Torn:Dark Legacy Duet, Book 2
By: Natasha Knight
About This Book
Taking her is my right.
Breaking her, my duty.
I was always going to choose Helena. I knew it the instant I saw her.
She’s different than the others. There’s a darkness about her. Something wild inside her. And it calls to the beast inside me.
But she isn’t what I expect. With every word and every touch, she pushes me, burrows deep under my skin, challenging the rules, upending history.
And all the while, I see how my brother watches her. He wants her, and as the rules stand, she’ll become his in one year’s time.
Except that I have no intention of giving her up.
Torn is the 2nd Book of the Dark Legacy Duet. If you haven’t yet read Taken, you’ll need to do that first. You can find it in all stores now. Click here for the links.
“Just close your eyes, the sun is going down.
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now.
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound.”
“Safe and Sound”
~ Taylor Swift
Prologue
Helena
I can’t open my eyes.
It’s like a dream where you will yourself to wake, to escape, but you can’t wake up, and there is no escape.
Water drips somewhere nearby, behind me maybe. The sound echoes off the walls.
The stomach-turning scent of decay permeates this place and all I can think is I’m back on the island. I must be. And in that mausoleum.
They’ve buried me alive in that mausoleum.
The scene changes then, taking me back to the library, to where my sisters and I stood on our blocks. Where he took his time looking us over. Took his time as he decided.
I remember his eyes, the darkness inside them.
And I feel his touch, his fingers on me, on my sex.
And I remember my arousal.
I struggle against the memory and it changes again and I see my parents.
My mother.
Much like our enemies, we Willows are a family plagued by lies and deceptions.
First, it was my parents who betrayed me. Sold me like a prize pig. Sebastian’s words, not mine. But it hardly matters who spoke them.
Then, it was Sebastian.
He told me to trust him, and I did. He told me he had a way out, and I believed him.
But he’s been lying all along.
And I’ve been a fool all along.
1
Helena
I dream of my aunt that night.
I always thought I’d know when she died. I thought I’d feel it. But she’s been gone for weeks and I haven’t felt a thing.
But in my dream, she’s young and beautiful. She’s holding my face in her hands and they’re soft, the skin no longer old, but like mine. Looking at her face is like looking in a mirror.
She was me seventy years ago. She was the Willow Girl. You could swap us out for one another, no one would know.
I am an exact replica of my aunt.
She’s smiling and watching me and all I can do is cry as I try to understand. To make sense of this.
“You have to be strong now, child.”
“You’re gone, and I didn’t even know.”
“I only stayed as long as I did to give you this, Helena.” She touches the ring, turns it on my finger. The bone is smooth and cool against my skin.
“Did you kill him?” I ask. “Is it true what they said?”
“They lie,” she says, turning her head a little, looking into the darkness beyond and I see the edge of something on the curve of her neck, a scar I’ve never seen before. “Never forget that.”
“What’s this?” I start, pushing the loose black sheath-like dress away.
She catches my hand to stop me.
“Look in the closet, Helena. In the floorboards.”
“What?”
“The closet in the Willow Girl’s room. Look. You’ll understand.” She touches my ring. “Remember, we have a piece of them. Let that knowledge be your power. Let it give you strength. You’ll end this. You’ll be the last Willow Girl.”
“Am I going to die?”
She hugs me to her, cups the back of my head, and she’s old again and familiar again.
Noise startles us and she looks beyond me into the dark. I wonder if she can see inside it. I can’t.
“Our time is up, child. You remember I’m with you and the ghost of every Willow Girl is with you. You’ll end this.”
