Chapter 26
RIVER
“Getting off that thing makes me want to hug Maddy for like a year straight,” Noah mumbles as he steps off the bus and hops onto the curb of a sidewalk that runs through the grungier area of northside.
“I can’t believe she had to ride that all the time.
I think I stepped in piss when I was getting off.
” He lifts his foot and pulls a face at the bottom of his shoe.
“She’s slept on one a few times, too,” I inform him as I peer around at the boarded-up brick buildings that line the street.
It’s late, but a thin haze of pollution covers up the stars and moonlight. The area we’re in is rather desolate, but a few people are wandering around, passing a bottle of whiskey.
Noah’s eyes widen as he lowers his foot back to the ground. “Are you serious?”
I nod, approaching the building that has the number that matches a place registered in Grey’s name. We’re not positive this is where Sylas is being kept, but with the appearance of being vacant, the desolate location, and the fact that the front door is bolted shut, I’m betting it is.
Noah frowns. “God, I feel so bad for her.”
“I know.” I step toward the stairway that leads to the front door. “Let’s go check this out, and hopefully this will lead us to Maddy.”
Noah peers around at the street, then tugs the hood of his jacket over his head. “The front door’s locked, so let’s go check if it has a back door. If not, we’ll bust out a window.”
I nod, and we duck down a narrow alleyway that tucks between two houses. We’re able to hop over a fence from there and get into the backyard. There’s a back door, but it’s locked too, so we break a window with a rock. Noah climbs through it first, and I follow suit.
We end up in a kitchen that looks tidied up enough that it’s clear someone has recently been here. That makes me nervous, but we push on, turning on the light on my phone and tiptoeing further into the house. When we reach a door with a thick lock on it, Noah stops in front of it.
“My bet is he’s behind this door,” he says as he tugs on the lock.
“If Maddy were here, she’d probably be able to pick that thing,” I point out, my heart aching to see her again.
I miss her so much.
Noah yanks on the lock again. “You know, I bet if we can find a heavy object, I can smash the lock.”
“What if he isn’t down there, though?” I ask. “Maybe we should check the rest of the house.”
Noah glances around the living room behind us and then at the front door. “I guess we can—
“Help!” A man yells from the other side of the door.
His voice sounds far away, though, like he’s in a basement.
Noah and I glance at each other, then we both take off to search the house for a heavy object. I end up finding an axe near the fireplace and pick it up.
By the time I return to the door, Noah is there with a shovel in his hand. But when he notices what I have, he drops it.
“Yours is better.” He steps aside.
I hand him my phone. “Shine the light on the door.”
He does, and then I raise the axe above my head and swing it down. It makes a ton of noise and doesn’t break the lock, but I keep going until I finally give up and hack the door open.
It takes forever, but I finally make a big enough hole for Noah and I to squeeze through. A stairway is on the other side that leads to a murky basement that has a single light on.
Noah draws the collar of his jacket over his nose. “It smells like shit.”
“I know,” I agree with the axe still clutched in my hand. “I don’t think…” I trail off as we reach the bottom of the stairway.
Sitting on an old dingy mattress is a man who resembles Grey except he’s clearly been starved. He’s also chained to the wall, and a bucket is beside the mattress. I’m guessing that’s where the shit smell is wafting from.
“Help me,” the man pleads as he kneels up on the mattress.
His face is smudged with dirt, and his hands are bleeding, as if he tried to slip them out of the cuffs.
Noah stops just short of him and eyes him over. “What’s your name?”
“It’s Sylas. My brother locked me down here like a month ago.” He glances between the two of us, then cowers back. “You’re James Averson’s son.”
“I am, but you don’t need to be afraid of me,” I promise him as I carefully set the axe down, the blade clanking against the cement floor. “I hate my father.”
He assesses us distrustfully. “Why are you here?”
“We came to rescue you.” Noah lowers the hood of his jacket. “We’re friends of Maddy’s.”
Sylas’s eyes widen as he sits up straighter. “My daughter? You know my daughter? Is she okay?”
“We think so, but we need to get to her soon. My father has her, and your brother helped him get ahold of her,’ I explain as I glance around, searching for an object that will get him out of the cuffs.
But what hell can break through metal?
“My brother is a traitor,” he spits venomously. “He put me here so he could convince Maddy that he’s her father.”
“We know.” A loud crash from outside sends a jolt of fear through me.
I tensely glance at the stairway behind me, expecting someone to appear at the top of it.
But no one ever does, so I turn back around, more than ready to get out of here.
“We need to get you out of here. Do either of you know how to break metal cuffs?”
“I can pick the lock if you can get me something sharp and small,” Sylas says, surprising me since the guy is a Royal and Royals usually don’t know how to pick locks.
Noah and I ransack the basement for an object small and sharp enough to pick a lock and end up finding a small, thin pin from off an old water heater. Sylas picks the lock in a minute, and then we hurry out of the house.
We decide to take the bus back instead of calling for a car to cover our tracks.
While we’re waiting for the bus, Sylas tells us that his brother has had him locked in a basement for a while, and that one of Grey’s guards shows up every few days to bring him water and food.
He’s starving, exhausted, and on the verge of passing out.
I’m concerned that people on the bus will be suspicious of him, but when we get on it, no one even blinks an eye at us.
We take a seat at the back, and Sylas rests his head against the window.
“I need to get a new phone so I can call Maddy’s mother.
She needs to know about Maddy being in danger.
And then I’m going to get Maddy away from all of these messed up men that want to use her for her bloodline.
Fuck, I wish no one had ever found out about her…
” His eyelids lower as he starts to doze off.
Noah is sitting in the row to the side of ours, and he leans over to whisper, “Should we tell him about Maddy’s mom?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. Let him get some rest first.”
Noah bobs his head up and down, then angles his body toward the wall and stares out the window.
Quietness surrounds us for a while, except for the older man talking to himself in the middle row. I wish I could fall asleep, but I’m too wired, even though I’m also tired. Plus, the air smells like old cheese and onions, and it’s making my eyes water.
I’m about to open a window when my phone rings with an incoming call from a number I don’t recognize. Typically, I’d ignore it. But with everything going on, I can’t.
Hesitantly, I push talk and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, brother.” Hearing Finn’s voice is like a shock to my system.
I straighten in the seat. “Finn?”
Noah’s head whips in my direction. “Finn’s on the phone?” he asks and I nod.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Finn replies tiredly.
“Where are you?” I ask. “Does Dad have you? How are you making this call?”
“It’s a long story,” Finn says, and he sounds exhausted. “I can’t get into all of the details right now, but I wanted to let you know that Maddy and I are okay, that we’re with Maddy’s real mother, and we’re going into hiding for a bit because Dad’s a fucking psychopath.”
“I know.” I rub my hand across my face. “Is Maddy with you right now?”
“She is,” Finn tells me, then I hear Maddy ask, “Is everyone okay there? Did anyone get hurt in the car accident?”
Hearing her voice nearly cracks me apart. I need to see her beautiful face, feel the warmth of her skin, and taste her lips.
“Everyone is okay. No one got seriously hurt. You don’t need to worry, baby,” I tell her, closing my eyes and wishing I were with them.
“That’s good. I was so worried.” Her exhaustion is evident in her tone.
I wish I could let her be, but I need to tell her what we found out about Grey not being her real father. She needs to know as much as possible so she can protect herself.
“Hey Finn, can you give her the phone for a second?” I slump back in the seat as the bus jostles against a bump in the road.
“Sure, but I still need to talk to you about some stuff,” he replies. “Here’s, Maddy.”
“Hey,” she greets me.
“Hey, baby, I need to tell you something.” I cast a sidelong glance at Sylas snoring against the glass. “It’s about your father.”
“Is he all right?” she asks worriedly.
“I…” I squeeze my eyes shut, despising that I have to do this to her. She already has too many trust issues. This will only make it worse. “Maddy, Grey isn’t your father. He lied. His brother actually is.”
She’s silent for a moment. “Hold on.” More silence and then I hear her say, “Who the heck is my real father, Ellie? Because River is on the phone and he says it’s some guy named Sylas, but I wouldn’t even know if that’s right because I don’t know anything.”
Chatter fills the background. Maddy growls something, then I hear a bang, like a door slamming closed.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice comes onto the line.
“Um, hello?” I say more like a question.
“This is River, right?” she asks. “You’re Finn’s brother?”
“Yeah.” I pause. “Who’s this?”
“This is Ellie, Maddy’s mother,” she tells me. “What do you know about Sylas?”
I glance at Sylas, whose head is still propped against the window. “I know he’s Maddy’s real dad, and he’s sitting right here beside me.”
“Oh, thank god,” she breathes out with overwhelming relief. “Can you put him on the phone? I haven’t been able to get a hold of him for almost a month, and I’ve been so worried.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to wake him up first, though. Hold on.” I start to set the phone down so I can wake up Sylas when a thought occurs to me. I put the phone back to my ear. “Ellie, do you know where my mom is?” I hold my breath, fearing the worst, that she’ll tell me she’s dead.
“I do. She’s fine. She’s actually planning on contacting you as soon as we meet up with her,” she tells me.
“I know she wants to get you out of the city. She had plans to do it within a couple of months from now. But now that Maddy and Finn are married and your father is the beneficiary of their lives, it’s too dangerous for you to be there.
There’s a chance a war is coming, and I’m assuming she’ll want you with us.
I’d like Sylas out of the city as well, so maybe you can travel together and keep an eye on each other. ”
Her words are like a merry-go-round spinning out of control in my head.
A war is coming?
My father is the beneficiary of Maddy and Finn’s lives?
Maddy and Finn are married?
I had hoped that part of Theo’s story had never happened, but I was being naive.
I can’t think straight. Can’t breathe. I’m worried I’m about to tumble into a panic attack.
“Yeah… Sounds good… Let me wake up Sylas.” I can barely comprehend what I’m saying as I gently shake Sylas awake.
He’s deliriously tired as he wakes up and stares at me with glazed-over eyes.
“Ellie’s on the phone,” I manage to choke out. “She wants to talk to you.”
That wakes him up, and he grabs the phone from me. “Tell me our daughter’s okay.”
Noah catches my gaze. “What’s going on?” he asks.
“A lot of things,” I reply thickly as I ball my hands into fists, veering toward a breakdown. But I can’t do that. Not yet anyway. “But apparently, Finn and Maddy are married now, and my father owns their lives.”
“What?” Noah sputters. “How does he own their lives?
I smash my lips together as I shake my head. “I have no idea, but I’m betting my father forced them to sign a contract.”
We fall silent as we struggle to wrap our heads around it.
Only a few months ago, my biggest worry was having to marry Isla.
Now Finn is the one who’s been forced to marry Maddy.
And poor Maddy, she’s had such a rough life and now this happens.
I worry that this is my fault. If I hadn’t told her about that necklace, maybe we’d never have gone searching for why she had it and then learned she was an Everford.
Knowing my father, though, he probably had her on his radar for a while. He’s not a sporadic sort of man.
Just how long has he been keeping an eye on Maddy?
Regardless of the answer, I know one thing is for certain. With this talk of a war coming, we need to listen to Ellie and get the fuck out of the city.