Chapter 4
Chapter Four
AUDREY
The Remington Estate
“This motherfucker is absolute bullshit,” Wentworth yelled, his face turning an ungodly shade of red as he frantically looked around at us all laid out in Ellery’s theatre room.
“How am I supposed to complete any of this shit with hockey try outs and our father’s internship already filling all my free time? ”
No one was shocked that Worth was having the hardest time adapting to the challenges or trials the Viperae Rosarum Ludi were already having us begin. But his reaction seemed extreme, even to me.
The Guilda Sanguis Venenati invites you to the first annual…
I already knew how I was going to finish this first trial, and then the first game of five.
To enter the first game of the Viperae Rosarum Ludi, Trial One awaits…
Audrey Yates, you have been deemed The Deceiver.
Thinking back to the envelope that carried the second trial’s information that had been delivered to my house while we were all at that bonfire, I absently replied, “Worth, you know we all plan to enter and win these together.”
You must convince your court that this game is best done together.
Then choose the one who…
“This is a bunch of fuckery! What if I refuse to play their games?”
Rolling my eyes, I looked beseechingly at Lex. Control your brother, I mouthed at him. Smirking, Lex smacked Worth on the back of his head.
“Dude, chill out! I can just do your first trial if you’re so strung out.”
“There are eyes and ears everywhere,” the vonBermere heir stated plainly from her corner in the shadows.
Lilah was the one people often overlooked in our group of five. She preferred to be behind a screen, but was also, hands down, the most brilliant among us. She was the one I feared most, learning the truth behind what my trial really was.
Then choose the one who…
Then choose the one who…
The final line of my trials echoed on repeat in my mind as I concocted all the ways I must deceive these four people—the only ones who had seen past my walls since the day I landed in Alabastor Cove.
Family. Something that I had never thought I would have again, let alone be lucky enough to be a part of one where my secrets would not be seen as a sin.
The four souls had been by my side through it all, as I slowly rebuilt myself into the image of who I wanted to be and not who this world decided I should be.
“Lilah is right, we need to be careful. We no longer know who could be listening in,” Ellery commented.
We were shocked by how much the party boy of our group had silently observed in the hour we had all been together.
He was one I would have to watch as well.
I often forgot Ellery had observational skills that rivalled my own.
It was why he could play the role of jester so well, learning all the ways to poke and prod at someone until they fell apart.
Then choose the one who…
Then choose the one who will end the journey at the completion of the games this year.
Because you, Audrey Yates,
have been crowned deceiver, puppeteer, master of fate.
The Viper in their midst who…
I sat silently in my thoughts, questioning if I could actually betray my friends, especially after they took me in nearly fifteen years ago without question.
They never demanded I unleash my trauma—how I suddenly found myself to be an orphan, roped into becoming a figurehead daughter for the Yates family after their own heir was found dead.
Lexington and Wentworth. Ellery and Lilah. Calliope. The four, five if you counted her, the girl whose presence we all silently mourned. People who would rain hell on Earth for me. Those who had already stained their souls to protect just some of my dark truths.
No, I decided. I would not be able to truly go along with these trials.
But maybe I could find a loophole that made it appear like I was following their words.
“So, um…what is everyone’s first trial?” Lilah quietly interjected while looking straight at me—as if she was beckoning me to admit something that remained unsaid.
Or more likely, like she could sense the chaos of the thoughts occupying my mind today.
She quickly turned in her seat and began to type away in code, a language none of us could understand, though I had tried many times over the years to no avail.
“The only way we can win is if we can stay one step ahead—outmanoeuvre the game masters and their Hounds of Hell.”
That was another thing Lilah did; she spoke in endless riddles, talking circles around us and expecting us to understand.
“Anybody have any idea what she just said?” Curiosity burned through me as she came dangerously close to what I had been planning to use as the ace up my sleeve; the truth was that to beat The Guilda at their games, we would have to become even more deceptive and cunning than they were.
I locked eyes with Ellery, the one person who had always backed Lilah up.
Silence greeted me when I saw the betrayal—or shock—that he was unable to hide at her words.
Interesting. It seemed as though the infatuation he had with the little vonBermere princess might be reaching its natural end.
Even so, I would not hold my breath, since he always ended up back in her web again… and again.
“Yeah…she’s convinced that the trials of each game aren’t being overseen by the current head of The Guilda. She believes that somehow, someone even worse is set to pull our strings. That none of us are safe, even if we were to all win our seats at the end.”
Deciding that I had to give them something or they would never get off my back about how reckless my lies of omission had become, I straightened my back and cleared my throat.
“My name is The Deceiver. Fitting, don’t you all thi—”
Before I even had the chance to finish revealing the role handed to me, Lex barked out a laugh. “Babe, they just invited their worst nightmare to play.”
Smirking, I nodded. He always knew just the right words to say; he and Worth always had my back, even if they hated how I kept things from them from time to time.
I knew that each of them would literally offer the shirt off their back if I ever needed it, not that it had happened recently.
Not since we had each turned twenty and began training to take over roles in our families' businesses. For them: the Kenton holdings, which was a fancy way of saying their family had fingers in so many pies no one knew exactly what-the-fuck else they could control. And for me: the Yates’ underground gambling rings.
Our invitation to participate in The Ludi was a sign that the time was coming where I would need to step into bigger shoes and take hold of my birth name again.
The Ellsworth’s had titles and money that would afford me protection if the trials of the Ludi went south.
Except I found myself hesitant to take those reins…
afraid of the pain and insurmountable loss I would face if my past became fodder for the shark-like paparazzo again.
“I know. Nobody ever assumes that the sad, orphaned heir is the snake in the grass,” I said, looking around the room.
“The viper whose venom acts to protect.” To my surprise, it was Ellery who voiced his opinion on my declaration first. He stole that fleeting moment to set the stage, something he only did when we were surrounded by people trying to gain favours or clout from the heirs.
“The viper who has no lines that can’t be crossed.
” Uncharacteristically, it was Worth’s quiet voice that had all the snark pausing.
He often opted to sit back and observe until he moved in for the kill, both in our social circles and on the ice.
The fact that he chose to voice the opinion he and his brother no doubt shared was worrisome.
Suddenly, I questioned if my barely hidden agitation had given me away.
Yes.
I silently smiled to myself. It was times like this when I truly loved my friends. The way they trusted me to always get them out of shit or to place our first move onto the board proved how much trust they had in me.
The Guilda had no clue about all the ways I could light a fire to the Ludi this year, and I could not wait until I unveiled the face behind the mask I wore.
Until I was finally able to shed the face that slowly shrivelled my soul and become who I was born to be, I had to play the part and complete these games and trials successfully to be granted a seat at their table.
The seat that would afford me the protections to reveal all the carefully constructed lies that had been hiding my truths since the horrid night of my sixth birthday—the day that my new life started, and an invisible mask was unwillingly affixed to my face.
Then, choose the one who will end the journey after the completion of the games this year.
Silently, I dared them to wait for the plans already forming in my head, counting down the minutes until I would be able to topple the depravity that generations of heirs had upheld.