save me from the Horned Gods. And both of them were still under the illusion that Tabitha Crowther had died 12 years ago.
"Tabitha served your mother's House—the Deniauds—that's how they met and became friends. I've been told that Tabitha didn't think much of the term, servant." Penn smoothed a hand down the arm of the other, her fingers fiddling with the button in the sleeve cuff. "It's strange for someone like me to enter this world of yours, of Houses and Horned Gods, and live with the Crowthers and have someone absent be so prominent. Tabitha's left behind a gaping wound, yet so much love as well. Her memory infuses everything in this home of theirs. I've never met her, but her spirit resonates everywhere."
I bristled. I didn't want to hear about Tabitha Crowther.
How it was either her or me.
How only one of us could live.
The choice her son had to make.
And he'd chosen her.
I slammed the packet of crackers on the stone countertop and stalked toward the other woman. My feet left behind the cool tile that surrounded the kitchen, stepping onto the carpet, and I stopped before her. "And you think that makes what they're doing okay? Using me to gain an invite into the Witches Ball? Where I'll stand on an auction block, be bid on, and sold to a Horned God?" I lifted my arms and swept my hands down my figure. "The Butcher hacking me into pieces and shoving every single body part into vials for their dark spells and curses?"
