Elias (GRIT Sector 1)

by Rebecca Sherwin

  "Tate said you'd be here," Ambrose spat, shoving Elias off. "You're a disgrace."

  "Tate? You consulted with Tate? He works for me!"

  "You're failing your job, Elias. You're disgracing your name and you are shaming this family."

  What was going on? Elias was as loyal to GRIT as they came. There was no way he was failing anything—no way he was disappointing his father or our grandmother.

  "Take us to Ruby," I said, standing up straight as both Elias and Ambrose looked at me. I didn't care that I was naked, I didn't care that I had bruises and scrapes covering my body, I didn't care that the sticky residue of last night's love making had dried on my stomach and was glistening in the morning sun. "Lola, grab me a change of clothes, please. We're going to visit my grandmother."

  The drive to Ashford Estate was quiet and tense, as Elias and I sat next to each other, and Ambrose sat opposite staring a hole through our joined hands. Elias had told me last night, that criminals had the right to demand to see the woman who ruled it all, and since Ambrose was treating us like criminals, I'd voiced my right to see her before the situation got out of hand.

  "You're making a mistake," Ambrose spat clapping his hands three times in resentful applaud.

  "You changed, Father," Elias said, disappointment in his voice. "In the space of two days, you changed. Trixie and I are stronger together than we would be apart."

  "Do you think your grandmother will agree?"

  "She is on my side."

  "She wanted this," I said, joining the conversation, refusing to stay quiet and wait to be consulted.

  "What do you mean?" Elias asked.

  "She told me she'd raised us to find each other."

  Elias squeezed my hand. He'd had no idea and, judging by the wide-eyes of Ambrose, he was surprised too. Well, at least I'd been able to educate them in something instead of always being the one in the dark.

  Percy pulled up outside the gates of the estate and they opened slowly, as if in warning, filling me with sudden worry that I shouldn't have done this.

  When we pulled up outside, Percy climbed out and opened my door. Elias followed me out and left Ambrose to let himself out. Richard and Mae stepped out onto the porch and I let go of Elias to run to them, the tears finally spilling over onto my cheeks when I hugged them both.

  "I'm scared, Father," I said, gripping onto my dad and hoping I could trust him to right this. "He's a madman."

  "Sometimes authority becomes too much, princess." He took my hand and dragged me away from Mae who followed closely, with Elias and Ambrose following closely behind.

  "Mae," Richard said as he led me towards a corridor at the back of the house, adjacent to the kitchen. "You're excused."

  I felt Mae's hand brush my hair but when I turned around to find her, she was heading in the opposite direction with her back to me.

  Richard was too fast and I hiccupped as I fought for breath and tried to keep up with him. I was still tired from yesterday, physically and emotionally wrung out. I wanted to sleep this century away and hand this responsibility to a descendant. No... Elias. I looked behind me to see him looking at me. He nodded once and mouthed that everything would be okay.

  "Daddy," I said, hoping I wouldn't be chastised for it. "I trust you. I love you. I trust in GRIT."

  "I knew you would, princess. Everything will be okay."

  He finally slowed down as we approached his home office, where the commissioner of the Met Police, my father, ran whichever section of GRIT he controlled before he'd handed it to my brother.

  "Where's Trace?"

  "Waiting in the Sector."

  "Sector 2?" Richard nodded. "Where the traffickers are kept?"

  "I see Elias has taught you well."

  "Everything. I think. I think he's taught me everything. I want in, Daddy. I want to come home."

  "Your grandmother wants to talk to us all together."

  That was all he said before he stopped at the door to his office, let us in and crossed the room to the bookcase on the far end—where my old fairytale hardbacks sat alongside his history of the police force books. Letting go of me, he heaved the bookcase aside and exposed a deep tunnel, lit only by flickering lamps that hung from the walls. I stepped back and collided with Elias' chest before his warm arms closed around me and he dipped to kiss my neck.

  "Ladies first," Richard said, gesturing for me to lead the way.

  He didn't bat an eyelid or reveal one look of disgust when Elias took my hand in his and we walked down the steps together. Elias knew where he was going and he led me along the tunnel, with Richard and Ambrose following us quietly. We reached a heavy wooden door, swollen from its contact with water and worn from its centuries of existence. Ruby was the first thing I saw when Elias pushed the door open. She was sitting in one seat on a round table and looked poised and elegant in her purple and gold. I ran to her as she struggled to her feet and opened her arms in time for me to launch into them. Trace stood and held her steady as I wrapped my arms around her and inhaled her familiar scent. I felt better. I hadn't been shunned by my family, having already decided my fate. She squeezed me back as hard as her frail arms would allow and I cried into the crook of her neck.

  "Now, now, darling," she said, edging me back and drying my eyes with her thumbs before accepting a handkerchief from Trace. "Why the tears?"

  "I'm afraid, Grandma."

  She smiled softly and stepped aside to let Trace drag me into his arms.

  "It'll be fine," he said, comforting me like only my brother could. With an instant connection to my emotions, passing his on so we could draw from each other and balance the scales. "You're not in trouble."

  "Ambrose," Ruby said, making me jump and turn in my brother's arms. He held me close and guided me to a seat, pouring a glass of water from the jug in the middle of the table. "What's going on?"

  "Mother," he started. "This wasn't the plan."

  Ruby laughed. "Of course this was the plan."

  "To share with a woman?" He roared, as if my genitals made me inferior. "A woman who is not even of our blood."

  "Were Edward and Richard of blood?" Grandma snapped, clicking her fingers and pointing to a chair. He sat down immediately, not taking a second to think about it.

  "They began this, it's different."

  "Elizabeth began this!" I gasped. I'd never heard such venom in my grandmother's voice. She'd always been calm and gentle only now she was aggressive, drawing on her authority here. "It was a woman who began this, a woman who gave those boys a home—a life—and it will be women who continue this. Am I understood?"

  "But-"

  "One more word from you, Ambrose Blackwood, and I will have you thrown in with the criminals, see if they'll listen to your nonsensical babbling."

  Finally, Ambrose submitted, visibly shrinking in his chair as Ruby leaned on the table and glared between Elias and me.

  "What happened?" She focused on Elias. "I tasked you with one thing. You leave the estate for a week and chaos descends."

  "Everything was fine until Ambrose changed."

  "He is your father and you will address him as such."

  "Sorry, Grandma." I hadn't realised Elias had submission in him. It was chilling how he changed with one word from our grandmother, and bowed to her whim. "May I sit?"

  "Of course."

  Grandma pointed to the seat next to me and Elias took his place without hesitation, gripping my hand beneath the table.

  "Must I do everything myself?" Ruby sighed, dug her fingertips into her temples and sat back down. "Trixie, tell me what's going on."

  "I don't know, Grandma. So much has happened and I can't make sense of it. We're here because Ambrose wouldn't respect Elias' wishes. I had to get us all to safety and I knew I could rely on coming home."

  "What do you know?"

  "I know everything."

  She looked at me and raised a grey eyebrow, accepting the tea Trace made for her as Richard took the seat on the other side o
f her.

  "What's everything?"

  "I know about Elizabeth and Isabel. I know about GRIT, how it began and why it still thrives today. I know what we do, where we do it—kind of."

  "And...?"

  "And what?"

  Elias chuckled next to me and coughed into his hand to conceal his amusement.

  "I've taught her the foundations, Grandma. I've taken her to the dungeon. I've shown her the jewel room, I've shown her to Sam, and she's seen the files. Most of them. She'd eaten and had wine and it became a little too much."

  "It's a lot to take in so quickly. Thank you, Eli. Trixie, how are you feeling?"

  "Fine," I lied. "Why did you call him Eli?"

  "Slip of the tongue, darling. Fine?"

  "Fine. I trust in GRIT and I want to know more."

  "Interesting."

  "Why does everyone in this family say that to end a conversation?"

  "Ashford..." Elias squeezed my thigh, but I ignored him.

  "No, I want to know. I want to know why Ambrose is so pissed off and I need to know what we can do to stop this. Elias doesn't deserve this."

  Ruby smiled. "You made the muse smile, didn't you?"

  "Yes, I did."

  "The muse?" Elias asked.

  "Don't-" I warned her, but she nodded at Trace and he stood and left the room.

  "Trixie is a keen artist, Elias. Her sketches are beautiful."

  "Please don't."

  I didn't want him to see. I didn't want him to look at the drawings I'd done of him after the showcase night. They were my pictures, my property, and I hadn't given Ruby permission to go into my room and take my things.

  "They're just drawings," Richard said, as my bottom lip trembled and the humiliation slid over me to crush me.

  I didn't miss the warning glare Richard sent towards the man holding my hand and trying to keep me calm with a figure-8 on my palm.

  "Grandma?" Elias said. "Can we get to the point?"

  "She drew you, dear. You became the subject of the most incredible sketches I've seen from Trixie." Had she forgotten I was here? "You'll see."

  "But what's the point in this? You said you had a plan and I think we've reached the point where you need to let us in on it."

  "Is that right? Has spending time with Trixie made you defiant?"

  He shook his head but said nothing more.

  "I'm not going to be around forever," Ruby said. "So, yes, I will bring you in on my plan."

  Everyone in the room audibly sighed with relief. I glanced at Richard, who was watching me; I looked at Ambrose, who was watching Ruby and shaking his head. When I turned to Elias, I frowned and moved my chair to edge closer to him. He looked afraid. For the first time since I'd met him, he wasn't confident and in control. He wasn't powerful and dominant. He was just a man, who bowed to a woman, and my heart broke for him. It wasn't who he was, and we shouldn't have been here. I would have returned to the dungeon a hundred times if it meant never seeing him defeated again.

  "You match," Ruby started, drawing my attention to her. "You're two pieces of a very complex puzzle and you slot together perfectly. Elias, you hate to be challenged. Trixie, everything about you is challenging. Elias has tamed you and Elias, Trixie has made you see the beauty in the unpredictable."

  "She has," Elias said as I nodded and agreed, "he has."

  "That's one example. Everything about you is the opposite to the other, and a perfect compliment."

  "Why?" Richard asked.

  He'd had no idea, either. The only person in this room who knew what was going on was Ruby, and she wasn't being as forthcoming as we all hoped. We waited with baited breath, wondering if she'd been struck with amnesia and would forget the whole thing.

  "Because they will rule the empire side by side."

  "What?" I shrieked as Elias took a sharp breath and whispered, "No."

  He'd had a feeling this was coming, why was he so shocked? I was surprised she'd said it but I'd been in this for a week. I'd learned everything less than twenty-four hours ago and I was allowed to be surprised. Elias...he'd seen this coming, and yet he paled, gripped onto me until his nails dug into my flesh and my hand turned numb.

  "Trixie will stand beside you, dear, and you will carry out our plans together."

  "I don't want her out there," he argued, waving his hand in the general direction of the outside world.

  "Then you must train her to survive it. GRIT has always been run by women. I controlled it until your father was born, and until he and Richard were ready to take over."

  "What about Trace?" Elias asked. "It's his birth right."

  "Are you refusing?" Ruby responded, raising her brows again.

  "No, I'm just-"

  "Refusing."

  "I'm not."

  "Trixie?" I turned to Ruby, wondering why Elias was so afraid. Wasn't this the best outcome? "Are you refusing, too?"

  She shouldn't have shaken her head. She didn't know what she was agreeing to. This wasn't a life for her, and it wasn't one I was prepared to share. GRIT was mine. The empire was mine and mine alone. I didn't need Trixie Ashford standing beside me with as much entitlement to make decisions as I did. She hadn't sat through years of lessons. She hadn't suffered through hours of punishments. She hadn't spent her life preparing for a destiny, and I wasn't prepared to step down and let her waltz straight in and fuck up everything I’d worked hard to create.

  "So you agree?" Ruby asked.

  I should have known she'd do this. I thought she would take Trixie under wing and train her to be the matriarch of the family.

  Not this.

  Not GRIT.

  Trixie didn't have it in her. It would ruin her. It would break her. She'd be better off stepping out into the underground.

  "I don't know what I'm agreeing to."

  Because she hadn't spent three decades learning exactly what she'd need to keep the organisation standing tall and proud. She hadn't been taught the necessary skills to protect her life out there.

  "Grandma," I said, releasing Trixie's hand and leaning on the table. "A woman has never held a Sector before."

  "I'm fully aware of the history of our establishment, Elias." She turned back to Trixie. "Do you agree to serve GRIT? To trust in what we preach and serve as a warrior?"

  "Will I have to kill?" She asked, the stupid whine in her voice returning. I felt myself morphing into another. Another Eli who had walked this path. The third Eli Blackwood. One Trixie hadn't met yet. "Will I have to torture and interrogate? Will I have to face their victims and know I failed to keep them safe?"

  "Yes."

  "I can't, Grandma." Trixie shook her head and tried to stand, but Ruby held her still, leaning across the table to cup her shoulder. "I can be a good lady and I can follow the rules, but I can't kill. I can't take a life."

  "Are you sure you want to refuse the offer I'm making, Trixie?" Ruby stood and I stood with her. It was my right to. The Ashford's stayed seated, and Ambrose looked on. "I looked after you for two years. I gave you a normal life, I let you earn your own money and satisfy your own desires, but this is your destiny, darling. I can't let you decline."

  "But I can't." A tear fell from Trixie's eye and I looked away. There was no time for sympathy.

  "Grandma, I have the Sector. Keep Trixie close to you."

  "Do not dictate how this family should be run, dear," she seethed. "I have decided Trixie's fate and she will agree."

  "Mother..." Richard started, rising to his feet. My father soon followed. "Perhaps she needs a little more time. Some breathing room to adjust."

  Some time to adjust? No. I needed more than that. I needed a way out. I couldn't do this; I couldn't hold mistakes against another person and believe there was no redemption for them. It went against everything I believed and I was stubborn enough to stand my ground now. I didn't care about the fire in Ruby's eyes, the way the velvet shawl hugged her shoulders, as if centuries long gone permitted her demands of me.

  "Wha
t other option is there?"

  “Death.”

  "No!" Trace launched into the room, tossing the papers onto the table as he slammed his palms on top. "I'll take her on. Death can't be an option, Grandma. Trixie is one of us."

  Not anymore I wasn't. I could see by the distant look in her eyes that the Ruby I knew and loved, the same Ruby who had snuggled on the sofa with me with earl grey and Rich Tea biscuits while the world outside killed each other, was no more. She had severed our connection and she had banished me from her psyche.

  "Grandma, please," I begged, clasping my hands together and shaking them at her. "Please."

  "I love you, Trixie, my sweet, sweet girl. But this is your life. This is why I brought you into this house, and you have disappointed me. You're just like them."

  "Who?"

  "Your parents."

  Trixie's parents had worked for GRIT. Her father, Archibald Moore and her mother, Theresa, had been under our guard and on our payroll. Archibald had been a cleaner; he'd taken care of the horses and he rode them into the city to collect the dead bodies that littered the streets. They'd had money, they'd had a home, and they'd had a family.

  But Archibald had gotten cocky.

  "Your father took you to a restaurant one night," Ruby explained as I tuned back in after the introduction to the story. "There aren't many here, as I'm sure you know, but he'd found one and he wanted you to have a normal childhood—as much as you could within the confines of the city." Trixie clawed at the table, then at her hair, then scrubbed her hands down her face. I felt a pang of a connection with her, of empathy for her and the need to stop any more pain, but I shut it off. "He should have parked closer; he shouldn't have gone out at all. But he took you and your mother for dinner. Little did he know you were being watched. When you emerged from the restaurant you were followed. He caught up with you quickly and he killed your mother first, mere feet away from the car that would have taken you home to safety." Trixie squeaked and hiccupped a sob. She'd never been told the story of her parents. "He slit your mother's throat, and then, when your father was paralysed with fear, cradling you in his arms as you slept with a full stomach and happy heart, he killed your father. He took you from him and held you while your father bled out in an alleyway." Trixie shook her head in disbelief, her brow furrowed, her eyes red and streaming. Richard had his head in his hands and Trace had frozen, half lying on the table, his arms outstretched towards his sister. "It's true. He was going to kill you, too." Trixie raised her hand to her neck, and rubbed her fingers back and forth. "He'd cut you when Richard arrived and saved you. He brought you back here and the rest, as they say, is history."