Eli’s jaw was twitching when he finished his introductions and turned toward the defendant. “How do you plead?”
“Not guilty.” Claudia kept her eyes straight on me.
My brow rose. “You deny keeping my brother within your home?”
“No.”
“Were you aware that I, your prince and superior, gave a command that he be surrendered to my custody by any citizen of The Shade whom he came into contact with?”
“Yes, I was aware.”
“Then how are you not guilty? Is it not clear that you defied me?”
“Let’s stop playing this charade, your royal highness,” she hissed. “All of us know that you left The Shade with no laws before you went on your drowsy four-hundred-year retreat. You cannot charge me with a crime when there are no laws to break.”
I leaned an elbow over the armrest of the leather recliner I was rested on. One corner of my lips rose in an amused half-smile. “You see that’s where you’re wrong, Claudia. In this island, there is but one law and you broke it. The word of those who rule over you and in my father’s absence… that word is mine.” I scoped every member of the Elite present in that room. “Mark my words. In The Shade, for as long as I rule, my word is law. Those who defy it will suffer the consequences. Does anyone dare object?”
The silence was electrifying. I was fully expecting Claudia to stand up for herself, but to my surprise, she cowered back. I smirked. Even lionesses fear the king of the pride.
“Is there anyone here who would like to speak on the defendant’s behalf?” I called out.
Claudia didn’t have an abundance of allies at The Shade, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to stand up for her. I was surprised when Yuri stood on her behalf. Of all the people I could’ve expected to say something to save Claudia’s neck, it certainly wasn’t him.
Yuri took the stand, glaring at Claudia before addressing me. “It’s no secret to this kingdom how much this wench and I detest each other. I find it sickening just to stand here alongside her. However, it’s also no secret to this kingdom that if there’s one citizen on this island who was ever able to stand being around her, it was your highness’ older brother, Lucas.” He paused for a breath and gave Claudia a pointed look.
It was a strange thing to see how Claudia’s eyes moistened with tears. I found myself all the more intrigued by the story behind Claudia and Yuri’s strange relationship.
“We cannot excuse her blatant defiance of your majesty, the prince, but I stand here appealing to mercy rather than to justice. We became the Elite, because we bled together in battle. We stood as brothers and sisters, as a family during the worst of times. Lucas was such to Claudia – a friend perhaps, a lover maybe, family at best. Must we really punish her for trying to protect the one person at The Shade she can consider her ally?”
My response to Yuri’s plea would cause wild commotion and I knew it. “I find your words moving,” I addressed him, “however, defiance is defiance and I will not stand for it. Unless someone can give me a more substantial reason to give her reprieve, she will serve as a warning to everyone in the kingdom.” I stood to my full height to give my words further emphasis. “I will no longer be defied by anyone.”
I saw fear in Claudia’s eyes. It was a rare thing to see her tremble and I relished every second of it.
“I sentence her to thirty lashes and six months in the Cells effective immediately.”
The result was chaos, but I was able to accomplish what I set out to do. The message was sent loud and clear. The Shade was no longer a lawless kingdom. I was the law.
Chapter 24: Sofia
I was running through The Shade’s dark, misty woods. I was cut up and bruised. I could taste blood on my lips. Tears were streaming down my cheeks. A dark presence was after me. Hope surged within me when I saw the clearing that would lead to my escape. I was going to make it. I sped up, desperate to find safety. Any hope I had was replaced by terror when I fell over the edge of a large, dark pit and right into the bowels of it. My gag reflex was immediately triggered by the stench, the sight, the silence and the sense of being surrounded by death. I was surrounded by countless corpses, some of which were familiar, dearly beloved faces. Ashley. Paige. Rosa. Sam. Kyle. Ben. Me.
My entire body was tense. I couldn’t move a single muscle, but I was keenly aware of the uncontrollable tremble of my body.
“Sofia?”
I felt Ben’s arms wrap around me from behind, his breath hot and erratic against the back of my neck. I thought for a moment that he was seeking to give me comfort and I found myself leaning my back against him. I was wrong. I realized that he too was shaking… more profusely than I was.
I slowly regained control of my own body and after a few minutes, lying there, the tremors of our forms molding against each other, I was able to roll over on the bed so that I was facing him. I still couldn’t shake the aftershock of my dreadful dream, so instead of attempting to soothe him, I drew close, leaning my cheek against his broad shoulder.
It took what felt like hours before our bodies stopped shaking. I felt his heartbeat against my face. It slowed down from its quick, erratic beats to its normal steady pace. I gasped. His hand was over my thigh, hiking up my hips, my nightshift rising along with his palm. He lifted me higher over the bed so that our faces were parallel to each other’s. His lips were then on me. First, the corner of my lips, my jaw, my neck, my shoulder… I was froze as his hands traveled my body… the way Lucas’ hands did.
“Ben…” I croaked.
He didn’t respond with words. Instead, his mouth found mine and I could no longer speak, no longer object. Eventually, I pushed him away.
“No… Ben, we can’t do this.”
His eyes met mine and I was stunned to find anger blazing in them. “Do you have any idea how many times she used me?”
Claudia. She was a dark cloud always hanging over him.
“How many times did he use you?”
“Never.” I recalled all the nights I spent in Derek’s bed. “He never even laid a hand on me.” I was taken aback by that realization. I couldn’t remember a single time that Derek ever touched me while I was in his bed… at least never in a sensual manner. There was always this safe distance between us.
But then came the memory of lying on his bed, with my hands pinned above my head, Derek holding me down by the wrists. It was the first time he ever did something like that to me since the incident at the Sanctuary upon his waking. I had to admit that Derek wasn’t as blemish-free as my infatuation wanted to paint him.
“We can’t keep doing this.” I shook my head and got off the bed.
“Can’t keep doing what?”
“Sleeping in the same bed. Not if we want to pursue a relationship… We’re treading dangerous waters.”
“You never had a problem sleeping in one bed with him…”
“Where is this coming from?” My hands rose in the air in utter frustration. I shook my head empathically. “You know what? Forget it. I’m going to do you a favor and forget this happened. I’m going back to my room.”
From outside Ben’s window, I could see faint hues of violets and reds, signaling the break of dawn. It was the morning of our first date. We set our date on the weekend after we decided to give our relationship a shot a couple of days ago. This certainly wasn’t a great way to kick start our first date. I snuck out of my room and returned to mine. Sleep escaped me and I spent what was left of the dark staring outside my window, watching the sun rise.
During breakfast, it was clear from the bags under his eyes that Ben didn’t get much sleep either. True to my word, I was determined to forget what happened earlier that morning, blaming it on some adverse reaction he had to whatever nightmares still managed to plague him. So I smiled at him and playfully punched him on the shoulder before placing a plate of French toast in front of him. He gave me a surprised look, but it seemed he was relieved that there wasn’t a weird tension between us as a result of what ha
ppened.
“You two are up early…” Lyle commented as he took a sip of his coffee, his eyes set on the news article he was reading on his tablet. “It’s a Saturday. You’re teenagers. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping in?”
Amelia and Abby were still in bed. They always slept in during weekends.
I just smiled as I dabbed butter and strawberry jam over my French toast. “Maybe we’re not your ordinary teenagers, Lyle.”
He gave me a lingering stare… enough to bother me. It was as if he knew something about me that even I didn’t know.
I lifted the fork I was holding mid-air. “What?”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing, Sofia.”
“Actually…” Ben drawled as he poured a generous dollop of maple syrup over his toast “…Sofia just couldn’t wait to wake up so she can spend some time with me.”
I wanted to stop my cheeks from reddening, but they did anyway. I couldn’t ignore the way Lyle shifted glances from Ben to me and back. Lyle was soft-spoken and mostly kept to himself. I rarely heard him raise his voice. Even when he was scolding his children, he did it in a calm, almost eerie, voice that made him sound actually far more threatening than Amelia’s shrill diatribes.
“You two ought to be careful.” Lyle warned, his face stoic, his voice flat. “Whatever is going on between the two of you,” he set his eyes on Ben, “I think we know that your mother isn’t yet ready to consider the idea of you being together. Tread lightly.”
“Yeah, Dad… Sure thing…” Ben had that deer-caught-in-headlights look about him.
Ben and I exchanged glances. “How does he know?” I mouthed at him the moment Lyle shifted his focus back on his daily news reading.
He shrugged as he tossed his food around on his plate. Lyle finished the rest of his coffee and replaced his tablet in its case.
“I’m off to work. Enjoy your day, and please.... Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Ben chuckled as he watched his father leave. “He doesn’t seem to have anything against us dating. Guess that’s a good thing.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“That being said…” He gave me a look-over. “Get dressed, Sofia. Don’t you have a date today?”
“Psshh…” I threw a crumpled paper towel at him. “I was thinking of bailing. A wise man just told me that I should be careful and tread lightly.” I attempted to mimic the way Lyle said those last two words.
“Right…” Ben scoffed at me as he approached. He leaned on the dining table as I got up in order to put aside the dishes. “As if you can bail out on me.”
I raised a brow at him. “What makes you think I can’t?”
He shrugged, feigning self-confidence. “What makes you think you can?” He tilted my chin upward with his forefinger and was about to stoop for a kiss when Amelia walked in, her mass of blonde hair a total mess, looking like she was half-awake, half-asleep.
“Good morning, Mom.” Ben said. Never being a morning person, Amelia just grunted his way and went straight to the fridge.
“Sofia and I are going to spend the day out, okay? We’ll be home by dinner.”
“Uh-huh…” Amelia nodded, her head still stuck in the refrigerator. I was pretty sure none of what Ben said sank in. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and walked out of the room.
I motioned to pick up the dishes but Ben grabbed my arm. “Leave it. I got you.” He grinned, giving my PJs a look. “You really have to get dressed. I can’t be seen with you looking like that.”
“Is this what you do to all the girls you go out with?” I rolled my eyes.
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Only the ones who show up in their PJs.”
He escorted me to my room and gave me time to get ready as he himself got dressed. I didn’t know what he had in mind for our date, so I really had no idea what to wear. I took a good five minutes staring at my closet, wondering what to put on. Why don’t you just go ask him, Sofia? For crying out loud, this is just Ben… your best friend… Still, I wanted it to feel like a real date – complete with all the hassles of assembling the right outfit.
Since it was a Saturday morning and I was sure Ben wouldn’t be the type to drag me into a formal gathering of sorts, I ended up putting on a baby doll blouse with a white lace tube top and a sheer old rose chiffon bottom. I paired it with dark skinny jeans and pink doll shoes. I considered lifting my hair up into a ponytail, but decided to wear it down and accent it with a crystal headband.
I just finished putting on some light makeup when Ben began knocking on my door. I stuffed my phone, makeup and wallet in my hand bag and grabbed it before Ben could make his way inside my bedroom. When I opened the door, his eyes lit up upon seeing me.
It was a strange feeling having known him for half my life and still finding myself mesmerized by a side of him that I’d never actually been introduced to before.
“So? I guess now you’d be willing to be seen with me?” I teased.
He looked at me from head to foot. “M-hm… You’ll do.”
I rolled my eyes and lightly slapped the uninjured side of his face.
“Ow.” He frowned as he held the assaulted area. “Fine.” He relented. “You look perfect, Sofia.”
We made our way to the driveway and got on his truck.
“So?” I asked as I made myself comfortable in the passenger’s seat. “What exactly do you have in mind for our first date, Mr. Hudson?”
“Well…” He started the vehicle. He looked genuinely excited to go on our date. “I figured that we’ve been having some pretty nasty memories lately, so it might be worth our while to revisit the good ones.”
I smiled. “Sounds interesting. Where to then?”
“Just wait and see.”
Ten minutes passed before we arrived at our first stop: a string of outlet stores that I didn’t remember visiting before. What kind of memories would I have in a place like this?
We stepped out of the truck. Ben held my hand and led me to a toy store. He passed the racks of toys, observing quietly as he strode with purpose toward the back of the shop.
I couldn’t bear my curiosity any longer. “Why are we at a toy store, Ben? I’ve never been here before.”
“Neither have I, actually,” he admitted, amusement wrinkling the corners of his eyes as he continued to scope out each rack he passed by, his fingers still intertwined with mine. “Ahhh… there it is!”
He stopped at a rack containing an impressively large assortment of water guns. He faced me and smiled. “Do you remember the first time we actually played together?”
“You call that playing together?” I burst into giggles. “You kept squirting me with a water gun… right in the face!”
“It was the first water gun I’d ever received. I was nine years old. I thought it was a pretty cool toy and then you showed up, and you couldn’t even sit in one place for even a second… What?! It’s true! You were all over the place and you kept bugging me with stupid questions.” He shrugged. “I was annoyed.”
“So your solution was to shoot water at me whenever I opened my mouth to speak.”
He leaned his face closer to mine and slit his eyes at me. “It shut you up, didn’t it?”
“For the record, the questions I was asking weren’t stupid. You just didn’t know the answers to them.”
“Doesn’t matter… It was annoying.”
I rolled my eyes again. Still, I had to admit that the memories connected to Ben’s water gun always did put a smile on my face. It was how we first began to bond. He was always chasing after me, because I never could quite stay still and pay attention to anything. I was always on the hunt for something and Ben was always curious what adventure I was headed off to. Whenever he caught up with me, I’d start blabbering about what I discovered or start asking questions that he apparently found annoying. Time came when just seeing the water gun made me seal my lips shut.
“What ever happened to that thing?” I wondered out loud.
“I did not!”
“Well, either way, it’s lost. That’s why we’re here. The water gun was actually a gift from my Uncle Bob, so I called him up and asked him where he got it and well… here we are.”
“You’re going to replace the gun? Why? So you can squirt me in the face with it?”
He chuckled, his hand on mine tightening as he spoke. “As tempting as that sounds, Sofia, no… I thought it would be fun for us to have a water gun fight by the pool or something in case… you know…”
“In case what?”
“In case we progress to a second date.”
Oh smooth, Ben. Very smooth.
We picked up our choice of hydro-powered weapons, paid for them and headed back for the truck. Before he began driving, he gave me a disclaimer. “Once you see where we’re going next, promise not to kill me, alright?”
“I’ll try not to resort to violence. Where on earth are you taking me now?”
“You’ll see…”
When he parked the car in front of our next destination, I was mortified. It was the venue of what could be considered the most embarrassing moment of my life. I cast him a murderous glare.
“You promised not to kill me.”
“I did no such thing…”
All I got was that grin of his that helped him charm his way through life.
“Come on, Ben…” I groaned. “How can this place hold any good memories?” We were parked in front of a clothing boutique – my favorite one when I was thirteen – where I was caught for shop-lifting.
“What? It’s the scene of your first crime!”
“How is that a good memory? And for the record, I was framed.”
“Yes. You told us that story many, many times. It was Jenna who put the dress in your bag.”
“It’s true.” I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.
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