Chapter Thirty #2
I didn’t know how long my heart had been beating almost out of my chest, but only then was I aware of it. “Get off me!”
I tried to scream but nothing was coming out of my moving mouth. As if the words would only ever remain in my mind, never to be manifested into sound.
The boy’s face was so close, I couldn’t ignore the sight of blood slowly trailing down the side of his face. A sense of nausea washed over me, but I wasn’t able to vomit, no matter how hard I tried. At least then, he’d back off, albeit in disgust.
His grip tightened, a vice around my neck. His hands squeezed strong enough for my lungs to burn. Panic filled me, and I was sure it showed, because his eyes turned sadistic. “You’ll soon learn how it feels. Soon, Alexei.”
My hands lashed out, nails trying to dig into anything. Legs kicking out, limbs flailing. No matter how hard I tried, King remained where he was. Pushing him back did nothing, my fingers moving through him as if he were a figment of my imagination.
“King!” My strained voice turned pleading. “Stop!”
I didn’t know if he complied, because once the words were out, everything went black.
My eyes shot awake.
Dinner was, in a word, stifling.
It was only immediate family and me–an honour. That included Wolf, Evander, Charles, their younger brother, who I hadn’t known existed, and Evander’s ‘commoner’ wife, Lacy. One could consider her a nice woman if one chose to overlook her choice of marital partner.
Charles was fifteen and had golden brown hair with the signature Kingsley eyes to match. The matriarch, whom I was sure was still alive, hadn’t appeared and thus far, hadn’t been mentioned.
From what Wolf had told me before we made our way down, Charles wasn’t spoken of much because he spent his time in and out of the hospital.
He had a chronic illness that even the best doctors in the world couldn’t find a cure for.
Their father, before passing, called him weak, and their mother couldn’t even look at him.
He spent nights in the hospital with no one but Wolf by his side until he too had to return to Scotland for school.
Charles remained close to home, in a private school nearby.
When he was too sick to continue his daily tasks, tutors would be brought into the Kingsley Manor.
At first, I assumed he had been pushed to study even at his weakest, but Wolf informed me that it was the boy who insisted on continuing his education.
In high spirits, Charles seemed to be in good health this holiday.
Lacy carried the brunt of the conversation. Asking Wolf questions about Castle Hill that I answered, lest her words fall to deaf ears.
It didn’t look as though Wolf was willing to give an inch, even to her.
Evander sat at the head of the table with Lacy at his side. Across from her was me, and moving down the row was Wolf and Charles.
On the menu was an assortment of dishes varying from caviar, which I found to be tasteless with a strange texture, sizzling salmon and mashed potatoes, and slices of meat and asparagus.
There were plenty of appetizers as well, but I didn’t think anyone could stomach it all.
“So, do you guys have any friends to get into trouble with? I know my high school years were filled with wild stories.”
I forced out a chuckle, the memory of The Founder’s Society lunging for King Kensington before watching him get eaten by pigs came rushing to the forefront of my mind, but I banished the memories to some far and desolate part of my brain, trying to come up with happier occurrences.
“Uhm, yeah. Yeah, we get up to loads of trouble. We have this friend, August. He’s kind of known for being a uh…
big talker. Gets us into all kinds of situations. ”
Surprisingly, the only trouble August’s mouth had gotten us to witness was his own punishment when he’d ratted us out for smoking.
Lacy smiled politely and replied, “Well, I say keep him close. He sounds unpredictable, and sometimes that is exactly what we need.”
“Where did you say you went to high school?”
She sent me a playful smirk before answering, “I didn’t.
” Does she and Evander wordspare as foreplay?
It was a mean thought, and she was being kind and looked smart–I could at least give her the benefit of the doubt.
“But I digress, I went to a high school in a small town out in Utah. Pretty boring if you ask me, but I found ways to keep busy.”
I hummed, nodding along.
Charles, for the first time since I’d met him, spoke. His voice wasn’t scratchy or sickly as I expected it to be. He sounded exactly as I imagined a healthy fifteen-year-old boy would. “How did you meet Evander?”
For the first time since we’d sat down, Wolf made a sound, albeit it being a scoff.
It was low as he shook his head, and Lacy paused, but when he still didn’t utter a word, she continued, though hesitantly, “We uh… met at a bar, actually–quite a seedy one at that–in California, where I was studying. Everything is history after that.”
Charles let out a hum of acknowledgement, glancing to Wolf every few moments, almost as if in approval.
“So… you like… willingly chose Evander. Like… out of choice?” I asked, not exactly in a questioning tone.
Charles let out a short laugh before coughing, trying and failing to hide it. But I grinned when Evander tilted his head towards me, looking as if he were biting his tongue.
Lacy smiled, amused. “Yes. No reserved shotgun wedding over here. He’s alright.”
I nodded slowly, lifting my fork to let the piece of seasoned meat I’d cut up meet my tongue.
Wolf ran a hand over his mouth as if forcing himself to remain silent against the words shoving against his sealed lips.
We fell back into silence and continued to eat. The sound of cutlery clicking around the room.
Finally, he placed his knife and fork down softly and spoke. But it wasn’t the words I’d expected at all.
“So, when do you piss back off from whence you came?”
Charles choked on his cup of water, and Lacy lifted her head and blinked with wide eyes at the abrupt words.
Evander slammed his cutlery down, and I inwardly cringed, being so close. “I understand you may be angry, but that is no way to address–”
That seemed to break the performative pleasantries we were all acting under, the underlying hostility ultimately rushing to the surface.
Wolf let out a cruel laugh. “Angry? You think I may be angry? Really. Four years, Evan. Four goddamn years.” He held up four fingers as if to emphasize his words.
“Angry doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel.
Charles,” Wolf shouted, pointing to the younger brother sitting silent and tense next to him, “has been alone with nobody but Barthalow and mother to keep him company. And since this summer, he’s been entirely alone. Where were you? Huh? Where were you?”
His voice had gotten louder as he reached the end, and I lowered my fork before intertwining my hands on my lap, at a loss for how to act in a delicate situation such as this one. An uncomfortable awkwardness fell over me.
Wolf was breathing raggedly, fury burning in his eyes, and I quickly regretted sitting in between the warring brothers.
Evander’s face remained like that of a poker player, devoid of any bluffs. “I hope you will save this issue for a more private setting. The rest of the Kingsley family will be arriving tomorrow.”
Wolf sat back, scoffing and watching his brother as though he were looking at someone he didn’t recognize. Someone he didn’t know. A stranger.
I couldn’t imagine coming home to a stranger living in your house, living in your brother’s body.
Suddenly, Wolf threw his napkin against his plate and scraped his chair back. “I’m leaving. I’ve suddenly lost my appetite."
No one spoke, and the room descended into a deafening silence. Lacy didn’t dare lift her head from where she was hyper focused on the plate in front of her, but I caught the teardrop that fell and disappeared into her soup.
Charles, surprisingly, stood as well, looking around the table tentatively. “I’ll go and… check on him.”
He made himself scarce rather quickly, and then there were three. Lacy was still silently crying, and Evander looked as though he wanted to flip the table entirely. His hand fisted his own napkin tightly within his palm, choking it as if it had offended him.
As if a scene out of a murder mystery novel, the plot twist arrived.
Thaddeus moving into the dining room like a man on a mission.
I let slip a surprised squeak, and he paused under the threshold, sensing the tense atmosphere he couldn’t cut into with a knife if he tried. “What happened here? Did a bomb go off–Alexandr? What are you doing here?”
I looked back with a quick curl of my lips. “Says you. What are you doing here, uninvited and intruding?”
He stuck out his bottom lip and raised his brows at my audacious tone. “Look at you,” he said mockingly. “Lord of the Manor. Sewed Evander’s mouth shut, did you? Wouldn’t put it past you.”
I clenched my jaw and nodded to the purple ring around his left eye and cut lip. I almost preened in delight, satisfied. “You’re looking a little worse for wear, Thaddeus. That Machiavellian thinking finally caught up to you, did it?”
He sneered. “I’ll deal with you, your big mouth, and that past of yours later.” He slid his gaze to Evander, the brooding man still… well, brooding. “For now, we’ve got more important matters to discuss.”
He shrugged off his coat and threw it over a chair two seats down from Lacy, who had now lifted her head with clear eyes.
She tried to muster up as much of a smile as she could, no matter how grimaced it looked.
Evander forced himself to release the tortured napkin and speak through gritted teeth, “What is it?” Eyes no longer showcasing that burning fury of his, uncannily similar to Wolf’s, and jaw relaxed.
Thaddeus looked to me for clues as to why his friend, only moments ago, looked as though he might take a golf club to the window behind him, and I only shook my head once in a do-not-approach-him gesture.
Thaddeus heeded my subtle warning, choosing not to inquire further, and waited for Evander to meet his eyes before speaking, “Well, I’ve just gotten word that Silas Letum will be joining his peers at Castle Hill come the start of the next term.”