Chapter 30
Violet
Cold.
That was the first thing my mind registered as consciousness slowly dragged me back. Cold stone against my back and cold air biting at my skin.
My head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache, and my mouth tasted like cotton and something bitter. I tried to lift my hand to my face, but my arm felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
My memory came back in jagged fragments. The cake. The cordial. The room tilting. Roman's voice. His face looming over me.
Oh god.
My eyes flew open, and I immediately regretted it as the dim light sent a spike of pain through my skull. I blinked, trying to focus and make sense of where I was.
Stone walls. A low ceiling. A single bronze sconce casting weak light across the room from a candle burned down to a stub. The air smelled damp and old, like earth and decay.
I was sitting with my back against rough stone, my legs stretched out in front of me on a floor that was equally cold and unforgiving. The space was small, maybe ten feet by ten feet, with a heavy iron door set into one wall.
A cell. I was in a fucking cell.
Panic surged through me, burning away the last of the drug-induced fog. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't cooperate. I managed to get to my hands and knees before my arms gave out, and I collapsed back against the wall, breathing hard.
“Easy,” a voice said from the shadows. “The effects take a few minutes to dissipate. But you’ll feel completely fine in an hour.”
I jerked my head up, and there he was. Roman Valcourt, sitting on a wooden stool in the corner, watching me with those unreadable hazel eyes.
Terror crashed over me like a wave. He'd drugged me. Taken me. Brought me here to this… dungeon, or whatever the hell it was supposed to be. And now we were alone together.
I pressed harder against the wall, as if I could somehow push through it and escape, but there was nowhere to go. No way out.
“Careful,” Roman said, lifting a hand. “Don’t move too fast.”
“You won’t get away with this,” I muttered, voice shaking. “Julian will find me.”
“I’m sure he will. But not for hours,” he said. “These little cells are everywhere beneath the estate. Hundreds of them.”
As he spoke, he rose from the stool and stepped closer. I flinched, squeezing my eyes shut as if that could somehow protect me from him.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “I just wanted to give you this.”
I opened my eyes to see a tissue in his hand.
“Some saliva dripped onto your chin when you were passed out,” he went on. “I thought you might want to wipe your face.”
I kept staring at him, refusing to move. This was some sort of trick. As soon as I tried to accept the tissue, he’d probably grab my wrist, twist it, and pin it behind me on the wall. A power play to show me that he was in charge here.
He sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you, Violet.”
“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that,” I said in a low voice.
“I know how it looks, with me drugging you and all, but it ends there, I swear,” he said, lifting a palm. “I didn’t want to do it. I had to.”
“Isn’t that what all abusers say?” I shot back, my voice sharp despite the tremor in it. “Look what you made me do?”
“This isn’t like that,” he replied, head shaking. “I had to do it because I had to get you alone somehow, and I knew you’d never come willingly because… well, you clearly hate me. Knocking you out was the only thing I could think of on such short notice.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why did you need to get me alone?”
“So we could talk,” he said calmly. “There’s a lot that needs to be said between us. But I knew you wouldn’t agree to a conversation with me up there in your room, and I knew Julian wouldn’t let me be alone with you, either.”
“You want to talk?” I asked, eyes widening in disbelief.
“Yes. That’s all. I swear, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“If that’s true, then why wouldn’t Julian let you do it?”
He hesitated. “We had an argument earlier, and things got… heated. We both said things we probably didn’t mean, and I also learned a few things about the two of you that made me realize just how far he’d go to keep you safe.
And so…” He paused, lifting his hands to gesture around the cell. “This is how it has to be. For now.”
“So you really just want to talk,” I said disbelievingly.
“I also wanted to ask for your help.”
I blinked. “My help?” I said, unsure if I’d heard him correctly.
“Yes.” Roman nodded, jaw tightening. “I think you might be able to help me find Calista’s killer.”
I barked out a humorless laugh. “Sure, I can totally help you with that,” I said. “Go upstairs and look in a fucking mirror.”
He exhaled heavily, rubbing his temple. “I know what certain people think of me. What they’ve been saying,” he muttered.
“My fellow members in the Club assumed it was me too. That’s why they went so hard covering it up, because it’s their imperative to defend me even if they think I’m guilty.
Julian’s the only one who ever believed me when I told him I didn’t do it. ”
“Of course he believed you,” I snapped. “He’s your brother. It doesn’t make him right.”
Roman looked at me steadily. “I didn’t kill Cal, Violet,” he said. “I never would’ve hurt her. Not in a million years. You have to believe me when I say that.”
I scoffed. “Why the hell would I ever believe a single word you say?”
“Because I loved her!” he said, voice cracking slightly. “Okay? I fucking loved her. I would never hurt her. Never!”
I swallowed thickly. “You’re claiming you loved Calista,” I said in a hollow voice. “But you put her name on the List, and you hunted her like an animal. You really call that love?”
“It wasn’t like that. I can explain,” he said. He moved a little closer, eyes bright with something that could’ve been grief or obsession. I couldn’t tell which. “I know it’s my fault she died. But I didn’t do it. I swear.”
“What do you mean it’s your fault she died?”
He hesitated, gaze flicking toward the stone floor. “It’s a long story,” he said. “That’s why I brought you down here, away from everyone else. So I’d have time to explain everything.”
“I don’t care how long it takes,” I replied, heart thudding in my chest. “Tell me everything.”
I didn’t believe a single word that came out of his mouth. But if I could keep him talking, I’d buy Julian more time to find me.
Roman stood, crossed the cell, and retrieved the stool. He set it down in front of me and lowered himself onto it, elbows resting on his knees. Then he took a long, deep breath and finally spoke again.
“Calista was my whole world,” he said in a low voice. “We shared everything, even if it meant breaking my vows. That’s how much I loved her. I put her above everything else in my life.”
I frowned. “How did you break your vows?”
“I told her everything about us. The Dionysus Club, that is. And I told her about the Selection, too. What it is, and what happens during and after.” His eyes glazed slightly, like he was staring through me and into the past. “That’s what got her killed in the end.”
My mind was whirling. “So the Club killed her for knowing too much?”
“No.” Roman lifted a palm. “They had no idea that I told her anything. But she still died because I told her about the Selection. Because I didn’t take care of her properly.”
I slowly shook my head. “I’m really confused. I think you need to go further back.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw. He cleared his throat and spoke up again. “Listen… I’m going to tell you everything I told your sister about the Selection. But you’re not supposed to know any of this. At least not yet.”
“Okay.”
“My point is, I could get in a whole lot of trouble for telling you,” he went on. “So I hope you’ll see me doing this as a sign of good faith.”
“Okay,” I repeated, crossing my arms. “So. The Selection. What is it?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard some of the rumors that circulate every few years. The Club actually encourages them, because they don’t want the truth getting out,” Roman replied. “But at its core… it’s just one thing.”
“What?”
He gave me a thin-lipped half-smile and lifted a brow. “It’s a wife hunt.”