Chapter 33 Sterling #2
Clo steps out from the mirrors like she’s been waiting her whole life for this. Black silk swirls at her ankles. Her crimson mask sits in her hair like a crown. She smiles eerily, tilting her head like a woman welcoming guests to a party she knows only ends in one way. Slaughter.
“Welcome back, dokkaebi,” she says.
I say nothing. My fists clench into tight knots. I have to wait. Have to pick the right second to move. Elle’s still breathing. That’s what matters.
Clo drags her fingers across the chessboard where she places her mask. “You always had a keen eye, Sterling. So I’m certain you’re aware what these chess pieces are made of, aren’t you?”
I don’t answer. I don’t even blink.
She plucks up a queen. “Bone,” she says. “Real bone. From the men you buried in my vineyard.” Her fingers turn it slowly. “You were always so thorough, Sterling. So careful with your secrets, so much like your father. But nothing stays buried forever.”
I go still, seeing hundreds of reflections spin around this room of mirrors. I see me, Elle, and Clo at all angles. Makes my head spin worse with Kys in my system.
Her sick smile widens. “And you’d be amazed at what good decay does to wine. Kys soaks better in soil rich with deadly secrets. The harvest this year’s exquisite, all thanks to you and all the men you’ve buried in our family estate.”
My stomach turns. The worst word she’s said so far is family. We’ve never been that. I scowl, but she keeps smiling.
She lifts the dark knight next. Balances it like a weight in her palm. “Damon. Always charging in. Loyal to death.”
She sets it down. Picks up a pale pawn. Pretends to study it. I have to close my eyes to stop my head from spinning out of control.
“Stan,” I hear her say. “My sweet baby boy. Always willing to be one step away from being sacrificed for someone else’s glory.”
She slams the piece down, making me snap my enraged eyes open. I watch her reach for the rook.
“And you,” she says, smile vanishing. “My rook. Built to guard, to corner, and to clean the board when no one else could. But you fell in love with the wrong girl and let the whole game fall apart.”
She plucks the white king with her other hand, twisting it.
“Your father, Kai,” she says with a sigh, “I truly thought I found love in him. I gave him my everything. Still, his greed wanted more. Do you know what it took to finally make all this power mine? I had to send your father right back to the Knights. He’s not mine anymore, but everything else is.”
With a sudden sweep of her hand, the pieces fall off the board. They clatter, echoing an ache in my teeth. Bone shards scatter across the floor. The rook she held slides to drop at Elle’s feet.
Clo straightens. “But now, you see, all these useless Song-Smith men,” she spits, “are completely cleared from my board.”
She circles the table.
“You really are your father’s son.”
The words hit like a cutting smack.
“Same silver hair,” she says, stepping closer. “Though yours started to pale much earlier. Stress, maybe? Or maybe you were always meant to wear your weakness on the outside.”
She brushes a hand through my hair mockingly. My entire body screams to snap her wrist clean. But I know her guards would take me down. I’d lose my chance at saving Elle.
“Same gray eyes too,” Clo keeps going. “Though, you had your mother’s stare. So kind, so caring, so Naomi. But I beat that out of you, didn’t I, dear?”
I stay silent. My fingers dig into the arms of the chair. I feel the wood crack. Every word this monster spits is background noise to Elle’s shallow breath.
“You had potential, Sterling.” Clo sounds almost regretful. “You could’ve outdone Damon. Been more obedient than Stan.”
She taps the board. The sound rings in my ears. Drives me crazy.
“That’s why I had to take Damon off the board. He would’ve stopped me. But you…” She laughs under her breath. “You managed to turn Stan against me. Used Elle to reach him. Made him look for Damon. Made my own sons believe in your little rebellion.”
Clo lifts the bottom of the board with the back of her fingers.
“You could’ve been a better son to me,” she says. “You could’ve been more than a mistake I had to correct.”
“You’re not my mother,” I snarl, my voice low and shredded from the drugs I breathed in. But as I blink, my vision steadies. The ringing in my ears stop. The room isn’t spinning anymore.
Her smile rears up. This time, with teeth. “You think you stopped me, Sterling?” she spits. “You took out some men. Scorched a couple of corners.”
She takes the chessboard into her hands and walks toward me.
“But all you did was clean Kys off the streets, Sterling.”
I force my breaths to steady. It takes everything I have not to fight Clo’s guards here and now, just so I can punch her smug smile gone.
“Kys was never only in the pills,” Clo says.
She grips the marble board. Her eyes widen with wildness.
“It’s in the new line of wine. High doses. Completely undetectable.”
She circles behind me. Her voice lowers until I feel it at my neck.
“It’s been in the candle wax. The bath oils. The lantern oil.”
I stay locked in place. I have to wait. I have to find the right opening. Elle’s fingers twitch faintly. Her breath rattles, thin but still there. Stay with me, Elle.
Clo steps back into view. The chessboard glints in her hands. “It’s in the air, Sterling.”
She swings to hit me with the marble board. But expecting it, I launch sideways, moving before thought even catches up. The board slams into empty space. The chair crashes down, splintering. I throw myself toward Elle, every part of me burning to be with her.
But hands grab me. I thrash hard, throwing punches, driving elbows, striking anything that moves. Something cracks. Someone gasps. Someone else holds me back, but I stomp his knee until he howls.
I don’t stop. I don’t see them. All I see is Elle. Her chest lifts. Her head slips lower. My ribs feel like they’re going to tear open from the force of needing to reach her. Of needing her alive and safe in my arms.
Clo moves through the guards parting for her when a few grab a hold of me. I barely register her until her hand closes on my jaw. Her nails dig in, cutting and cold. I try to twist away. More of her men are on me. I’m too slow, still drugged with Kys.
She jams a glass bottle between my clenching teeth.
It falls from her grip and shatters from the savage jerk of my head, cutting shallow into my mouth.
But the bitter liquid hits my tongue, bile crawling up my throat.
I try to spit it out, choking on the bitter taste.
Too fucking late. Kys sears potent through my blood like a fuse lit on both ends.
I hurl my fists one more time, catch someone’s ribs, and drive another back with a wild blow. But my legs buckle. My vision slips.
Clo’s a blur above me. “You think you can love your way out of this, Sterling?” she asks, mocking. “Love’s only another leash, another weakness. And just like your father did, you’ve twisted love into something sick. Something that was never meant to be.”
I drop to my knees. The impact rattles through me. Elle’s face flickers in my vision. Slumped, pale, breathing too shallow, but still alive. I drag myself forward. Inches at a time. Teeth clenched so hard I feel them grind. “Elle,” I choke out.
Clo crouches. Her cold fingers push through my hair. “You never could beat me,” she whispers.
I try getting up. My arms won’t lift. My body’s done listening. The room twists around me.
Elle. All I can see is her. All I can hear is the sound of her breathing. I claw at the ground. At the space between us. Everything goes white, then black. My last thought cuts through my collapse. I have to save her.