Dear Muse (Those Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy Book 1) by Shawn Mackey Read Free Book Online Page A

holding me hostage was named Richard and the man holding my mother was named Henry. Richard had killed Argos and Henry had broken my arm. Both went on and on about how they were going to rape me when my father returned. If not for the excruciating pain, I would have had words for them.
    The instant my father walked through the door, Richard turned and shot him through the leg. As he reloaded the musket, Henry shot for his other leg and missed by a few inches, claiming to be aiming for his pecker. Mother was screaming and Father was writhing in blood, begging the men to spare us. They would, Richard said, after having their way with Mother and me for a few hours. Father noticed I was totally nude and broke into pathetic sobs. Henry pressed the gun barrel against his head as Richard pulled down his trousers.
    I kicked at the bastard’s hairy cock, which only seemed to engorge it, a detail Henry pointed out with peals of laughter. After a good amount of thrashing, he seized my ankle and pinned down my other leg with his knee. Their humor shifted into quiet lust as the cockhead neared my crotch. It pressed against the lips, and as I reeled my hips back to avoid penetration, a harpy-like shriek rang out, followed by a rifle shot. Richard immediately released me, attempting to grab hold of my mother. She lunged forward, her throat caught by Richard’s hands. Before he could squeeze, she plunged a sewing needle deep into the side of his neck.
    Instead of reloading, Henry attacked my mother with a pocket knife. He managed to stick her once in the stomach before my father hurled his shoulder into the man’s knees. They wrestled around on the floor, while I continued to kick at Richard’s bleeding neck so hard that I sliced the sole of my foot on the sewing needle.
    Henry and my father managed to raise themselves, the former fully intent on finishing off my mother and the latter reaching for the rifle. Next thing I remember was Father balancing on one leg, repeatedly bringing the butt of the rifle onto Henry’s face. Mother was shrieking as loud as before, clutching at her eye.
    We survived at a hefty cost: Mother lost an eye, Father lost the last of his pride. If a surgeon did not live less than a mile away, we would have lost much more. My arm had healed before our arrival on the island, as had my mother’s wounds. From then on, she sported an eye patch due to a “hunting accident.”
    Quite a miracle to have arrived here intact. After all that brutality, today’s incident seems like child’s play, though Aiden would say otherwise. I suppose it was his way of being officially initiated into the family.
    It started as a simple exchange of punches: Aiden striking Finney in the stomach, followed by Finney hitting Aiden in the chin. Next, they were both on grappling on the ground. My uncle was the first to intervene, receiving an elbow to the cheek for his efforts. Three others joined, managing to pry them apart. The grip around Aiden went lax, and he punched Finney in the mouth so hard it broke his front teeth. He was then tossed to the ground and kicked by seven men, one of them being Finney. The thrashing lasted a good minute before cooler heads prevailed.
    Aiden’s worst injury is the deep slice down his knuckle, nearly down to the bone. He was stitched up by his friend Casey, one of the men that tried to hold him back. Casey confessed to getting a single kick during the fray and would have went in for more if he knew he would not be the one in charge of patching him up later. Most of the men apologized to Aiden while he was being stitched up. Tensions were high and noses were bound to get bloodied. My father’s cowardice was inexcusable, and from henceforth, I refuse to speak with Finney under any circumstances. Not even to mock the gap in his gums.
    The two of us were on decent terms for an obvious reason. I was a pretty girl. He openly loathed my father and eyed my mother with nothing but disdain, while I was regarded