Final Debt

“Yes, you do.” He stroked my arms with threatening fingers. “You rolled the dice and I claimed the roll was to be paid once we got to Almasi Kipanga.” His voice dropped to a deep baritone. “Well, we’re at Almasi Kipanga. And if you refuse, your brother, Vaughn, will be hurt. It doesn’t matter that we aren’t in the same country. All it takes is one little phone call.”

I hated him.

I threw myself sideways in his hold, trying to get free. “No!”

Cut didn’t let me go, giving me enough leeway to tire myself out but not run. His voice lowered with mirth. “Not only will your brother pay for your refusal but Jethro will, too.”

He paused, letting the warning sink into my blood.

Jethro growled, gagged and furious. His bleeding body twisted and jerked in his ropes.

I tore my eyes away. I couldn’t look at him. “What—what do you want?”

“I’m going to give you a history lesson, then take what you owe me from the dice game. The Third Debt might once again be elusive, but I have a better idea.” Cut’s eyes flashed. “Once I’ve taken my fill, you’ll pay the remainder of the Fourth Debt…the Fifth Debt as it were.”

Moving me so I stood directly in front of Jethro, Cut murmured, “And my son will watch it all. He’ll remain alive, but his soul will die knowing he couldn’t help you. And then, once I’ve taken what I’m going to take and done to you what needs to be done, he’s going to continue living with that agony eating him away day after day. I’m going to leave him here, alive, knowing he can’t stop me from carrying out the Final Debt. That I’ll fulfil the prophecy because he was too much of a chickenshit to do it. And he’ll live with your death forever.”

Kissing my cheek, he sighed. “That is what I want from you, Ms. Weaver.”

It wasn’t a happy sigh or even satisfied he’d won—more like a weary, ancient sigh speaking of a man who showed nothing but violence. “My son loves you, Nila, and not a day will go by he won’t remember this cave or your death. That is your legacy to him.”

Wrapping his arms around me, he whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you time to say goodbye.”

Pulling back, he smiled at Jethro. “Now we all know what to expect, let’s begin.”

I’D LOVED HER for months.

Yet it seemed like my entire life.

I’d fallen for her as an adult.

Yet she’d intrigued me as a child.

She’d been born for me.

I’d been born for her.

We were linked. Joined by fate and history and destiny. Star-crossed, doomed from the start, absolutely forbidden lovers.

Bound and gagged and utterly fucking helpless, I faced the truth head-on. I’d entertained fantasies of living a normal life. Creating my own family, putting an end to grief and wretched revenge.

But I think I’d always known that no matter what we did, no matter how hard we fought, no matter what we sacrificed, there would be no other ending than the one signed in blood by my ancestors.

I’d said I’d loved her.

I’d proved I’d loved her.

I’d vowed to love her forever.

But the Debt Inheritance was too strong.

It wanted what it’d been given time and time again. Fate marched us faster and faster, stealing everything we’d promised.

Not many people had lived in hell. Not just visited for a while, but actually slept and ate and breathed there. As I watched my father manhandle my woman, the girl I wanted to marry, I set up home in hell. I breathed its sulphur air. I ate its brimstone hate. And I gave my soul over to the devil because what good was righteousness when only evil prevailed?

I was a demon’s son.

The demon’s son.

Wrought in fire and moulded by sins. My blood forged with terror; my body formed from mistakes and wrong turns. Debts. Contracts. Vengeance.

And no matter how I raged to be free, to end my predetermined inevitability, I couldn’t find a way to triumph.

Nila had fixed me.

She’d helped me escape my purgatory.

She’d been the nebula of perfection. The freedom of flying with no wings. Granting wind to a kite with untethered strings.

I’d soared. I’d rejoiced.

And now, I’d fallen.

Whatever Cut would do, whatever he would make me witness and Nila endure, I wouldn’t walk away intact.

I would breathe, but I would die.

I would blink, but I would be soulless.

I would vanish inside.

My heart would split open, veins slashing bloody substance all over a life I no longer wanted.

I knew what hell was.

As I fought the rope and begged for salvation.

As I blinked back tears and resigned myself to living the worst day of my life.

I knew what hell was.

I knew…

Because I was there.

“THE BEST WAY to tell the full story is to start at the very beginning.”

Cut left me standing in the middle of the cave, pacing around me pompously. His nose elevated with smugness, arms crossed with self-confidence. Each footstep, he slipped into the history lesson that Jethro ought to deliver. I preferred Jethro’s eloquence. His raspy, delicious voice. His melodic accent. His love pouring through every syllable.

But Jethro was gagged, and I had no choice but to hover where I’d been placed and listen.

“You’ve read the Debt Inheritance,” Cut said, “You understand Frank Hawk was whipped for stealing, which you repaid in the First Debt. You know his daughter was killed for witchcraft, which you repaid in the Second Debt. You know Bennett Hawk was sodomized, which I still don’t believe you paid with Daniel for the Third Debt, and you understand the mother did anything necessary to keep her family alive. That particular sacrifice was touched on at Hawksridge but will be fully repaid while you’re here.”