Chapter 15 #2
I don’t know if I ever truly feared Aleks, or if I was afraid of what allowing him in could do to me. The devastation—the heartbreak he could cause if he ever left me. If he walked away like I had done to him…
Hating him had been easier, providing a life raft for me to hold onto so I wouldn’t lose someone close to me again. Loving him was proving harder, though, knowing if I made just one wrong move, no matter how minuscule, our lives would be wiped off the board.
“Mikhail—Mishka…needs to stay hidden at all costs. Even if it becomes clear it will be my life.” Tracing the scars lining Aleks’ hands, I refused to look up, taking the coward’s way out by not meeting their eyes. Vipers and roses, intertwined with each other.
The designs sparked faint recollections of a memory tingling the back of my brain, the scars that signified the brand of The Guilda—the result of a fate damned and a deal demanded of a boy too young.
“Trial Two is a secret. If they want me to bow down, they will be horribly upset. I plan to fight fire with fire while dousing it all in kerosene. Showing them that I will take no prisoners along the way.”
“The forefathers have heard rumblings of someone new stepping in. Nobody knows the faces of the forefathers or the master puppeteer, but it is rumoured they called them home. A lot of change is near; The Ludi was just one part of a much bigger plan for whoever is clearing the board.”
Truths and lies, blended so ambiguously, in a way only Aleks had been able to do, allowing me the hints I needed to survive this trial with some morals intact.
Not that many are left, but the sentiment was nice since he toed the line of saying too much and putting himself at risk. He tried, at least.
As if hearing the underlying truth, Cameron’s head snapped up, eyes glazing over quickly as he sorted through everything he had learned in his mind.
“They called in a name. A favour owed is a favour gained. The fifth family has been absent for years, since the untimely demise of the heads of the line, but it was rumoured that they had a son. A sole heir, one that held the blade to their throats right at the end.”
“They have plans to initiate the true head.” A chill skittered down my spine.
“His number finally got called. Fate demanded a price for what his vengeance caused…” Unease settled in my lower stomach, thinking of the golden-eyed boy who always protected me.
Alistair. Who was mysteriously back in town just in time for The Ludi to start…
He was the only heir whose name was more infamous in the high society press than Aleksandr’s or mine.
His last name was whispered behind the backs of hands or praised in the media for the way his family continued to donate millions…
even if it was only him. Vesper-Wriedt. The name all families within The Guilda knew.
A name that was famously coined as the boogeymen within the Order.
The family whose name was spoken in the quiet of one’s home, in fear of what speaking it too loudly would do.
“There’s no way…” My voice trailed off as horror dawned on me.
The secrets. The lies. The price being demanded of me.
Only one other person knew the truth of what happened shortly after I turned eighteen, the true reason the Yateses sent me away.
It had never been because of my own heartbreak.
One other boy, now a man, whose shoulders always held too much weight for one person to bear. “He wouldn’t. He can’t. He’s fam—”
“He would and he will.” Aleks cut my train of thought short, a dark shadow casting across his face as he shuttered the emotions in his eyes from me and blinked.
“There’s something more important to him than any ties of friendship or bonds of family.
Something that he finds himself having to consider now, something that must come even before the promises he made to you.
The only question is whether the rumours are true or if it’s all just conjecture.
Do not forget the weight of who he is within The Guilda and that he now holds two founding family lines in his hands.
Vesper and Wriedt. Two families whose fate I wouldn’t wish upon anyone much less him, someone I consider a close friend. ”
“You think they’ve dug into his family history and found the hidden heir to the Wriedt line? The one rumoured to have disappeared after the sudden deaths of Lucian and Cora? The decimation of the Vesper-Wriedt’s family line rocked the world for years, even with him in hiding.”
“Yes, which makes the truth about Mikhail’s identity that much more important to keep hidden. Safe.”
Chewing my lip, I thought about all the things I had learned during my time in Alabastor Cove.
The years I had spent at both Prep and University had allowed me to become one of the most powerful players, gaining access to people, information and places that were kept hidden.
The pieces of the puzzle, still just a touch out of reach.
“Little Queen.” Cam’s voice interrupted my thoughts as I looked over at him, now sprawled across the counter, like an overgrown feline looking for belly rubs.
“It’s time for you to call him back home.
” He voiced his thoughts like a request, when I really knew it was a demand.
“Every thorn must have a rose. And his skills will be needed if you want to be able to walk out of this alive. If you want all of you to have a fucking chance at standing on your own during initiation night.”
Goose flesh peppered my skin at his words, the chill foreboding as they sunk into me, echoing with words that had triggered a long-buried memory.
‘You have come to repent, to make the Ellsworth line worthy again.’
A brief flashback blurred across my vision, recalled from a time I desperately attempted to forget.
Understanding and knowing were two vastly different things.
Seeing the way The Guilda dealt with traitors and deceivers had been burned into me from a very young age.
Cameron’s statement reminded me of a moment in my past where my mum refused to show fear. And paid the price for her insolence.
‘You have come to repent…’
“He was sent away for a reason,” I began, wondering what this choice would do to the pieces Lilah had in place.
I knew his return would blow her family into chaos, especially if he showed up so close to her eighteenth birthday.
“The black sheep of the vonBermere line was forced away and told never to set foot here in the Cove again.”
‘…to make the Ellsworth line worthy again.’
I exhaled, hating that I knew this was something that I had to do.
Calling him and asking for help—for him to return to the scene of where his life fell apart…
the need to be reunited had to be immense.
“Revealing his position within The Guilda to me like he did…he was lucky they let him live. Especially when we both realized the secrets—skeletons—we each held.”
“You’re stalling, Lenochka,” Aleks gritted out, no happier than I was about who Cameron suggested we pull back in. “He will do anything you ask. The boy would gladly place his neck under a guillotine for you. And for him.”
“No need to be so damn jealous, bro.” Guffawing, Cameron winked at me. “I doubt Little Queen would do much more than squeal. After all, fucking him would be like fucking a cousin. Incestuous, and probably a little too—”
I spun around, levelling him with a look most people would run from, but the fucker just grinned, choosing wisely not to finish his idiotic thought.
A loud buzz startled him from his relaxed position across the counter.
A chilling glare flitted across Cameron’s face as he read whatever text he just received.
A look rarely ever seen from him, one that reminded me that underneath the golden retriever persona and penchant for jokes, laid a truth even he hid from.
One dipped in darkness, and a secret so twisted that even I feared for whatever would happen when he was unable to keep it in.
Jumping up from the counter, he grabbed his keys by the door. “I have to go. Something came up…” His last parting remark as he walked out the door, yelling over his shoulder, “Audrey, Kellan should know. Call him home.”
Resigning myself, I pulled my phone from my back pocket, opening a thread that had been silent for months—since he was forced underground.
I wrote a message that would send my carefully constructed plans into chaos, but one that would hopefully give me a leg up in The Ludi.
A request or a favour from a member of my family, a last hope that a Rose in The Guilda would inspire thorns of protection for the little boy whose life had been in hiding since his first breath just over two years ago.
Vasilisa
It’s time for the bite to turn poisonous. You’re needed in The Cove.
Dots appeared on the screen as he read the message. The bubbles appeared and disappeared as he typed out his response.
The Rose has added you to an encrypted chat.
Archimedes
Be seeing you soon, Little Ellsworth. Tell your broody bastard his arms better be open for me.
The Rose has removed you from this chat. Encryption will self-destruct in one minute.
“Done,” I whispered, my pulse thudding harshly in my ears. “It’s finally time for my br—Kellan to come home.” I raised my head, the need to hide Kellan’s identity and how closely he was linked to me so ingrained that it had been automatic.
I looked at Aleks, a man who had always stood beside me without ever asking for a thing, and I knew this move I had made would send a shockwave through The Cove, The Guilda, and likely even my friend group once they knew it had been me.
It was comforting though, knowing I would always have a safe spot and an ally in him.
“You do what you must.” He calmly picked me up and set me on the counter. “Whatever it takes. So, you can stay with me. With Cam. And for him.”
“I’ll do what I must,” I echoed. A foreboding chill swept through the room as I leaned into him. I had a sixth sense that whatever games The Ludi had decided to start would have ramifications, not even I would be willing to pay.
If only I had foreseen what The Guilda’s machinations would twist me into doing two and a half months later. Maybe then I could have prevented the devastation that followed when I was forced to sacrifice a person so close to me they had felt like home.