Chapter 20 - CHILDREN OF MONSTERSWe brought Sophie to Blackthorne.
Dominic objected for twelve minutes.
Then Sophie cried.
He stopped objecting.
The terrifying Dominic Mercer had always possessed one fatal weakness.
Sad children.
Sophie told us everything.
At age twelve, she had begun receiving lessons her parents called “leadership education.”
Financial systems.
Political influence.
Negotiation.
Secrecy.
At fourteen, the lessons changed.
Blackmail.
Leverage.
Compromise.
“How to find what someone loves,” she whispered, “and make them afraid to lose it.”
Caleb looked sick.
Sophie had been ordered to befriend him.
She refused.
So they threatened her younger brother.
That was why she gave Caleb The Secret Garden.
Not a recruitment signal.
A warning.
“How did you know the phrase?” I asked.
“My grandfather kept files on Nathaniel Vale.”
Voss had studied my father for decades.
Sophie stole information.
She knew someday she might need it.
Smart girl.
Terrifyingly smart.
Alexander arrived with news.
Charles Voss's body had been found.
The new Circle had executed him.
A transfer of power.
Then eleven encrypted invitations were sent around the country.
The twelve heirs were being summoned.
Caleb received one too.
Location:
Blackthorne House.
I stared at the screen.
“They're coming here?”
Dominic almost smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
“They're either extremely confident or extremely stupid.”
Neither.
The invitation had been sent from inside Blackthorne's network.
Someone was already here.
The estate locked down.
Every employee was screened.
Every device checked.
Nothing.
Then Caleb said:
“The house.”
“What?”
“Not the people. The house.”
Blackthorne had belonged to the Mercer family for generations.
Secret rooms existed.
Old tunnels.
Storage chambers.
Dominic knew most.
Not all.
We retrieved Vincent Mercer's architectural plans.
One section beneath the ballroom didn't match the modern foundation.
A room had been sealed in 1989.
Before Dominic inherited Blackthorne.
Before Caleb was born.
We opened it.
Inside were thirteen chairs.
A long table.
Dust.
And a black thorn carved into the wall.
The Mercer crest.
But beneath it was another symbol.
A compass.
Meridian.
Dominic stared.
“My grandfather built this.”
Blackthorne had once hosted the Circle.
His family hadn't merely participated.
They had helped found it.
Caleb entered.
Dominic turned.
“You shouldn't be down here.”
Caleb looked at the chairs.
“One is mine.”
The smallest chair had a silver plate.
MERCER.
No first name.
Because the individual never mattered.
Only the bloodline.
Caleb removed the plate.
Then broke it against the table.
Dominic watched.
A strange pride entered his face.
We found records hidden inside the wall.
Succession plans stretching back seventy years.
Children assigned to families.
Marriages encouraged.
Companies merged.
Political careers financed.
The Circle had treated generations like chess pieces.
Then we found the thirteenth file.
Not Mercer.
VALE.
My blood went cold.
I opened it.
Nathaniel Vale hadn't stumbled into the Circle accidentally.
His family had been selected too.
My father had been recruited at twenty-one.
He rebelled.
Then I found my own name.
ELEANOR VALE.
Status:
UNRECOVERED ASSET.
Dominic looked at me.
I laughed once.
No humor.
“All those years I thought they wanted me because of Dad's evidence.”
“They wanted you before the evidence existed.”
At the bottom was another line.
VALE SUCCESSION PENDING OFFSPRING.
Dominic went still.
I stared.
The Circle expected me to have a child.
A future heir.
Someone combining Vale and Mercer blood.
My stomach turned.
Then a sound came from behind the wall.
Click.
A hidden monitor activated.
Twelve faces appeared.
Young.
The other heirs.
A distorted voice filled the room.
“Welcome home.”
Caleb stepped beside me.
The voice continued.
“Tomorrow night, the thirteen families begin again.”
Caleb looked directly at the camera.
“No.”
The voice paused.
Caleb repeated:
May you like
“No.”
Then he reached forward and unplugged the screen.
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