Chapter 51 The Spare #2
Ronan cracked his neck, clearly losing patience, while Maia was unreadable, her eyes slowly making the circuit between the screen, me, and her father.
They widened.
She’d figured it out.
Everyone knew except Ronan.
“So what?” he asked. “I fail to see the connection here.”
“Ronan,” Maia said quietly. “Look more closely at the baby.”
I swallowed, my eyes watering, but I refused to cower. To shrink back.
Ronan clicked his tongue against his teeth in annoyance, grabbing the tablet off the table to get a better look. He was confused at first, but then something caught his attention. He stared. He squinted. And then he gasped.
“No.”
“Yes,” Kenzo replied, exhaling again.
“Sage?” His voice was small. Hurt.
Betrayed.
“The boy, he’s…”
My lips began to quiver, and I gave a short, jerky nod.
He stilled, and I couldn’t meet his eye.
I had purposefully avoided telling Ronan most of it, not wanting him to feel worse about everything that had happened than he already did.
But maybe I should have told him this. For him to find out this way, to allow his dad to get this kind of leverage over me, which was leverage over him…
“I’m so sorry, but it’s not what you think,” I sobbed, digging my nails into the arm of the chair to keep them from covering my face. “He put me under and stole my eggs, and I didn’t even know. I’m sorry, I’m—”
“Ravaric, that’s beyond fucked up,” Maia said under her breath.
Ronan dashed around the table, kneeling beside me. “Sage, you have nothing to be sorry for. Please, I’m horrified for you, not at you.” He then turned to his dad. “Really? You thought this was the best way to do this? To force my mate to relive this trauma over her fucking pickled vegetables?”
Ronan ran a hand down my back, rubbing gently, but I was crying too hard for anything to come into focus.
Kenzo responded nonchalantly. “A tragedy, perhaps, but one that will turn out to be a wonderful opportunity for us.”
“Accalia is innocent,” I said quickly, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand. “She tried to help me. I won’t do anything to hurt her.”
Ronan turned towards his father. “You heard her, she’s not hurting the wolf. So whatever plan you’ve made, you can forget about it.”
“I don’t think I will.”
The guards took a step closer, and Ronan released a room-shaking growl. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
At this, the cool, collected Oniguro boss stood, pointing at his son and exploding in anger.
“You failed your three tests! Did you think I wouldn’t know exactly how you weaseled your way out of them?
Instead of shaking down Ripped Lace, you put one of my best bruum runners from Noctis in the hospital.
I caught you on camera flushing the sindr you were supposed to sell down the toilet, and the seraph?
You blackmailed the friend, the son of one of the investors for the new hotel we’re breaking ground on next week, instead of the original target! ”
Maia scoffed, her long, jeweled nails like talons as they tapped on the table. “I told you he didn’t have the temperament for this. Just let him go already; you’re forcing a square peg through a round hole here.”
Kenzo’s face snapped towards his daughter and he sneered. “Let him go? Why, so you can take over?”
Her expression hardened as he continued. “I may have entertained your silly ambitions while Ronan was off playing bounty hunter, but he was always going to come back. And I refuse to let my empire be run by an omega. We need an alpha at the helm, even if that alpha leaves me wanting.”
Maia bristled as the guards came even closer, metal clinking when two of them pounced, catching Ronan off guard and managing to subdue him with adamantine cuffs in the struggle.
He roared as they pulled him up, fire building under his skin and smoke billowing from his pores. “Let me go this instant or I’ll burn this whole place to the ground, too!”
Seeing my mate—my real mate—caught and fighting to get free snapped something inside of me, and I felt my magic burst through my veins.
Magic I’d nearly forgotten I even possessed.
Why couldn’t the world just let us be?
I got up, hand outstretch as I began to whisper a spell under my breath, the lights flickering. “Zarneek vahn il—”
A tight hand clamped over my mouth, restraining my arms from behind. “Then she’s burning down with it,” another guard said.
Smoke curled out of Ronan’s nose, and he stared daggers at the man behind me. “Once I’m out of these cuffs, Toru, I’m going to fucking tear you to shreds.”
“Enough!” Kenzo yelled. “Here’s what’s going to happen—Sage will claim the boy as hers and challenge Accalia for the right to be the Premier Regent of Noctis as a thank you for her rescue, and while she does, Ronan will remain here and learn the true meaning of obedience.”
The guard’s grip twisted my arms as my stomach lurched.
No… no I couldn’t! I didn’t care whose egg was used to make Alaric, that boy was Accalia’s son, and I was never going to take him away from her.
But Ronan… I couldn’t leave him here to be tortured, either.
Ronan, twisting and turning in his cuffs, desperate to get free, caught my eye with nothing but rage and regret pouring through.
I’d known things would be hard here. Different. But I’d never thought…
“Hey Dad, quick question.”
Kenzo chuffed. “What?”
Maia pushed away from the table, stepping around the guards as she sauntered to his side. “Sage as the Premier Regent? Love it. Two Premiers in our pocket is genius. Truly. But I just need you to clarify something you said earlier.”
The Oniguro boss sat down, rubbing his forehead in annoyance. “Just spit it out, already.”
“When you said ‘nobody lives here for free,’ did you mean Mom, too?”
He paused, his eyes darkening and lips curling. “Her job was to provide me with an heir. Once that was done, well… her death accomplished far more than the rest of her life would have.”
Ronan swore, struggling further while Maia simply whistled. “Damn, that’s what I thought.”
In the blink of an eye, a dagger made of pure, blue flame grew from her hand, born of her demon power. With a practiced flick of her wrist, it flew straight into her father’s heart.
Kenzo gasped, unable to grab the weapon as it seeped into the wound, leaving behind only a plume of smoke. His suit darkened as blood seeped into the fabric. “Maia… you….”
She shrugged, picking at her nails. “Just following in your footsteps, Dad.”
I stifled a scream as he fell face forward onto the table, his eyes losing their spark of life as they stared at his daughter.
The guards looked between Maia, Ronan, and their dead boss, too shocked and confused to move.
Seconds ticked by, until Maia finally sighed. “Let Ronan and Sage go.”
The guards holding him found the key, and as soon as his hands were free, he charged towards the man who had held me, driving him to the ground and pummeling his fists into the man’s face.
All I could do was watch wordlessly at the carnage, the sound of bones crunching and flesh disintegrating from Ronan’s heavy blows.
I was sure the man was as dead as Kenzo, but Ronan refused to stop. Maia, meanwhile, lifted a booted foot and kicked her father out of his chair, taking his place.
She watched her brother for another few moments, holding out a hand to stop the other guards from intervening, and then finally spoke up. “I think you got him, killer.”
Ronan gave him one more sickening punch, and then stood, spitting on what remained of his face. Finally, he placed his hands on his chest, incinerating his body into hot, white ash.
When it was all over, he turned to me, his face instantly crumpling. “Sage, are you okay? Hospital?”
I looked down to where my hand had landed over my heart, my fingers clutching the fabric of my dress.
I was terrified, but it was nothing like the attack I’d had at the diner.
“N-no, no, I’m—”
I couldn’t finish the sentence before Ronan pulled me into his embrace, trying his best to avoid getting any blood on me, but his hands were soaked, and the smell was overpowering.
“I’m sorry for everything, I keep failing at protecting you.”
It felt less like a failure and more just incredible bad luck. Like the gods were putting us through their own bizarre set of cruel challenges.
For Hecara’s sake, what was next?
“Now, now, Ronan, the only blood she’s sporting is Toru’s. You’re fine, aren’t you Sis?”
Maia grinned from her new seat, bringing her feet up on the table and holding her hands behind her head.
“Um, yes. Yes, I’m good.”
“Good, and you’re about to even better. Boys?”
The guards stood awkwardly, still trying to figure out the new hierarchy and alignment of their loyalties, but Maia made it easy.
“Starting from…” she checked the time on her phone, “Right fucking now, I’m officially your boss. And Ronan?”
Ronan breathed heavily, his grip on me tight.
“You don’t have a problem with that. Right?”
She tilted her chin, her coy smile belying the threat in her eyes.
A claim for the position left by Kenzo Oniguro had been made.
And Ronan would not challenge it.
He shook his head.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. So here’s what we’re actually gonna do.”