You are Victoria Jane Montgomery.

His voice reverberates inside my brain, piercing, intrusive and shocking. My hands shoot upward to grip either side of my head as I drop to my knees. I experience no pain as my kneecaps strike the stone floor. Only swallowed and possessed from within.

‘Master,’ I whisper from my prone position.

Your bloodline and heritage are pristine and privileged… A gift.

I turn my awed gaze up to the unblinking ruby stare that has seen it all. The ruby eye becomes darker and darker until it is a black hole that I am traveling inside. Thousands of years of the sublime and the profane open up to me like a blood-sodden flower.

The air leaves my lungs.

And ancient knowledge pours from the great bird like lava from a mountain. With it comes the knowing that this place will not contain me one moment longer than I decree. This is not a place of purgatory, but a sanctuary where I may lay my plans and grow to unimaginable heights. I see now that I am the chosen one. My brother has been and always will be weak. I will be the head of the Montgomery dynasty. I will bring chaos. I have been chosen to do so.

Then the great bird opens its magnificent wings and flies away, and I am back in bed, restrained, my heart racing.

But transformed, illuminated and imaginably powerful.

I smile.

I am one of the chosen ones.

My only sin was to love and love too well. It was a mistake. I see that now. I wasted myself on him. Still, I have learned from it so it was a useful mistake. This place will not be the end of me. Never again will they stick a needle in me. I will affect submissive docility. I will beat them at their own game. I notice that they have cut my elegant nails to the quick. No matter. I will beat them at their own game. I am NOT mad. I don’t belong within these walls. This is only the temporary seat of my power. From here I will destroy the man who tried to destroy me.

Blake Law Barrington—you thought you could put me out like trash, and someone would come along and remove me from your life… Foolish man. I know a secret, a secret so explosive that it will turn to dust the very foundations of the life you have built. I will have my revenge.

With a single, brutal blow I will bring you to your fucking knees.

Two

Lana Barrington

No matter what has happened. No matter what you have done. No matter what you will do. I will always love you. I swear it.

—Defiance, C. J. Redwine

He turns towards me. In the firelight he is impossibly chiseled, his eyes light and piercing, a hint of mystery about the corners of his mouth. We are on the first leg of our honeymoon, in the middle of the desert. Blake hired an old-fashioned camel caravan because he wanted us to mimic the ancient journeys of the silk road.

I stare at his beauty, memorizing it for the days when we will be old, feeble and sitting on a swing waiting for our grandchildren to come around, and they will be many.

‘I want another child,’ I tell him.

He reaches for me, his eyes suddenly dark and unfathomable. ‘Not yet, Lana. We will have them, as many as you desire, boys and girls, but for a little while let me have you and Sorab to myself. I have never been so happy. Just for a year I wish for nothing more than only the three of us. Our little family.’

I smile at him. ‘One year?’

He nods, as hopeful as a child.

I laugh. ‘OK.’

He pours tequila into two glasses. Shakes salt on the sides of our fists. It is strange drinking tequila in the desert. I look up at the night sky. Slow magic. The stars are shining like white-flamed candles in a pitch-black background, and there are so many shooting stars they seem to be raining down on us.

‘Besides,’ he adds. ‘I want you to be able to do everything you ever wanted to, go where you haven’t, see what you haven’t, and experience it all. You will be pregnant when you’re twenty-three, and four, and five, for as many times as you desire.’

‘I only want three,’ I protest with a laugh. And then my voice becomes serious. ‘But I want to adopt a couple, too.’

He raises an enquiring eyebrow.

‘I’ve always wanted to change a child’s life,’ I explain. ‘To take it away from a situation where it could never prosper and give it everything I am able to.’

‘The house is certainly big enough’.

‘Thank you, my darling.’ I lean forward and kiss him chastely on his cheek. My mouth lingers. He moves so it is his mouth on my cheek.

‘The last time,’ he says softly against my cheek, ‘I missed everything. This time I want it all. I want to see your belly grow big with our child, your ankles swell up, and I want to be there when his or her head shows, and you are screaming blue murder. I want to wake up at ungodly hours and watch you feed them.’

‘Stop, you’re putting me off.’

He takes my hand gently. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

The fire crackles. I move back and gaze at the hawk-like noses of the cameleers gathered around another fire a few yards away, to listen to an old man with a narrow, deeply wrinkled face tell stories. His voice is a hoarse whisper. The long sleeves of his gray tunic rise in a sweeping dramatic movement to point at some boulders in the distance. I wonder what tale he is weaving for them.

He strokes his beard, his eyes shining in the light, and the circle of men, squatting on their heels, lean forward eagerly, thrusting their heads out like lizards. I turn toward Blake. In the firelight he is watching me.

‘Why?’ I ask.

‘‘When I saw you standing at the edge of the dance floor in your ruined dress, looking so lost and fragile, I felt like someone had stabbed me right in the heart. And yet you were more dignified and beautiful in your disgrace than any well-bred, stiff upper lip royalty.’

I shake my head; the memory is fresh and hurtful. ‘No, I wasn’t brave at all. I wanted to run away. I was so embarrassed. I’ve never been so humiliated in all my life. All those people gawking at me, some secretly pleased, others pitying. I honestly thought our wedding was totally ruined.’

I press my fingers to his lips. ‘But then you came and caught me up in your eyes and swept me into that dance. And suddenly, it was as if I was in a beautiful dream. I forgot everyone else—no one and nothing mattered, except you and me and our love for each other.’

‘Because no one and nothing matters except you and me and Sorab.’

‘And Billie and Jack,’ I add impishly.

He remains serious. ‘And all our other children when they come along.’

I take his serious tone. ‘What’s going to happen to her?’

He looks away from me, and stares unseeing into the leaping fire close to us. ‘After you left with Billie I went to see her. I was so furious I wanted to kill her. I had to clench my hands into hard fists and hold them tight against my sides when I saw her, but almost instantly, I realized that something was very wrong with her. I had become an obsession. She was mad in a way I had never suspected. She didn’t need to be punched, she needed psychiatric help. So I called her father and he agreed to commit her to an asylum.’ He turns back to face me and looks deeply into my eyes. His voice is strong and edged with some deep emotion. ‘She will never bother you again.’

‘What about when she comes out?’

‘She won’t come out until she is diagnosed as well again. The tests she will have to pass are very rigorous and mean continuous observation over a long period. It will be impossible for her or anyone to fool the panel of psychiatrists. And I will be kept abreast of all her development.’

‘That’s good to know.’ I pause. ‘Blake, how safe is Sorab?’

He frowns. ‘From her?’

‘No, not from her. Just generally.’