She looked at each of them as if they were all slow on the uptake. She paused briefly at Alarik and became more insistent.

“Not a single word! Not to our parents, children, or anyone else!” she finally continued, pushing black pens at each of them. The clatter ran through them all, cutting the dangerous silence. “Because anything that ever gets out in the public could endanger everyone here, don't forget that...”

“We shouldn't even be sitting here together!” Amara Blair hissed, dutiful as she had always been. Ever since her younger sister had died, in fact. Not like the one sitting next to her. Young and innocent, not even sixteen yet, and only here by an unfortunate coincidence.

“So what? This will be the last time anyway!” Amanda blubbered as if her patience would snap at any moment.

“Besides, this is clear proof that our families just don't belong together,” Diana remarked.

Actually, she was rather reticent on this subject. But at that moment, she was voicing precisely what had been hanging over every room they had entered together for months. And she was undoubtedly one of the last from whom he would have expected such a statement.

“Our species...?” Alarik echoed, flicking through the document as if it were his death sentence.

“You haven't misread, mutt!”

The blond young man had almost forgotten about his blood brother, who was not only sitting next to him, bored and apparently twiddling his thumbs the whole time, but also had the looser mouth of the two of them. His brother shouldn't be here, but unfortunately, he had found out too much. Him, of all people!

“What did you just say?”

Alarik immediately jumped up and glared menacingly at the boy. His yellow-bright eyes and prominent veins were hard to miss. They had been coming out more and more in the last few months.

“I said you idiots were incapable of getting a grip on anything.”

His brother hadn't, but it was enough to infuriate Alarik even more.

“Look at yourselves. You're wasting away out there in your fairytale castle making shady deals with some mass murderers!”

For the first time, Alarik uttered a word about the brothers' family. Something negative. And then about him, his former best friend.

He, still sitting relatively uninvolved at the other end of the table, became aware of so much at that moment. Countless days, weeks, even years he had spent with these people. And he realized that he still didn't know them.

Out of nowhere, his brother jumped up angrily, as always, not in control of his emotions. Just as they had not learned to do.

“Watch your tongue!”

“That's what separates us from you!” Amanda interjected again, her tone condescending.

“Oh, shut your loose mouth, Westcode witch. You're no better yourself!” his brother growled.

Amanda's jaw dropped. However, she quickly regained her composure. Faster than the boy, whom the blond now pulled back into the chair. But he jerkily snatched his arm away.

“The Senseque have destroyed everything. Every possibility of conducting business and managing this city decently!” he continued angrily, and a reddish flicker flitted through his irises.

The blond has had enough. Of his own family.

“I don't like your tone!” he pressed out.

“You come between me and them now, brother?!”

“Guys! Stop it!” Amara admonished loudly. “You sign those damn contracts now, and then we'll get out of here!”

The brothers didn't like being ordered around, but that wasn't the matter now. His little brother understood that, too, as he remained quiet.

“If you leave this building today, new rules will apply. You must realize that.”

Amanda looked at each of them. They all nodded silently.

He was still sitting there watching them all, listening to Amanda but not really able to concentrate on her voice.

His thoughts were all about her- only about her. They would always revolve around her. For a moment, he wished he hadn't met her because then he wouldn't be sitting here now. But he had met her, and she had opened up a whole new world to him.

When Amanda finished, each of them picked up the pen, including him.

He watched as the black ink stretched across the page.

It had all started with a signature and now it would end with one.

At least that’s what they thought…

„Family, they said. A time bomb, they created.”

Chapter 1

Bayla

My mother had kidnapped me. She had simply tied me up and thrown me in the boot, and now I was trying to free myself with a lighter. My wrists were burning from the flames...or was it the rope cutting into my skin?

I wish it had happened that way because then I would have a valid reason to be mad at her. But instead, here I was, sitting in the passenger seat of her fat SUV, hoping she would change her mind after all.

I looked down at my wrists, which were already red from my non-stop scratching.

“Tell me...were you even listening to me?” her words reached my ear distantly.

Of course, I had been listening. But this time, I wasn't in the mood for the usual arguments with her. Whenever she tried to get her way, she succeeded. And that upset me. I had to control myself, or something would happen again. And nothing was allowed to happen, not this time and especially not in the middle of a packed jeep on the motorway.

For this reason, I kept silent and stared out the window at the passing cars. There weren't many of them here, in the middle of nowhere, but at least they took my mind off things for a few seconds.

The further north we drove, the emptier the road became, and I feared that we wouldn't arrive in this abandoned village in the middle of Wallachia in time before nightfall.

The forests here were beautiful, but something about them reminded me of those axe murder movies.

“Bayla, I understand that this isn't easy for you. But you know we have no choice,” Mum said, gently now.

Of course, we have had a choice. But she had made her choice, and I had to live with it. Again. Nothing new, actually.

“I'm old enough to look after myself, and I would have got through that one week without you.”

And that was true. My mother had come to this remote area once before for four weeks, only to come back even weaker than usual. During that time, I had gotten a part-time job and had earned good money. Besides, my mother had enough financial means in case of an emergency. Not that I was dependent on her.