“Fiancée?” Sylvia’s lips trembled as she fiddled with the hem of the baby’s blanket. She took several deep breaths, until the red in her cheeks washed away and she was composed once more. “No matter. It’s decided, Robbie. We will co-parent the baby, you and I. What’s best for the future queen of Marin is of most importance, don’t you agree? We cannot be selfish at these times.” She paused and her eyes took on a hard edge. “Any objections would be considered treason, wouldn’t they?”
I shook my head and almost laughed. In that moment my plans to choose my words carefully were immediately scrapped.
“You cannot seriously believe that I would share a room with you when I have a fiancée who is right this minute standing outside your door?” My voice was loud and my hands shook with rage. I was sick of this woman controlling others for her own twisted benefits. “What kind of demented person have you become? You’re acting like you’re Angelina’s mother but you aren’t exactly setting a good example for her, are you?”
Sylvia took a step towards me. “You do realise that I am the only one with power here, don’t you? Damir is a lost cause and as for Marko, Miranda and your silly fiancée, I can have them all disappear whenever I like.” She wiggled her fingers as though controlling invisible marionettes.
“Right. Just like Lauren,” I spat.
Her green eyes hardened. “Yes. Like Lauren.” She moved in close and gazed up at me. “Now listen, Rob. You will move your things in here tomorrow and you will help me with the baby and together we’ll be the best parents she could ever have, better than her own parents could ever have been, and we will watch our daughter grow and you will delight in it, as will I. We’ll be a family. That’s what she needs, Rob, you know it and I know it.”
Her morning breath was sour. My stomach churned and I took a step back.
“You’re sick, you know, as sick as your brother Damir. And I’m sure he’s not going to be happy when he hears that you were behind Lauren’s death.”
Sylvia laughed and shook her head. A strand of hair fell across her face and she tucked it behind her ear.
“Damir is no longer a threat. He is now a lunatic hell bent on creating a harem of mermaids. I can hardly get him to eat, sleep or speak in coherent sentences anymore. You think I’m scared of him?”
She laughed again, this time covering her mouth with her hands. She looked wrinkled and old all of a sudden. Lack of sleep had deepened the fine lines in her skin. Again I welcomed the haze of my impaired vision.
I sighed, recalling Damir’s glazed eyes and all the blood splattered across his face and chest. She was right. He had gone insane, even more so since Lauren had died. In a strange way, before Lauren had died, I’d almost started to respect him—almost—and only for his devotion to her and the baby, considering the fact that he’d known the baby wasn’t his.
I shook away my thoughts and stared hard at Sylvia.
“I’ll never agree to your plans, so you can stop now.”
She gnawed on her bottom lip and her eyes widened as though she had a brilliant idea.
“If you join me as baby Angelina’s father, I promise to re-crown Marko as the king, in front of the entire city, and I will make sure that Lily and her family are provided for.” She smiled and continued.
“Miranda and Marko will be allowed to marry and keep their rooms. They’ll be allowed time with baby Angelina. I’ll even move her grandparents into the castle. They can take your old room, beside Marko’s. They will always be protected and my guards will not cross me as they know I am swift with my punishments. Now that Damir is using the Colosseum for his creations, I’ve found some more creative ways to dispose of traitorous guards. I’ll show you tomorrow,” she said, a wicked gleam in her eyes.
“That’s not going to stop you from ordering your guards to go against Marko on a whim.”
Sylvia mulled over my words before she smiled again.
“Then I will make them swear allegiance to Marko and Miranda, in public. I’ll make the entire city swear allegiance to Marko.” She put her hands on my shoulders and slid them down my arms and back up again. Her touch made my skin crawl but I didn’t move. I couldn’t. She’d trapped me with her plans.
“This is the right thing to do, Rob and you know it. Just think of how peace will be restored to Marin with Marko as king. You know he needs to be king again. He is a good man and loved by all. It will set things right.”
“Then make him king again, right now. You don’t need me to parent Angelina with you. You’re doing a perfectly good job on your own already. I’ll be her faithful guard. I’ll guard you too, Sylvia. I’ll watch your back. But I refuse to share the same room with you.”
She sighed and folded her slender arms across her ample chest.
“Then Marko will never be king for as long as I live.”
I stared at the floor, my hair falling over my eyes, and tried to imagine what it would be like to have the city of Marin in Marko’s safe hands again. I thought of Lily’s safety and of peace being restored to everyone’s lives.
Marko would arrange for the moon’s retrieval and fertility would be restored. Babies would be born. Marin would come to life again. Just by saying yes to Sylvia’s request, all of the above would happen with ease and without fight— nobody would have to get hurt. Surely I could handle Sylvia for as long as it took Marko to regain his throne. It wouldn’t be forever.
“Lily of course, would have to be let go. You would have to sever your engagement.”
“No!” I immediately regretted shouting because the baby started to cry.
“I will not hurt Lily and I will never let her go,” I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. “She’s my fiancée.”
Sylvia took a step back, her chest rising and falling while she held my gaze. “Don’t look at me like that, Robbie, you look so...” she half-smiled and then blushed, “beautiful when you’re mad. I’ve never seen you so enraged. It’s almost as though you...” her smile dropped a little and she swallowed thickly, “as though you hate me.” She stared up at me and brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes, her smile returning. “You know, when you were younger, and I’d kiss you goodnight, you used to tell me that you loved me.”
I forced my fists to my sides. I’d never once hit a woman before but I was so tempted to slap the stupid dreamy look off her face. She was truly crazy if she thought my feelings for Lily could be switched off just like that.
“I’m not going to hurt Lily no matter what you say.”
Sylvia shook her head. “So you’d rather I just call my guards and have Marko and Miranda assassinated in their sleep right now?” She released a low, throaty chuckle. “Well, perhaps not in their sleep. My guard has informed me that they were out visiting just after midnight last night, with, what do you call them? Nana and Pop?” She sighed. “It would be so sad for Miranda if she were to lose the old dears, wouldn’t it?”
I took a step back, rage burning every muscle of my body. I needed to get out of the room and be with Lily, and as far away from this woman as possible.
“Give me twenty-four hours.”
Sylvia stood there, hands on hips.
“No. You could plan to kill me in my sleep during that time. I’m dog tired, Rob, and I’ll fall asleep eventually and not be safe. The decision has to be made now. I kill Marko and Miranda in their sleep, and perhaps the grandparents and Lily’s parents if you say no. Or, they all live and you walk out that door to break your engagement to Lily and tell her that you’ve truly wanted only me all your life and that you are going to marry me and co-parent Marin’s new little princess. Tell her you’re doing it for the benefit of Marin.”
“No. She won’t believe me.” I seized Sylvia by the shoulders, fighting the urge to shake her. “Let me remain engaged to her. It will stop her from getting suspicious and getting herself into trouble on my account.”
Sylvia sighed and reached out to cup my face in her hands.
“Oh you are beautiful when you ple
ad, my darling Robbie, but no. It has been decided. Honestly, I hadn’t thought of this before, but the sight of you holding the baby, it all came to me quite suddenly and I’d been reading that page in the book about father figures only last night. It’s all fallen into place. An omen if you will.”
She shrugged out of my hold and slipped her arms around my waist. “This is for the best. You know it deep down.” She smacked both palms against my butt cheeks. “Now go and tell Lily that you want nothing more to do with her. Go on. Tell her now.”
Roughly I pried her arms from my body. She cried out and rubbed her wrists.
“You’re hurting me. Can’t you just be civil about this Rob? This is so unlike you.”
I nearly laughed out loud. She was unbelievable.
“You may have managed to physically chain me to your side through blackmail, but I’m not going to pretend to like it.”
Sylvia sniffed, visibly upset, but raised her head. “I’m sure you’ll grow to like it. Every man in Marin would die to take your place by my side, in my bed. I’m the most desirable woman in the city. Surely you’ve fantasised about me at least once.”
“You disgust me.” Fuming, I turned away and headed for the door, for the breaking of Lily’s heart. There was no way around it. If I wanted everybody to stay alive, then I would have to give in to Sylvia’s deranged demands.
21
Miranda
I woke up to distant shouts, followed by boot heels scuffling against the corridor floor and then a thud and a knock against Marko’s bedroom door.
Marko sprang out of bed, as though he hadn’t been snoring just a moment ago. He yanked on his pants and slipped the dagger out of his boot and headed for the door.
I fell out of bed, untangled the sheets from my ankles and took the other dagger, which Marko had me leave on my bedside table at night, in case of an emergency, and followed him, grateful to have fallen asleep fully clothed in the early hours of the morning after visiting with Nana and Pop.
Before Marko could answer it, Lily burst through the door, her face red and wet with tears. Through the open door I could see the slumped body of the guard who had been stationed there in the early hours of the morning. A guard to keep us safe, not to spy on us, Sylvia had promised. I wondered if Lily had knocked him out because he wouldn’t let her through. It would explain all the scuffling we’d only just heard.
“What is it?” Marko asked.
Lily shook her head and clutched her head in her hands, her long blonde hair spilling over her fingers.
“It’s Robbie. She’s done something to him, said something. Probably threatened him with our deaths.” Lily broke into sobs.
I put my arm around her but she brushed me off before raising her tearstained face to look at Marko.
“He broke off the engagement. Says he doesn’t want to see me again.” She wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands. “But I know Sylvia’s behind this. She’s threatened him. There’s no way Robbie would choose to live with her. She makes his skin crawl. He told me that himself.”
“Wait, when did you see Sylvia?” I asked, vaguely remembering Robbie and Lily coming to the bedroom door a few hours ago.
“This morning. She caught Robbie snooping in her room while she was asleep and then she was alone in the room with him for ages.” She swallowed down another sob. “And then... and then when he came out, he said he was going to move in with Sylvia and bring up little Angelina.”
“Are you serious?” I cast a sideways glance at Marko who didn’t look surprised at all.
He shook his head. There was a spark in his blue eyes, a fire that said he wasn’t going to take anymore crap from his sister. Like he’d finally snapped and had enough.
“He broke off our engagement.” Lily shrugged. “We didn’t even have a ring yet. Not that it matters now.”
Marko placed both hands on Lily’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’ll sort it out. But for now, I think you should stay here with Miranda.”
Lily straightened her back. “No. I’m going to go wash my face in your bathroom and then I’ll meet you at Sylvia’s room. Robbie says he’s sleeping in there from now on.” Her face trembled with rage before she disappeared behind the bathroom door.
“Poor Robbie,” I said. “She must have threatened him with the death of every person he knows and loves.”
“Exactly,” said Marko. “Empty threats most likely.”
“But why? Why now?” I asked.
“My sister has always had designs on Robbie and perhaps this is her last hurrah.” Marko sighed. “But you never know, Robbie may have something up his sleeve. This could be his idea. He could be planning to get close enough to—” Marko stopped himself, his face paling, and I knew he was thinking about Robbie killing Sylvia. He was probably wondering if Robbie could actually go through with it, or if he himself could actually go through with it if the opportunity arose.
Lily emerged from the bathroom and headed for the door. “Meet you in five.”
Marko grabbed the black shirt hanging from the end of the bed and slipped it over his shoulders.
‘I’m coming,’ I said.
He grinned at me while he did up the buttons on his shirt.
“Is this another one of those situations where you’re going to ignore everything I say and do your own thing?” He ran his hands down my sides and rested them on my hips.
“Pretty much.”
“Then you may as well accompany me.” He shook his head. “But I swear, while you are with me, you listen to every word I say. If there’s trouble and I tell you to run, you do it. No stubbornness in the face of danger, okay?”
“But you said yourself that it’s most likely just empty threats.”
“Hopefully that’s all this is.”
He checked his daggers and adjusted his belt.
“You ready?”
I smoothed down my hair and nodded, not bothering to check myself in the mirror.
Marko frowned as he stepped over the guard on the other side of the door. He bent to feel his pulse and half grinned. “He’ll live. But he’s going to be sore. Lily’s got a killer punch to her.”
“Are you sure it was Lily? What if Sylvia or Damir arranged it? They could be planning to kill us in our sleep.”
“I’m sure.” Marko grinned again. “Lily’s got one hell of a temper on her. She must have taken her frustrations with Robbie out on this guy. He’s one of Sylvia’s men.”
“So do you think Robbie’s planning something? Do you think this is all his idea?”
“No, but he’s most likely playing along with it. I just said those things to help calm Lily. It would definitely be Sylvia’s idea. She’s always wanted him. Robbie started getting uncomfortable in my sister’s company from about the age of sixteen. She was always finding reasons to be alone with him and would hardly leave his side.”
A cold shiver wiggled up and down my spine.
“That is creepy. Poor guy.”
“When it became too much, I had a word with her about it and it stopped. I think she was embarrassed that I knew her secret. That she was in love with my best friend who was so much younger than her. She more or less left him alone after that. Robbie was so relieved.”
“But now that Robbie’s older and Sylvia has a baby to look after... oh God... that’s it... she’s trying to make a happy family with Robbie and my niece.” I felt like vomiting.
“I’m afraid you’re probably right.” Marko frowned and took my hand in his as we hurried down the corridor. “Because Rob would never willingly choose my sister. He’d have to be coerced with something pretty serious. A threat of some sort.”
“So what are we going to do?”
His strides were so fast and long that I had to run to keep up.
“What I should have done a long time ago. Take charge.”
Relief relaxed my tight shoulders. It felt like I’d been holding my breath since the minute we’d arrived in Marin. Finally Marko was behaving lik
e a king and things were going to be different around Marin as a result. I didn’t want to think of how we’d get past Sylvia and Damir, but for now at least Marko believed in himself.
Lily paced the floor outside Sylvia’s room and breathed a loud sigh of relief when she saw us.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“Calm down. Everything’s going to be fine.” Marko gave Lily’s shoulder a squeeze before knocking on Sylvia’s door.
After a minute, during which I heard a rumbling of low voices on the other side, the door opened and a very tense looking Robbie answered. He looked extra pale, with dark, purple shadows beneath his eyes—hostile and sorry all at once.
“Are you going to tell me what you’re doing in my sister’s room?” Marko asked.
The muscles in Robbie’s shoulders contracted.
“It’s none of your business, but I’ve—” he paused and straightened his back, bringing his full height to tower over Marko. “I’ve broken my engagement off with Lily because I’ve decided that my place is here with Sylvia, bringing up the baby.”
Sylvia came to stand beside him, a smug look on her face. She draped an arm over Robbie’s tense, boulder-like shoulders. He flinched at her touch. Lily saw it too and I could see her own shoulders relax a little. At least she knew for certain he was disgusted by the idea of living with Sylvia.
Marko leaned in towards Robbie, ignoring Sylvia. “But you love Lily,” he said in a lowered voice.
Robbie’s face reddened and he pushed Marko back, right in the centre of his chest. Hard.
Marko, not ready for it, stumbled back before regaining his footing. After a few seconds of wide-eyed shock, heat flooded his face and anger flared his nostrils.
“It’s her isn’t it? Threatening to kill us, is she?” Marko moved forward, cursing in Sylvia’s face and reaching for her shoulders, but Robbie stopped him before he could get close to her and took hold of Marko’s collar, walking him backwards until he was flat against the wall again.
“Leave me alone, Marko. This is your only warning. I mean it.”
Release (The Submerged Sun, #3) Page 16