Goddess Isles Book 4: Fourth a Lie
Autor
Pepper Winters
Leituras
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In a world torn apart by violence and betrayal, Sullivan Sinclair grapples with the guilt of his past and the love he feels for Eleanor. As he tries to protect her from the dangers he believes he brings, their relationship is tested by external threats and internal conflicts. When Sullivan's brother, Drake, emerges as a formidable enemy, the stakes are raised, leading to a series of intense confrontations and emotional turmoil. Will Sullivan and Eleanor's love survive the chaos, or will the darkness of their world consume them both?
Chapter One
Book Four: Fourth a Lie
Sullivan
āEVERYTHING YOU LOVE DIES, Sinclair. Everything you treasure is gone. Thatās your true curse. The one you can never run from.ā
I pinched the bridge of my nose, doing my best to squeeze out the voice of my nightmare. The nightmare Iād had just before the bomb destroying Serigala ripped me awake.
Iād hoped the warning was some version of closure from my distrusting brain, throwing the masks of my past in my face, freeing me from lies and deceptions.
A strange kind of acceptance that I was in love, that Iād felt joy, that Iād been happy mere hours before this shitstorm came knocking.
But I was wrong.
Itād been the opposite.
I couldnāt shed those masks because they were a part of me. They were my armour against a world I could no longer survive in. They were my tools to reap death and decay on those who deserved it.
Those masks were the walls between Eleanor and our forever, condemning me with the truth that I was fucking delusional to think I could keep her, suicidal to give my heart to her, and utterly demented to think I could claim hers in return.
Iād done this.
Iād fallen for her and fallen from my power.
Iād adopted, rehabilitated, and nursed so many innocent creatures, and now they were chum in the sea, mangled paws and broken tails, missing ears and blown apart skulls.
Iād made a promise to keep them safe.
Safe?
Christ, my safety came with extermination.
Nothing was safe around me.
Nothing.
Especially not her.
Three hours.
He gave me three hours to save her.
My disgusting, gore-painted hands curled into fists as I leaned back and bashed my head against the plush helicopter upholstery.
Eleanor.
It didnāt matter if I had three hours or three years, it was all the sameājust a matter of time before I hurt her.
If I keep herā¦sheāll die.
It was inevitable.
Inescapable.
My nightmare wasnāt closureāit was a forewarning.
An omen filled with premonition and intuition that no matter how much time passed, no matter how hard I tried to find redemption, I hadnāt been forgiven by fate.
I hadnāt earned her.
Iād never earn her because Iād never fucking change.
I liked my life. I hoarded my privacy. I enjoyed playing with myths and falsities.
I was just as bad as the guests who visited.
I was owed no singular forgiveness for what I was. I wasnāt any worse or better than my brethren.
My one saving grace was I preferred the animal kingdom over my own and tried to buy better karma through their protection.
And I kept failing fucking spectacularly at it.
Humans were the disease. Animals were the pharmacon.
Eleanor was human.
I was human.
Drake was human.
And because Drake was a psychotic bastard, and I was a love-struck fool, and Eleanor was a girl trapped by me, we all had blood on our hands.
We were all responsible for this animal carnage because Eleanor had distracted me from my calling, Drake had found my weakness, and Iā¦
Iād been too busy being fucking happy to notice.
Fuck!
Groaning with fresh nausea, I glowered out the helicopter window.
Down below with black-shrouded oceans and star-dusted shores, life went on, things got eaten, new life was birthed, and a goddess existed whoād almost convinced me of the impossible.
The impossibility of us.
I bent forward again, digging hands through my hair, not caring that I spread viscera and biohazard, contaminating every part of me. Yesterday, Iād been making sarcastic quips to Jinx in Nirvana.
Iād felt joy. Iād laughed. Iād indulged.
Iād forgotten about everyone and everything.
Iād allowed the very thing that I despised about the human race to intoxicate me.
Iād become selfish.
Iād become greedy and narcissisticāonly thinking of my life, my lust, my love.
Iād given in to every dream and fantasy I had, thinking I could finally have peace.
And nowā¦
I snarled in the din of helicopter blades.
Fury tangled with loss, despair blended with violence, and every wall Iād dropped, every mask Iād shed, every denial Iād erased stabbed me with a thousand blades.
Eleanor.
Sheād done this. Sheād made me become this.
Thisā¦man. This blind, stupid man whoād forgotten his responsibilities and commitments. I was wrong to think her hex on me was purely about us.
It wasnāt.
It was about my life. My future. My animals whoād died because Iād fallen in love.
And that...? Fuck, that was a price I wasnāt prepared to pay.
Not again.
An avalanche of hate slithered over my shoulders, chilling me. My bones froze over, cracking with frost and filling with loathing for Drake. For me. Even for Eleanor.
Sheād made me love her.
She made every drop of my frosted blood panic for her safety.
She came first.
Over everything.
She meant more.
Over anything.
And look what fucking happened.
Those animals would still be alive if it wasnāt for me.
Drake needed to die.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Piece by piece.
That was a stone-chiseled certaintyābut the rest?
The rest of my fuck-ups and failings? The fact that my heart belonged to a woman who had made me weak?
The goddamn truth that Iād fallen for a goddess whoād shaken apart my dynasty and left my borders wide open for attack?
How did I fix that?
How do I stop the undeniable urge to sacrifice everything if it means I can keep her safe?
Dropping my hands, I sat tall again. I was a fidgety, violent mess trapped in a tiny cabin, rapidly losing control, quickly fraying with the sickening desire to murder.
Cal sat quietly beside me, knowing not to interrupt.
Heād seen me on this knife-edge. Heād seen me this restless before. Heād felt whatād happened when I snapped and watched what Iād done when I broke.
Iād left a trail of corpses in my wake for payment for ten animal lives. A mix of mouse, monkey, and rabbit from a cosmetic group in Chicago.
Iād made national news for the disgustingly gruesome and frankly morbidly-inspired retribution Iād delivered.
Iād been arrested.
Iād been trialled.
Iād been released because I had something that they didnāt.
Money.
Lots and lots of fucking money and with money came untouchability.
But not this time.
Instead of coming after me, Drake had gone after my most vulnerable.
Bullshit.
Motherfucking bullshit!
I punched the fuselage in an explosive strike.
Cal flinched beside me, his voice piercing my ears via our headsets. āJust to distract you from your chaotic thoughts, Iāve called ahead. The guards have set the snares. Theyāre armed.
āThey know their position and protocol. Sheāll be fine, Sully.ā
I snarled in his direction. āWhat makes you think Iām worried about her?ā
He snorted. āIf you could sprout wings right now, youād be down there with her already.ā
āIād be looking for Drake.ā
āWell, whatever your first priority, sheāll be fineāā
āShe wonāt fucking be fine. Not while sheās mine.ā
He shrugged as if this was a fucking shrugging matter.
āEveryone has family theyād rather keep hidden.ā His lips twitched, delivering the twisted joke, hoping itād shatter my rage but only adding to it.
I was not in the mood to let go of the shit Iād seen.
I was not going to be pacified just because I had men on my payroll who knew their jobs and were proven in merciless warfare.
The things inside me?
The fact that I would die for her? The knowledge that I would turn into anything, sacrifice anything, destroy everything for herā¦it made me a highly dangerous individual.
It made me volatile.
It made me unpredictableā¦even to myself.
She canāt be near me.
āI want her gone.ā I glowered out the window as we began our descent. āNow.ā
His voice crackled, offering solutions to my fury. āWeāll arrange for the goddesses to be sent to Lebah. Theyāll be close by and safe while we deal with Drake.ā
āThere is no we.ā My knuckles cracked as I fisted my hands. āHis pain belongs to me and every fucking creature heās just snuffed out.ā
āFine.ā Cal nodded curtly, his reflection bouncing off the window. āIāll evacuate the guests too. They can go to Angsa. The fortified encampment there will keep them out of harmās way for a day or so.
āWeāll ensure those who want to go home have transport available.ā
Two islands named after creatures with wings. One with feathers and one with membrane. A swan and a bee. Both far too delicate and defenceless.
My goddesses and guests could go there.
Frankly, I was done with humans for the time being. They could be casualties in this war; I didnāt fucking care.
But Eleanorā¦she wasnāt going with them.
Sheād done this to me. Sheād stripped me down to my final mask and shown me how lacking I was.
I was a man whoād turned off his empathy toward his own race, only to cripple beneath the swarm of it for fragile animals.
Iād once told her that too much empathy could kill a person and not enough would kill someone else.
Well... my empathy had become a double-sided weapon, and I didnāt want to be responsible when I wielded it.
Therefore, all my promises, ill-fated joy, and unbearable pleasure were over.
āTell the pilots they have a flight to Java in one hour.ā
Cal stiffened beside me. āYouāre sending her to the mainland?ā
I tensed, doing my best to stop my heart from leaping from my mouth. āSheās going home. Iām done.ā
His silence was as damning as his sarcastic āsirā.
My goddess island came into view, the helicopter sank, and I gathered up all the masks that Eleanor had stripped from me with bloody, gory hands, and put them back on... one lie at a time.
