Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Tuscany
Essen pinches Bled in the arm, and he grumbles, rubbing the spot.
"Ah!" he complains, scooting away from her on the mat we all share. I don’t think they like each other. They are always arguing.
"If you aren't kind to your Collective, little Royals, the Shadows will come for you," Mother Lily says with a chuckle as she dusts the bookcase.
"Yeah," Bled teases. "They eat you alive and use your bones to beat the people you love to death."
My eyes widen. "Oh, no, not Rome."
"It's just a story, Tuscany," Essen says with a roll of her pretty eyes.
"So they aren't real?" I ask.
"Oh, they are," Mother Lily corrects, stopping beside us. "And it is best you understand that. Few people have ever met one. Not unless you have done something to compromise the unity of The Trade and The Crown."
I frown. "What do you mean by unity?"
"Their…” She ponders. “Alliance."
We all stop and look at her, intrigued, and a little spooked.
"But they live among us?" Essen asks, sitting straighter.
Mother Lily nods. "That’s right, as regular Trades. A Guard, a doctor, even a Trade chef.”
Bled, boyish and in love with his own voice like most boys, adds. “They are assassins! The biggest and strongest men in The Cradle!"
“Well, yes,” Mother Lily offers. “Don’t idolise them, Bled.
Trade be, you never meet one yourself. The Shadows are a Trade Service tasked with protecting the unity and collaboration of The Trade and The Crown.
They secure The Cradle by conducting covert operations known only by an elite Shadow department of The Trade. ”
“And?” I have so many questions. Who is in charge? What kind of operations? What do they look like?
“And what?” She goes back to cleaning the bookcase. “That is all we know.”
I hum. Mother Lily can recite textbooks like no one can but never has more to say. No cool stories or adventures. I hope I do get to meet a Shadow one day.
Kong drags the Trade Master into the cage and out of the way, before searching the backrooms, but as suspected, we are alone.
Arrogant. If Cairo wasn’t so arrogant, he would have kept a second Trade man below but thought me utterly helpless and Kong a caged animal.
My Guardian wedges his enormous body around the corner at the base of the concrete steps while I retreat to a spot behind the cage.
Is it the Shadows?
Will they just shoot?
Do they take us into custody?
Squatting, my thighs burn from fatigue. I peer through the corroded iron bars, listening to madness erupt above us.
Automatic weapons crack and rattle. Desperate voices beckon, hoarse shouts muted by the surrounding walls.
Then the earth shakes, explosions meeting their climax, sending dusty rain from the ceiling.
My fingers turn white as I grip the cold metal bars.
A door above us crashes open.
"Oh, fuck! Trade help us!" a man screams, his voice shaking to match the rattling sound of gunfire that chases him down the steps and pings against concrete.
Little Tuscany hides.
I can’t, though. I have to grab the second rifle. I hold my breath, my teeth sinking into my lower lip as the Trade man with the fist sigil on his chest appears at the base of the stairs, uniform soaked dark with glistening blood and sweat.
Kong lunges from behind the wall like a waiting predator, his remaining arm a blur as he seizes the rifle barrel. In one fluid motion, he wrenches it backward, smashing the wooden butt into the man's nose, the cartilage making a sickening crunch.
The Trade man crumples to the floor in a boneless heap. Without hesitation, Kong fires twice—two deafening cracks that echo around the cellar walls. Dark red seeps through the fabric across the dead man's back.
Where is the other one?
My eyes widen.
Kong's fierce stare flicks up the steps. A rush of sound pours down the stairway, leading me to presume the door is swinging open. The screams are louder, punctuated by gunfire. I swallow over a lump as I think about the children, about Billy with her gap-toothed grin and the children playing with the spinning top. A memory surfaces. Me at nine, sitting before my bedroom vanity, gazing at myself. ‘I'll be queen. I’m an eagle,’ I whispered to my reflection. But being queen cost me my smile, my trust, my appetite for life. And now Billy might pay too—for choices not her own, for deceptions beyond her understanding. Just as I had. I realise it wasn’t my fault.
“The other is dead.” Kong disappears up the steps, and then the unmistakable sound of the door slamming shut sends a wave of fear through me. For one horrible moment, I think he has left me down here, but he soon reappears.
“We wait.” Kong grips the rifle as if it is an extension of his arm, loose and with perfect ease.
“Let them exhaust themselves, then we move out.” His eyes cut to the top window, a slow frown forming above his serious expression.
“Crown-light,” he mutters, more to himself.
“We can’t wait for last-light to fall. We have to move soon. ”
My heart is beating so fast I feel faint. Feel helpless. It’s a pathetic feeling that I wish I could shake off. “I’m useless,” I whisper.
He strides over to me, rifle pointed downward, eyes deadly serious. If we weren’t on the brink of death, I would revel in his undeniable virility. He drops to his knees. “My queen, I have failed you. Forgive me.”
Reaching up, I cradle his damp face. Oh, he’s so warm; it’s radiant. "No, you haven’t." My heart squeezes. If I had just trusted him, we wouldn’t be here, and he would have two arms. If we survive this, I will never doubt him again.
"I wanted to give you a new life.” He stares at me, the intensity in his turbulent brown gaze cracking me like thin ice.
"You did, Kong.” Tears begin to pour down my cheeks, realisation setting in. How do we survive this?
A little voice inside me says, ‘We don’t.’
“You made me feel like a woman. A whole person. Not just a statue. So, if I die, I die free,” I admit with bittersweet warmth in my chest. “We are dying together.” He squeezes his eyes shut, fending off my words.
“That's so much better than living apart or whispering through a door.” I guide his face down so I can kiss his forehead.
“Kong the Unbreakable, if we die, I command you to find me in The Crust. After this is over, promise me we will have our forever in death.”
His eyes open, his commitment hitting me right in the heart. "I told you, little queen. I'll find you. Where you are, I'll always go."
I nod fast over and over and over. As the world outside crumbles—bullets hail down on the ceiling, explosions make the walls tremble—my world doesn’t fall apart. My world is right here, and I get to kiss him, and breathe him in, and tell him…
“I love you, Kong.” The words barely choke out, my mouth filling with relentless tears. “This is my happily ever after.”
He kisses my wet cheeks. "Mine too, little queen. Mine, too.” Pulling back, he anchors me with his searing gaze. “This isn’t over yet. You remember to stay behind me?”
I nod fast.
We rise in unison.
Kong strides toward the foot of the steps when a slam resounds above—the door thrown open with force.
I can’t see who is coming down the stairway, but the heavy thudding is a declaration of power and weight.
A huge Xin De male.
Kong slides back into position at the edge of the stairwell entrance, and I scramble to my hideaway tucked behind the cage, low to the ground.
The huge Xin De male steps into view, and every wisp of air leaves me in an instant.
There he is, painted from head to boot in slashes of crimson, dark hair to his shoulders, nictitating membrane closed making his blue eyes cloudy, rifle held at his waist, and savage anger pulsing through every muscle of his massive frame.
“Rome…”