12. Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER TWELVE
I hadn’t seen Benedikt for hours. Not that I missed him. Not that I wanted to see him. Being around him was confusing, to say the least. I wanted him. But I wasn’t certain I should have him. The voices that plagued my mind, telling me I was a bad girl, continued to lay siege to my head.
I couldn’t remember my family, but if they wanted me, they had done a piss-poor job of protecting me.
I stepped out of the room I had at the Bratva mansion. I guess it was something like a headquarters for the organization, and I didn’t understand why Benedikt forced me into my room. The other girls were sequestered together in an entirely different wing.
Why me?
A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I let out a shudder in alarm. Fear raced through my veins as I spun around. It took a minute for me to let out my breath when I saw it was Valentina who stood before me.
“Follow me,” she whispered.
I’d never questioned her before, so I did as she demanded. I stayed on my side of the hallway as we walked in the opposite direction of where I was headed. I thought that was where the kitchen was, but maybe I was mistaken.
“Where are we going?” I hissed.
“You’ll see,” Valentina responded. Nothing else.
We headed up the corridor to a passage I’d never have found had she not shown me the seams lining the wall.
“You have to press just right for it to open,” Valentina said as she revealed a narrow hallway made of stone.
We stumbled down the dimly lit corridor.
“The first time I found these passageways, I knew something was different about them,” Valentina huffed. “You would have to research in the library, and I love throwing myself into a good book,” she babbled.
When was the last time I’d gotten to read? I couldn’t remember the last book I’d read. Surely, something for school. I envied Valentina in a way. She’d found a better life than she’d been born into.
Ignoring my silence, Valentina kept whispering the information she’d learned. I guess it was better than it going to waste.
“These passages carried female heirs to safety from here to The Academy.”
“What? Why?” Wouldn’t they want them to stay within the walls where they would be safe? I couldn’t make sense of it.
“No, they weren’t any safer,” Valentina responded, as if she could read my face. “In the early days of the Bratva, female heirs were a threat to the men who held power. They were weak, liabilities that enemies could exploit, or worse, sold off as tools for alliances. And so, a mother built the passages with a fierce heart, and later every woman inherited her secret; each one desperate to keep her daughter safe. They had whispered stories of daughters spirited away in the dead of night, taken from under their father’s nose, when their only fate otherwise was a life in chains, or an early grave. ”
I shuddered in response. “That’s horrible. I would never want to live like that.”
Valentina shrugged. “These hidden corridors became the escape routes for young girls with Bratva blood in their veins, sent to The Academy in secret. To the world, these daughters had simply died, taken by some tragic fate. Each one was mourned in public, her name carved on a headstone in the family crypt, while she was actually being smuggled through these very walls, spirited away in the dead of night, by a guard or a loyal servant, sometimes her own mother.”
“Wait,” I stopped in place. “Did you say there’s a family crypt down here?”
Valentina nodded, looking back at me. “Yeah, it’s a little reminiscent of the Academy, now that I think about it.”
“Are there snakes?” I whispered in fear.
Valentina shook her head no. “It’s super clean. I promise it’s not at all the same.”
I didn’t want to trust her, but we’d come so far already. I didn’t have any choice but to keep following behind her, and hope she wasn’t lying to me. She felt like family, but I didn’t think she was. We looked different for sure. We had different lifestyles as well.
She’d settled down and gotten married. Her pregnancy glow shone for miles, like a beacon of happiness. She wasn’t some broken monster like myself. She hadn’t lived through half the horrors I did.
If she had, she would’ve killed herself already. I followed behind her in silence, thinking about the story she just told me, and hoping that my worst fears weren’t before me. If I saw a rat, I was running. I didn’t care if I got lost in these passages until the end of time.
I knew that when the rats came, snakes were sure to follow.
A phantom hiss played in my ear, and I whimpered. I didn’t know if I’d be able to get through this. The corridor opened up to reveal the crypt. The air was thicker and cooler in this area. I walked down the stairs before me, looking around and taking it all in.
Tiffany, the Pakhan’s wife, was leaning against a far wall, talking to a woman I hadn’t met yet. The other woman was a voluptuous plus sized black woman, who was riddled in silverish scars underneath the light. I held back my gasp, trying to fix my facial features, so she wouldn’t get offended when I approached. Valentina interrupted their intense conversation, calling out to them.
“Tiffany! Sloane! We finally made it.” She bounced over to them.
The puzzle clicked in my mind. Alexie’s wife, Sloane, of course she would be here. Her scars were on full display, and my gaze got caught for a second, before I looked elsewhere.
“Let’s sit, since we are all here,” Tiffany commanded, and led us over to an old stone table in the center of the room.
Their faces were illuminated by the candlelight. Shadows danced along old carvings in the walls. The family’s women were buried here, their names etched in stone. I could feel the walls closing in on me. My air was a bit too tight.
“I’m a good girl. I’m a good girl. I’m a good girl,” I whispered under my breath like a mantra, while the other women told me why we were here.
“Like I was saying, we need a complete new name. One that commands respect, but isn’t associated with the fear,” Tiffany said.
“The men will never agree. You know how Alexie is,” Sloane’s soft voice sounded so sweet.
“Bah, Alexie is a traditional asshole, and you know it. Viktor’s word is law,” Tiffany said, like it was a done deal.
“It’s a stretch for even the Pakhan, you have to agree,” Sloane argued.
“Uh, what are we talking about now?” Valentina interrupted .
I looked around the table at all these women of color. Something big was going on. Something that needed all of us. I could feel change in the air. Something I wasn’t fond of.
“The Academy, of course.”
I stopped my mantra. “That burned down.”
“Yes,” Tiffany said. Her eyes swung to mine. “It’s time to rebuild a new legacy.”
Goosebumps broke out across my skin. Rebuild a new legacy? After everything I’d lived through with the old one. Fuck no. I wanted no part of this.
I started shaking my head no, but Valentina touched my hand, causing me to jump. “Let’s just hear them out.”
“It won’t be the same,” Sloane promised.
“This time we will make sure of it,” Tiffany concurred.
“What’s the name going to be?” I didn’t want to think of the outcome right now.
“Well, that’s what we were debating,” Sloane said sheepishly.
“It’s hard to come up with one, when it needs to be strong, and have something with meaning.”
“What about-” I stumbled, trying to find my voice again. “What about Zarya Academy? Zarya means dawn or new beginning in Russian, I think.”
The room grew silent as they each thought it over.
“Yes, that will do. Something that will command respect,” Tiffany muttered, taking notes down on her phone.
“And Viktor will approve it, because it gives a nod to the strong lineage of the Bratva,” Sloane said excitedly.
“Oh, that’s a wonderful phrase. Let me write that down,” Tiffany muttered.
“What’s this school going to be about, and why did we have to meet here?” Valentina asked the same questions I was thinking.
There was a pause as the two shared a knowing look .
“If we’re doing this,” said Tiffany, her voice low but steady, “we have to make it clear: we’re not just training wives anymore. We’re creating queens, women who know the art of seduction and submission, but who can wield it to their own advantage. We’ll teach them elegance and strength, but also cunning. Survival and power.”
“What about the boys?” Sloane asked, leaning forward.
Tiffany’s eyes gleamed. “They’ll come after. A year behind. The girls need the first chance, the priority, so they’ll always remember who walked these halls first.”
“Integration?” Valentina gasped. She was a teacher through and through.
Tiffany nodded. “And a neutral ground. A place where all families send their children, where they learn the ways of their bloodlines, but also where they’re forced to work together, to respect each other.”
I could get on board with that, as long as I didn’t have to step foot inside this new academy.
“Who is going to run it?” Sloane asked.
“I’ll pick someone from the girls we rescued. Someone no one would miss. We can train her.” Tiffany giggled.
Sloane, however, groaned, “that sounds like a ton of work. Alexie won’t be happy with me out of the house so much.”
Tiffany nodded. “I’ve got just the plan for that.”
As the two put their heads together, I couldn’t help but think they were more trouble in the same room than me and Valentina had ever been. The ghosts of the crypt seemed to listen, to lean closer, like I was, aware that the women were about to alter the course of Bratva history, from within these very walls.
I stepped back carefully, my breath caught in my throat, and left them to their plans. Zarya Academy would be born in secrecy, as all great things in our world were. And when it finally opened its doors, every family; ours, our rivals, and our allies, would remember whose hands had first shaped it.
We held the power, and that was an illuminating thought indeed.