“What we had together wasn’t wrong,” I said.
“The silver lining with everything that happened was Ariel,” Kale said after another long pause.
“She’s alive?” I asked hopefully.
“Bethany never saw her and I found her still hidden under my bed. It even took me a long time to coax her out. She didn’t want to move. I’d never seen such fear and never want to again.”
“So, she’s okay?”
“I finally convinced her to come with me—that it was safe now. She didn’t believe me—and she always believed me.” He paused again, now with tears brimming in his eyes. “I couldn’t even bury my parents. My friends. The people I grew up with. Not with Ariel around. I had to leave, but at least I wasn’t leaving alone.”
“Where is she now?”
“I took her to Mama Maud’s, then got the call from Gabriel.”
I placed a comforting hand on his leg. “You still have family,” I said. “And I don’t just mean Ariel. I took Mina, Codie, and Annabelle to the Ramsey estate. We should get Ariel so she can be with the rest of the kids. It would be good for her.”
“I think you’re right,” he said, wiping his eyes to prevent any tears from falling. “I’ll drop you guys off first, then go get her.”
“You’ll probably be back in time for breakfast.” I smiled.
“We still have a long way to go. Maybe lunch—if I don’t simply crash for the rest of the day.”
I glanced over my shoulder and found Kimera, eyes closed, with her head against the glass. Pax’s head was slumped forward, his nose slightly whistling as he slept.
“I have a feeling we all will,” I said.
Kale didn’t ask about all the events leading up to his arrival, so I didn’t offer to tell the disturbing story. Perhaps, he’d already been briefed from Gabriel since I didn’t know how much Prince Byron had divulged to him. It wasn’t a story I wanted to retell right now anyway. But in thinking about what had happened in the bunker, I had to ask—
“What about the Princess? Was she taken? Did you come across her body? Did your mother say anything?”
Kale gave me a sidelong glance. “She was never brought there. When you guys smuggled her out of the palace—I know you were left behind—the Princess was never taken out of the Kingdom.”
“She wasn’t?” It was a relief, but also not at all the answer I’d expected.
“No; she was taken to the house of the other guy in your group—what was his name… Robert?”
“I think so.”
“I guess my father expected additional attacks even though he’d thwarted the earlier units sent by the Queen. He wanted to keep her safe. Well, we all know why now.”
“So she’s still sort of in our possession,” I said.
“I have no idea,” Kale said, clearly wanting to end this conversation.
At least I was hopeful. Of course, I feared for her safety, but I felt better with the knowledge she hadn’t been brought back to the palace with Jane.
The sky before us began to lighten as we continued down the mostly empty roads, officially concluding the longest night ever. I now counted this as a new day, and hopefully a better one. I glanced over at Kale and saw him fighting to stay awake. If only I could have offered to drive, but it was never a skill I’d been taught.
When we pulled up to the quiet Ramsey estate, it was fully light outside. Pax and Kimera stirred in the back seat.
“Are we here?” Kimera asked sleepily.
“We’re home,” I said, though the concept had become kind of abstract. “Aren’t you going to turn off the car and come inside?”
Kale yawned. “Naw. I need to push through. It won’t take long to get to Mama Maud’s. I want to get to Ariel.”
“Then you’ll come back, right?”
“After some rest,” he said. “You’re all going to crash too, so it’s not like I’ll be missing anything.”
I yawned in response to his comment, knowing he was right. “Then I’ll see you soon. The kids will be so ecstatic to see Ariel.”
The rest of us clumsily spilled out of the car and joined the others from Gabriel’s car as Kale drove away.
“Is everything okay?” Prince Byron asked, putting an arm around me.
“He’s going to get his little sister,” I said. “He should be back later today.”
He kissed my temple. “Did you get any sleep?”
I shook my head. “You?”
“I couldn’t,” he said and started walking toward the main entrance.
Johanna stared at the house like it was a mirage, afraid to approach only to discover it was all smoke and mirrors. When she was taken to the palace and forced into servitude, she probably assumed she’d never see this place again. I wondered if her time there would impact the way she’d interreact with lower castes going forward.
Then the front door opened and Mina was there to greet us with all smiles, but they turned to absolute squeals of delight at the sight of her sister.
“Jo’s here! Jo’s here!” she exclaimed and dashed out into the driveway on bare feet to meet her older sister.
Mina looked back to her old self while Johanna was nearly unrecognizable as her former self in a plain dress, flat and colorless hair, and no makeup.
When they embraced—two sisters reunited—Johanna’s eyes caught mine. She could hardly believe this was real, but it was. This was no mirage.
27
Byron
It felt strange being in Victoria’s childhood home, especially with so many of her memories bad ones. She told me she’d killed Ramsey there, so maybe that absolved the house of some of those haunting memories.
I meandered around the main floor as the Ramsey clan caught up. Johanna told of her adventures in the palace and our grand escape—she made it sound much better than it actually was. Victoria showed the others to bedrooms to finally catch some proper sleep. I was tired, but wouldn’t be able to sleep, at least not yet. I was too lost in thought at the thought of being in this house that I needed to explore, wanting to do so before being given a guided tour; I didn’t want one.
“Is it what you expected?” Constance asked as I gazed upon a stuffed mountain lion on a high shelf in the den. There were other animals as well, like a pheasant, fox, and what I assumed were elk antlers.
I turned to see her standing between the brown armchair and the brick hearth. “This room is,” I said. “This room has the Duke written all over it.”
“This is where he’d sit and contemplate before beating her, or sit and relax after beating her,” Constance said.
“Let’s not do this. He’s dead. Let’s leave him underground.”
“I want you to get the full experience.”
I knew she had endured similar torments and physical abuse, and was sure this house triggered a lot of her own horrible memories. She’d had a multitude of scars to remind her of where she’d come, but the doctors had relieved her of them with the transformation. I think she had wanted to keep them as badges of honor, grim reminders of what she’d endured. But she was a clean slate now—at least on the outside.
“I can experience this place plenty on my own,” I said. “I know what she went through, just like I know what you went through.”
“You don’t know everything,” she mocked.
“You’re right; I only know what you’ve been willing to share with me.”
“Her monster is gone. She got her closure. Mine’s still out there somewhere, lurking in the shadows.”
I stepped closer to her, but Constance pulled back. “He won’t get away with what he’s done,” I promised. “He will answer for his crimes.”
“And that’s the thing, they aren’t crimes—not really.”
“His dark passions then. Whatever the laws of Westeria say or don’t say, what he did to you—what they did to both of you was wrong.”
“I need the opportunity Victoria had,” Constance said angrily. “I need to slay my dragon.”<
br />
I stepped closer to her and grabbed her arm before she could back up more. She froze instead of fighting, like everything inside of her shut down from the pressure of my fingers. I immediately let go, but still leaned in. “I’ll help you do it. Your day will come.”
The fear that had materialized in her eyes drained, leaving behind only hatred and rage. “Let me show you something,” she said and walked out of the room.
I followed her down the hallway, hearing the few remaining people awake talking a few rooms over. I wasn’t able to discern Victoria’s voice in the conversation, so assumed she was still helping get people settled into bedrooms or had gone to sleep herself.
Constance stopped at a nondescript door with a bolt lock. She turned the bolt and opened the door, which hid a set of wooden stairs, descending into darkness.
“I don’t think we should go down there,” I said as Constance flipped on a light switch.
“You need to see,” she answered and didn’t wait for me before taking to the stairs.
“If Victoria wants to show me, then she will.”
“And if she doesn’t, then you’ll just go on wondering?” she asked, meeting my eyes briefly, then continuing down the stairs.
I checked to see if there was anyone to see us enter the basement—like that made a difference—then followed Constance down.
The cellar was not a maze of corridors and rooms like the Sub-levels of the palace, but a single wide-open space. There did seem to be a few small rooms along the perimeter, but the bulk of it was one large room. An ocean of—presumably—furniture under white sheets took up at least half the visible space.
Harsh overhead lights illuminated pockets of the space and Constance walked between the shadows. Then she stopped at a small door and peered inside before entering. By the time I reached her, she’d already turned on the room light, nothing more than a naked light bulb mounted to the ceiling. Constance turned to face me standing at the threshold and threw her arms out in a gesture of take a good look around.
There wasn’t much to see. The room wasn’t much more than an oversized closet, but the bed immediately caught my eyes, the sheets and mattress charred, the middle sunken in with exposed springs.
“I did that,” she said while my attention was fixed on the bed. “She needed to know she could never sleep there again. It wasn’t exactly a bridge, but close enough.”
“This is worse than what I’d pictured,” I said, moving on from the bed and examining the rest of the room. The small windows were boarded up, the concrete floor finished with mixtures of blood and other unidentifiable stains. “I don’t want to picture her in here.”
“But you have to,” she said, circling around to the far side of the room from where I was, keeping her distance like she wasn’t sure if I’d hurt her too. “And my rooms were so much worse.”
“Rooms?”
“One was for sleeping, and the other was…” She didn’t finish the sentence, and I didn’t want her to. Some things were better left unsaid.
The day Victoria had shown me the marks on her body after the palace confrontation with her parents flashed into my mind. It was the moment she truly opened up and let me in. My fingers had grazed the welts on her legs and my blood boiled. The man who’d made those marks on her skin had just left the room. I wanted to chase him down the hall and kill him, but she stopped me. She wanted to let him go—in her mind that meant for good. He had no intention of ever letting her go. I knew Mackenzie would be the same way.
“We should go,” I said, turning for the door, only to find Victoria standing there with a hurt, disapproving look on her face. “Victoria…”
“Now you’ve seen it,” she said, softly.
“I shouldn’t have…” but I trailed off as she shook her head.
“I don’t want you to think of me like this,” she said.
“It was good to simply rip off the band aid,” Constance said. “It was my idea, not his. Don’t be too hard on him.” She made her way for the door and squeezed past Victoria. “I’ll just show myself upstairs.”
“Thanks, Constance,” I called after her, but she didn’t respond. “Are we okay?” I asked, turning my attention back to Victoria.
“You tell me.” Her tone was challenging.
“You don’t have to hide anything from me,” I said. “This is an important part of your past—terrible, unthinkable really—but it’s made you the woman you are today. The woman I love.”
“Constance has been nicer to me these past few times I’ve seen her than all of our time together in the palace,” Victoria said, her lips curling up into a slight grin.
“She’s despised me ever since the Choosing Ceremony. But today…” I said, meeting her smile. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Victoria remained in the doorway, unwilling to take a step inside the room. I had seen enough and went to meet her in the doorway.
“I’d like to board up this room now,” she said as I placed an arm around her waist. “Never set foot in here again.”
“That sounds like a good idea to me.” I turned off the light and pushed her back so the door could be closed for good. “I think I’ll take you up on that bed now. Where will I be sleeping?”
But before she could answer my unintentionally suggestive question, we heard muffled yelling break the silence from upstairs. With the people we currently had in the house, I couldn’t think of anyone who’d be causing that kind of commotion—though Constance was always a contender, especially since over half the household was asleep. So my mind jumped to a new arrival—someone not receiving a particularly fond welcome.
Victoria and I raced upstairs, and we followed the escalating argument to the foyer. The source of the conflict became instantly apparent, and as predicted, Constance was in the middle of it, though I in no way blamed her.
“Mackenzie? You have a lot of nerve showing up here.” I couldn’t have been as livid as Constance, but I was close. Then I noticed the girl standing timidly beside her. “Piper?”
28
Victoria
All hell had broken loose. Constance was yelling and swearing at Duke Mackenzie, who stood stoically in the doorway. She wasn’t the quiet and compliant girl I had seen at the Mackenzie estate; she was back to the Constance I knew from the palace—the Constance I’d despised, but was comfortable with.
Piper stood beside her like a lamb in a wolf’s den. Her whole body shook under the thin nightgown, though there was also a long leather coat draped over her shoulders. She didn’t have any shoes, and so I did not want to see the soles of her feet. It was as if she had been ripped away in the middle of the night.
Lady Ramsey was on her way down the hall as Prince Byron grabbed Duke Mackenzie by the shirt to haul him outside. Even though the Duke hadn’t defended himself from the verbal assaults, the physical attack changed something within him. Duke Mackenzie spun around, clamping a hand on Prince Byron’s wrist, twisting his arm until he dropped to the floor in submission. The Duke held the Prince’s arm high above his head at an odd angle. Prince Byron grimaced in pain.
“Stop this instant!” Lady Ramsey demanded.
I was about to pounce on Duke Mackenzie, but stopped at the sound of another voice cutting through the commotion.
“Let him go, Mackenzie,” Gabriel said from several stairs up, so he was at a good elevated position, pointing his gun down on the Duke.
Duke Mackenzie dropped the Prince’s arm, allowing him to fall the rest of the way to the floor, then raised his hands in surrender. “You have a way of getting the drop on me. But I didn’t come here to fight. That’s why I retrieved the girl and brought her here.”
After a few deep breaths and a loud grunt, Prince Byron pushed to his feet. Lady Ramsey squeezed between the two men to make them each take a few steps back.
“He is not allowed in this house!” Constance yelled. “If he stays, I will kill him myself, I swear to God!”
“No one is killing anyone,” L
ady Ramsey said, then raised a hand to Gabriel. “Please, put your gun away.”
Gabriel lowered it, but didn’t put the pistol away.
I went to Piper and wrapped my arms around her. I was shaking nearly as much as her at that point. Then Constance reached her arms around both of us for an awkward group hug—not that the hug itself was awkward, but Constance initiating it was odd.
Lady Ramsey turned back to Duke Mackenzie. “You must realize you have enemies here.”
“Which is why I brought a peace offering,” he said.
“It doesn’t absolve you from everything you’ve done,” Constance spat. “You will never be welcomed here.”
“Constance, please allow him to speak. He did return your sister,” Lady Ramsey said, calmly.
“Whom he also took,” I interjected just as Constance was about to speak—probably to say the same thing.
“I did do that,” Duke Mackenzie said. “I won’t deny otherwise. I wanted my Constance back, as Duke Ramsey wanted Victoria.” He looked directly at Lady Ramsey. “Duke Hendrix wanted a new companion for his assistance in getting the Princess out of the palace too, so this one was a fair prize.”
“We are not prizes,” Constance said, breaking our group hug. Her whole body looked tight and coiled, on the verge of exploding.
“You think you had it bad,” Duke Mackenzie glared at Constance. “You have no idea what Duke Hendrix’s tastes are like. I was surprised his original girl survived as long as she did, but that’s another story.”
“Not a story we care to hear,” I said, with still one arm around Piper. I didn’t want to think about what she had been subjected to, especially for someone who’d had a good and positive upbringing.
“You didn’t just deliver her here out of the goodness of your heart,” Prince Byron said. “Why the hell are you here?”
“Very simple,” Duke Mackenzie said. “We’ve all lost much recently. There are crazy things going on within the palace that need to be stopped. I know you’re all in for a fight, otherwise you wouldn’t be here now. I want to be a part of that fight. I presume the King is actually dead this time. I don’t know what the Queen is up to now, but she didn’t send that small army to my doorstep to annihilate my entire household. Frank always blamed the doctors and I’m starting to believe him. I’ve always stayed true to my word, even when it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. I was loyal to Frank for the past two decades. And you know I can be useful in a fight.”
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