Chapter 16 #2
“Oooh, is Ellery a baby daddy? Haven’t you learned to wrap it up yet, dude?
” Lex guffawed, apparently done sulking about what skeleton of his was getting unburied.
Meanwhile, I was sitting across from them all, thinking his secret hit a little too close to home and could fracture the feeling of safety—of protection I had just been able to establish.
“Relax, dude, we all know it isn’t true. You’re the most strait-laced playboy to ever grace The Cove.”
Worth and Lex went back and forth about how this trial was going to go, as I looked back to Lilah, tipping my chin for her to deliver my blow.
“Audrey’s was harder. After all, she embodies two lines, one of which has founding lines within The Guilda Sanguis Venenati.
Her secret had to be worthy of both fate and blood… ”
Before she opened her mouth, a sense of dread filled my gut.
I knew what secret, which truth she would shed light on, the lie I had told and the one thing that I would bury her over if she chose to speak it out loud.
Her look brought me back to last week when I made a call to ask a familiar face, and name, to come back home.
A picture of a man filled the screen; a man who had dark hair, vibrant purple eyes, and a rose branded across his pec that signified his place within The Guilda.
His smile in the photo was cunning, holding an edge of danger that only the Ellsworth line could manage.
My half-brother, the bastard-born son of my mum, Sloane Ellsworth.
A son who had the blood of Bratva royalty and British high-society flowing through his veins.
Like me. The boy, now a man, who I had called asking for help and for him to come home just over a week ago.
Kellan’s face filled the screen, his image felt like a warning, almost as if he was silently challenging me to stay silent, from wherever he had been in this photo that Lilah had managed to find.
“Kellan vonBermere will be called home to face his birthright, airing the dirty laundry of the sole founding family of The Guilda’s London chapter.
He’ll return, breaking the rules of banishment he faced when they exiled him, knowing what he will face once he steps foot in town again,” I finished for Lilah as anger heated my blood for the betrayal she knowingly played a role in.
“You want me to knowingly place a target on his back? Formally introduce him as an Ellsworth, my brother no less? Let it come out he was the only survivor from the plane crash that killed off all my other family?”
Nodding, she closed the screens, ending the conversation around us and halting the chaos that was about to ensue after her final bomb was dropped.
Clicking over to another screen, she pulled up an encrypted area, as she scanned her eye to open the submission room that The Guilda required us to submit our secrets and betrayals through for this trial.
“Each of us had different trials to bear. As Audrey found out, The Ludi seems to be tying her hands, attempting to enact a vendetta against one of the founding names she bears.”
“You mean any information that could sway The Guilda into deeming us unfit to be initiated when it is all said and done has been erased?” I mentally sorted through everything Lilah had said but paid closer attention to what she hadn’t.
“If they go digging deeper, there won’t be anything more to find.
Because now they won’t only have one hacker to fight, but two. ”
A singular curt nod answered my question as I debated what I should do. “Okay. If you think this is what will help us all get through, then do what you need to do.” Until I have to choose which one of us won’t earn a seat within The Guilda in the end…
Lilah digitally scanned each file, quickly transferring them from her possession as she uploaded them to an encrypted server one at a time.
She appeared hurried, like she hoped to complete the trial without more questions being asked.
Deciding it was time to lay my cards on the table, I broke the commotion happening around me.
“I asked Kellan to return home last week.” Lilah paused in her task at my declaration, anger briefly darkened her gaze, before she swivelled around, feigning an innocent wide-eyed look at me.
“No idea when he will show up, but he has agreed it is time. So, your plan to oust him as my brother plays right into my hands with what I believe we need to prepare for.”
“We covered the four of us, but Lilah, you never told us what secret you had to reveal.” Tension bracketed the air after Worth brought up the elephant in the room, causing Ellery to go rigid and Lex to sit up and pay attention.
“My secret is irrelevant. I’m putting forward my unsealed marriage contract.
” Her answer was succinct but rang false in my ears.
She’s lying. Her lie was only obvious to someone who could recognize her tells.
Find out what it is. Making a choice not to waste time on whatever she felt the need to hide, my mind raced on.
‘You will do what you must. To protect us, him, and me.’
My thoughts circled as I recalled every detail from the last few weeks.
The way Lilah grew shifty once her engagement was announced.
The way she was mysteriously absent while we all got together to meet.
The way she refused to look me in the eyes today.
She knows. A vicious thought slid through my mind as I came to the one conclusion that sent ice down my veins. She. Knows.
She knows.
Deny.
She knows!
Deny it!
My brain screamed at me, shrill and in annoyance as I ignored the warning it was trying to show.
Only one truth would promise her safety for the rest of these trials.
A secret that would put me on the chopping block if everything came out due to the size of the scandal and betrayals it would reveal.
Refusing to believe that Lilah would be so deceptive, I cocked my head.
Sliding my eyes to hers, I asked, “That’s not the full truth of your secret, is it, Lilah?
A vonBermere wouldn’t merely stop at airing the sealed name of her beau that’s inside her contract. ”
“No, but mine’s not relevant yet, and it all comes back to whether you trust me or not.”
Tilting my head, I acquiesce, ceding the battle for now but filing it away for later when I was back with Aleks and Cam. “So, Trial Two is done. Once you hit submit, we'll be subjected to the whims of The Gamemaster and what he deems best suited for Trial Three.”
“It’s likely that my trial’s next. I’m the weakest link.”
The four of us looked over at Worth, silently agreeing that whatever came next, we would do whatever was needed to protect Worth’s innocence. “We will do whatever it takes to see you through until the end.” Damn you, damn you motherfuckers. Don’t let it be him…
I prayed that when it was all said and done, we would all walk away no matter what The Guilda or The Gamemaster would say.
“It is done.”
An anvil crashed down on me as I heard Lilah confirm our secrets were in. Plans of how I would protect them until the end swarmed my head. After today I knew, within my friends there was likely a snake, waiting for the opportune time to bite and inject venom from within.
“And now we wait for them to send confirmation that they have collected our sins.”
A fearful whisper from Ellery had me searching for him. These past few weeks had been utter hell for him, and I hoped he would be able to push through; this shouldn’t be the end of The Ludi for him. Or Lexington, or Worth. Or even Lilah, as much as I was beginning to wish it so.
Standing, I walked over to him. Stooping down to pet the furball now lying across his chest, I prodded, "Are you okay?" Keeping my tone low so the others wouldn’t hear. I waited for him to twitch his lip or nod his head before turning around and making my way out of the room.
The irony was not lost on me that the biggest betrayer within this room was me.