Chapter 4

The days grew shorter, colder. Winter settled over the estate like a shroud.

I was weaker than ever. The effort of just breathing was immense.

One morning, Keller dragged me from my cell. Not to the greenhouse, but to a part of the estate I'd never seen. A sterile, white-tiled room. It smelled of chemicals and something metallic.

Chairs with restraints. Wires. A control panel.

My blood ran cold.

"It's been a while since we talked properly, Ella," Keller said. His voice was deceptively calm. He gestured to one of the chairs. "Sit."

The guards forced me down, strapped my wrists and ankles.

"My patience is wearing thin." He picked up a remote. "You've been here months. Enjoying my hospitality. And still, no real answers about my parents."

"I've told you what I know," I whispered, my voice hoarse.

"You've told me stories. Deflections." He leaned closer, his eyes burning into mine. "Where. Are. Their. Bodies?"

"There are no bodies in the way you think!" My voice cracked. "They weren't murdered by us!"

He ignored me.

"I found this in your pathetic little cell," he said. He held up a small, intricately carved wooden bird. A hummingbird, the symbol of my ancestors, a gift from my little brother, Little Hawk, before I left. I'd hidden it under my mattress.

My breath hitched.

"A trinket from your savage life?" Keller sneered. He tossed it in the air, caught it. "Means something to you, does it?"

Tears pricked my eyes. "Please... don't."

"Then tell me."

"I can't tell you what you want to hear because it's not the truth!"

He sighed, a theatrical sound of disappointment.

"Very well."

He pressed a button on the remote.

Electricity seared through me. A white-hot agony. I screamed, my body arching against the restraints. The smell of burning hair filled the air.

It stopped. I slumped, gasping, trembling. Black spots danced before my eyes.

"Again," Keller said, his voice like flint. "Where are they?"

"I... don't... know..." Each word was a struggle.

The current hit me again. Harder this time. My vision blurred. Pain was all that existed.

When it ended, I was barely conscious.

Keller walked over to a steel table. He picked up my little wooden hummingbird.

"Such delicate carving," he mused. He placed it on the floor.

Then, he raised his heavy boot and brought it down.

The crack of splintering wood was louder than my choked sob.

He ground the pieces under his heel.

"Still nothing to say?"

Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the sweat and grime. Not just tears of pain, but of a sudden, cold rage.

"You'll never know," I spat, my voice raw. "Even if I die here, you'll never know the truth from me if you continue like this."

His face darkened. He raised the remote again.

But then he stopped. He looked at my shattered hummingbird, then at me.

A strange expression crossed his face. Doubt? Or just frustration?

"Get her out of my sight," he snarled at the guards.

They unstrapped me. I collapsed, but they hauled me to my feet, dragged me back to my cell.

I lay on the cold concrete, every nerve screaming.

The secret of his parents, of the real betrayal that led to their deaths, felt like a stone in my chest. A secret I had to protect, even if it killed me.

Because it wasn't just about Keller's parents anymore. It was about the traitor still within my tribe, the one who had colluded with outsiders.

The one Sophia Wexler was almost certainly connected to.

And she was getting everything she wanted.