SETH (Book Four)

FIVE

I'm going out of my mind and will make Kendall pay for making me wear this uncomfortable dress. Don't get me wrong, it's not tight or anything. I don't particularly appreciate showing my bare shoulder area and cleavage where anyone can see. Also, it has a slit-up leg part as the dress flows elegantly around me.

I found a few men looking at me, and I suddenly felt sick.

"Can you stop fidgeting," Ghost says through his teeth.

Once we arrived at the auction house, it was in a private lot owned by The Order. Before entering, he handed me a masquerade mask as the invite suggested to keep the buyers anonymous. Although the auction was only a way to attract the rich, displaying rare antiques for the show, the real one is beneath the lot.

To enter such a secret auction, you need a stamp of their sigil - a crow.

Crows are said to be known for their clairvoyance and foresight. But the crow being used in the Order has a deeper meaning. Because they are considered wise, they are also known to bring death to your doorstep. That is why The Order is using this magnificent bird to spread the idea that although the crow would lead you to heaven upon death, this only masks their true ideal - power.

The Order has been around since I can remember. The members are said to be worshipers in helping the children of God find enlightenment. But that is not the case. They are led by a woman, Madam Red. Not knowing her real name, she runs this cult, calling herself Mother Eva. Her background from once I was within The Order I can always remember.

She started this so-called foundation, this group, when she was nineteen. Since then, she had brainwashed some followers to be behind her, acting like she was some savior, a prophet. That is all bullshit.

She's a kidnapper, molester, and monster who preys on children wearing an innocent face. What do her followers see in her? They see a woman wearing a white church gown and make-believe angel wings sent from God himself. Thinking she was some fucking saint.

Outside the group, no one knows the honest Mother Eva, aka Madam Red. I don't know what her ordeal of kidnapping a child she can get her hands on and sell them off. For what? What purpose is it to do such horrifying things?

From what the agency can find, she was molested and beaten as a child by her parents. Her parents were drunks and sniffers if you know what I mean. They never cared for her; they even used her as a drug mule or, worst - pimp her out to get some money. To them, she was a profit and not their child. I'm surprised nobody told how horrible her parents were to a social worker.

When she turned eighteen, that is when she started her revolution. She drugged her parents and burnt down their trailer home along with them. Since then, she started working as a social worker, working with kids, and it started the trigger to see broken homes. Hence, she built a community to help children from abusive homes, but because of her past, she began to get tainted by her parents' torture and used it on the children.

I clench my fist tight, itching to punch someone. Sitting next to me, the Ghost sees my intention and touches my arm.

"Sparrow, ease your nerves. You are making me uneasy here." He whispers, calling me by my code name.

I snort and drag a leg over the other.

"The auction hasn't even started yet, and you look like you want someone to bleed. Did something happen in the hotel?"

I turn to look at him, seeing him smugly.

"Fuck you," I barked, and it made him chuckle. "How the fuck do you know?"

"Kendall filled me in."

"I swear that girl has a big mouth," I groan.

"Why don't you tell him?" Ghost asks, curiously wondering why I brought Seth along during my mission. Stories about me befriending Seth have reached my team's ears. Hopefully, it's not the agency. "I bet he's having a serious issue about his sexual identity." He cackles.