Chapter 18 #2
"I can't even look at her," Cole admitted, his voice breaking.
"Every time I see her face, I see that little girl in the photograph.
I see what could have happened to her. What still might happen if we fail.
" Ryder moved from his chair to sit beside Cole on the bed, his usual manic energy subdued into something gentler.
"We won't fail her. We won't let them have her."
"How am I supposed to face her knowing what I know?" Cole asked, looking between us with desperate eyes. "Knowing that she was there, in that place? That her own mother would have..." He couldn't finish, choking on the words.
"Have you slept at all?" I asked, noticing the dark circles under his eyes, the slight tremor in his hands that wasn't just from the alcohol. Cole shook his head.
"Every time I close my eyes, I'm back there. I see her there. I see what they would have done to her. I feel so powerless." Ryder's hand came to rest on Cole's shoulder, squeezing gently.
"You need rest, man. You're no good to anyone like this."
"I can't," Cole insisted, a note of panic creeping into his voice.
"The nightmares... they're worse than they've been in years.
" I watched as Ryder's expression shifted, something softer and more intimate passing between him and Cole.
It was a side of their relationship I rarely witnessed, the way they supported each other through the darkest moments, the way Ryder seemed to know exactly what Cole needed.
"Let me help you," Ryder said quietly, his hand moving to the back of Cole's neck in a gesture that was both possessive and comforting.
"Let me take control for a while. Just for tonight.
" I knew what he was offering, the kind of release that only came from surrendering completely, from letting someone else carry the weight for a while.
It was something Ryder and Cole had shared for years, long before Cadence entered our lives.
Cole hesitated, his gaze flickering to me uncertain.
"I can go," I offered, already stepping toward the door. "Give you guys some space."
"You don't have to," Ryder said, though his focus remained on Cole.
"You can stay if you want." Cole nodded in agreement.
But I needed time to think, time to figure out how to break our girl without being able to fix her after.
And they needed the intimate connection that would ground Cole, pull him back from the edge he was teetering on.
"I should check on Cadence anyway," I said, the excuse coming easily. "She wasn’t at dinner, and I suspect she is dealing with her own issues."
Ryder's eyes met mine, a silent understanding passing between us. He would take care of Cole; I would handle Cadence. It was how we'd always operated, balancing each other's strengths, covering each other's weaknesses.
"We'll talk more in the morning," I said, my hand on the doorknob.
"Figure out what to do about the Alumni Dinner, about Cade.
" Cole nodded, some of the tension already easing from his shoulders as Ryder's hand began to massage the back of his neck.
I slipped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind me.
The hallway was silent, the house seemingly empty though I knew several of our housemates were around somewhere. The weight of everything we'd discovered, pressed down on me, making each step feel like I was wading through concrete.
Cadence's mother. The Palace. The High Lords' interest. It was all connected in ways I was still struggling to understand. And at the centre of it all was Cadence herself, the fierce, defiant Princess who had no idea of the danger she was in, who had no idea of her own history.
How were we supposed to tell her? How could we possibly explain that her mother had been willing to sell her to monsters?
That the only reason she'd grown up with her grandparents instead of in Blake's hellhole was some twist of fate we didn't yet understand?
And how could we make her see that her only safety now lay in submitting to us completely?
Make her see that we, no matter how fucked up the situation was, were her best option.
I passed by Ryder's room, my thoughts so tangled that I almost missed it; the door was ajar.
I froze, staring at the narrow opening. Ryder never left his door open.
Never. His room was his sanctuary, his private domain where he kept his surveillance equipment, his most personal possessions.
A chill ran down my spine as I approached cautiously.
Had someone broken in? Was one of our housemates snooping where they shouldn't be?
I pushed the door open wider, my body tensing for a confrontation. What I saw instead stopped me cold.
Cadence was sitting at Ryder's desk, her purple hair falling around her face like a curtain as she hunched over the keyboard. The room was dark except for the glow of multiple monitors, casting her pale skin in an eerie blue light. She was watching the main screen, so intent on what was happening that she didn’t even hear me come in.
I stepped in close, keeping quiet, curious to see what had caught her attention so much.
I expected to see something from Ryder’s collection where she was featured.
But instead, I saw she was watching a live stream.
One that I had just left, the one that was going on in Cole’s room right now.
Suddenly, I got an idea. It would be risky, but what if it worked? What if Ryder was right, or at least he thought he was right? What if the very idea of love was enough to sway our princess to our side? I smirked as I leant in close and whispered in her ear.
“Now, now, what a naughty little Princess you are.”