Chapter 34 #2
“I want to tell you something.” Nik moved in front of her, gripping her shoulders and bending to meet her eyes. When his toes crunched the lavender stalks, he paused and looked down. “Where did these come from?” He stooped to take one and smell it, eyes blowing wide. “Lafontaine. Where is he?”
Elara heard him, but she didn’t understand a word of what he’d said. She was drowning still, struggling to breathe under the weight of everything.
“We need to go.” Nik pushed at the door. “Elara!”
“Your mother betrayed the rebels.”
His stillness was all the answer she needed.
“You lied to me. Every single thing you’ve ever said has been a lie, and I was pathetic enough to believe you.” She turned on him. “If it wasn’t for her, the Restes would be safe right now. We wouldn’t be in this situation. And my mother…”
Her voice cracked.
Her mother would be alive.
“Elara, please.”
She threw him off.
“No! No more pleading. No more promises.” She sucked down gasps of air that would never be enough to make her lungs stop screaming. “Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”
“I wanted to.” He raked his hair the same way she had last night. She knew the texture intimately now. More than she knew him apparently. “I just couldn’t find the right time. I swear, I was going to tell you this morning.”
“But you were too late.” Lafontaine stepped from the dark. “How many times have I told you that cowardice never wins out, Nikolas?”
It was a wretched truth, one that sent her spiraling. From the very beginning, Nik had trained her to be an obedient dog for his father. No. He’d tried. At some point, Elara had changed his heart.
And he’d changed hers.
Their past was treacherous, but they could make it work.
Later. For now, they had to find a way forward.
She stepped around Nik’s protection. “What do you want?’
“The same thing Nikolas and I have both wanted since the beginning,” he replied. “The Restes needs order, and I will bring it to them.”
“By killing them?” she spat. “By allowing the guards to tear off their limbs and cut their throats?”
“Whatever it takes.” He shrugged. “What I have in mind is less … hands-on. All it will take is your help.”
Her nostrils flared. “Why not just kill me?”
“Oh, I would have loved to, but your performance in the Objet d’Art has won over some of my more weak-minded colleagues. Unlike Gaetan Arnaud, disposing of you would lead to suspicion.”
“I won’t help you,” she snarled.
“I understand.” He removed a syringe filled with purple liquid from his pocket. “Nik told you about my latest invention, but did he tell you how slowly and painfully it can kill at high dosages?”
“You can’t kill me,” she whispered. “You said so yourself.”
“You, no. But people as insignificant as Chantal Maran and Blai Lozano?” He gave a wolfish grin. “They wouldn’t be missed.”
“Elara, don’t listen to him. We can figure something out.” Nik grabbed her shoulder, but the guard in the corner moved, pulling him away.
She fought against a bolt of fury at seeing him treated so carelessly.
“In return for your loyalty,” Lafontaine said, “I will give you mine.”
She snorted. “You can’t give something you don’t have.”
“I have more than my son.” He looked to Nik. “There’s one more secret he’s yet to tell.”
The little flame of hope flickered, threatening to go out.
“Don’t listen to him,” Nik begged. “Whatever he says, it’s not the whole truth—”
The guard stifled him with a filthy rag, and this time Elara only felt numb.
Lafontaine was circling her now, a vulture coming to feast.
“I bet Nikolas lured you in by appealing to your shared tragic histories. He probably said some drivel about wanting to see a Restes urchin claim a position of power, no?”
Her breath bruised her throat. It was exactly what Nik had done.
Word. For. Word.
“I bet you started to believe him. With each passing moment, he caged you in his trap. Even when he made the mistake of falling in love, he fed you little lies so you might never learn the one thing that would ruin his control over you forever.”
Nik was screaming against the gag.
Lafontaine disappeared behind her.
The world was closing in.
With his lips an inch from her ear, Lafontaine whispered, “Did they ever find the person responsible for your mother’s death?”
Elara’s fragile world shattered.
No.
It was too horrific.
Nik wouldn’t have used her like that. She’d told him about her mother and their treasured plans for this café. Shared her fondest and darkest memories. They’d bonded over their brilliant mothers who were taken from the world too soon, and he’d been the one …
“It’s not true,” she whispered, looking directly at Nik. “Tell me it’s not true.”
Rage flared in Nik’s eyes, all of it directed at his father.
“Please, Nik.” She was begging him like she’d begged the board of Directeurs, like she’d begged Fernand, like she’d begged her mother not to go to the Senate.
When he looked at her, it was with nothing but sympathy and pleading.
Just like that, Elara was alone again.
This time, no one could help her.
It was her own fault. She’d known better than to believe she could be anything other than another rat caught in the Counseil’s trap. To think that a boy could love her for who she was and not what she could offer him.
“You have two options.” Lafontaine stepped in front of her, brushing a cold tear from her cheek. “You can take my offer and become Souverain, or your friends will die just like everyone else in your life.”
He held out his elbow for her to take.
“What will it be?”
Weeks ago, she would’ve taken her chances by hitting him with the kettle and running.
But what was the point?
There was nowhere else for her to go. At least she had a chance of helping the Restes if she had some shred of power, even if it was a sham.
Nik was a broken, horrible child.
Elara was no different.
They were fools to believe they could defeat the Counseil.
Without looking back, she took Lafontaine’s arm and left.