Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
AUDREY
Audrey’s Room
You will step into your family names before the first game.
Aleks' words were stuck in my mind over the next week like an incurable STD, infiltrating all my thoughts, ruining all my plans. Being an Ellsworth again had always been my plan, but not like this. Not this soon. Not before I could set fire to every soul responsible for the events that led to my family’s plane falling from the sky, killing every living Ellsworth but one.
Two, if you counted the illegitimate son that was kept hidden from the world, much like myself.
Accept your birthright, your titles, your kingdom.
Accepting the burden was easy. It was the fallout that would be hard.
The restructuring of high society family lines.
Forcing my name and face to be recognised again among this world’s elite.
Do it for him. Selfish thoughts for a girl who was supposed to have years to begin this role.
Shaking my head, I dislodged all the bothersome worry surrounding me, having to step into the names of the bloodlines I was born into.
Pushing the thoughts from my mind, I drew out a silvery-black envelope that arrived at my house today. That golden seal with the Primrose encircled by the ouroboros taunted me as I flicked my pocketknife open to reveal the crisp cardstock inside.
You have completed the second trial of these games.
One more must be tried before game one begins.
To complete Trial Three,
A choice must be made.
One for loyalty.
Two for honour
Three for deciding if the family is born or found.
A son must be found.
The elegant calligraphy tried to cover the insidious truth the words left in their wake.
I knew Wentworth’s trial would be next and that it would be the worst since the boy had never truly done anything bad or wrong.
But this…this left a clawing sensation against my skin as I tried to think what The Ludi had in store for him.
A son must be found.
A son must be found.
The last line played on repeat, blending with Aleks' plan and the pieces still in play on my board.
Ones only known to me. You will do what you must. For him, for me.
It all came to a boiling point as I let out a furious scream, flinging my arms across the desk and knocking off the papers I had surrounded myself with.
I hated how The Ludi had pitted me against my friends, my family.
I hated how this life had made me unable to love Aleks the way he deserved to be loved.
I hated that it always had to come back to him. A son must be found.
“A son must be found…three for deciding if the family is born or found…” I mindlessly muttered the trial card’s words to myself. “A choice must be made.” A son must be found.
The words suddenly lined up in my head as each hint slid into place, shocking the breath from my lungs, sending ice sliding down my spine, and my hair raising along my arms in its wake.
Bolting upright, I knocked my chair to the floor.
I stumbled away from my desk, reaching for my phone as the lights in my room flickered off one by one, blanketing my room in darkness.
Turning to the open door, I noticed the lights in the hall had all gone out as well.
A son must be found.
Silence. Pervasive, yawning silence.
Wrong!
My mind took a second too long to react to the sudden presence in my room.
Lights. Darkness. Silence. The power’s been cut.
I went to reach for the pocketknife l had left open when a large, gloved hand flashed from the shadows, followed by a towering presence.
The stranger stepped forward, the lines of moonlight slashing across his masked face, highlighting the curled ram’s horns and crudely slashed Xs where his eyes should be.
A son must be found.
My thoughts went silent as I stared into where eyes should be, my body frozen for a second, and a third presence appeared with gloved hands and masked faces.
A son must be found.
Eerie silence echoed through the room as I studied the two new strangers, noting the masks varied slightly on each.
Jagged teeth lined the jaw of one, emerald Xs glittered like gems over his eyes with a red tinge over the bottom edges—blood, my mind supplied.
The remaining mask was the most simplistic, yet the presence surrounding him seeped out in malevolent waves, like his mere presence could lower the temperature of the atmosphere once he stepped into the room.
The last man made his way forward, a simple black mask adorning his face, except that no eyes or mouth decorated the surface.
Three slashes where his left eye would be revealed themselves as his presence became visible in the moonlight.
Slashes lined in silver and gold, viciously carved from the place his forehead would be down past the curve of his cheek.
He held his hand out, revealing zip ties along with a small black box.
Chills skittered across my face as his robotic voice filled the air, the noise startling me after being locked in silence so long.
“Little Ellsworth heir, it’s time to play.”
The other two stood silently, moving forward like ghosts as they went to grab my arms in their hands. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. You already know there will be no escaping me.”
A ringtone cut through the air. Aleks. He must have known what was happening, likely calling but not realising he was minutes too late.
Praying they left it be, I acted like his ringtone was of no significance to me.
A raspy chuckle filled the air from my left.
The man with the ram’s horn mask radiated glee as he showed my now flashing phone screen to me.
“Volkovitch. The bastard never learns…” A peeved mutter from the leader had my body locking up, preparing to fight or flee, before finally deciding it was time to leave.
“Tie the girl up. Wrists. Ankles. Figure of eight around her waist. I have heard she has very specific kinks.” Turning on his heel, he left the other two to complete his dirty work, no doubt knowing I had lingered too long to flee.
“Make sure she has no chance to escape. She’ll be the piece that breaks the boy tonight in Trial Three.”
With those final words, he walked from the room, the air warming slightly as if he took the chill with him.
As if sensing my fight returning, the other two roughly bound my arms behind my back, anchoring them together much tighter than they needed.
A cloying chemical smell filled my nostrils as a damp cloth was pressed under my nose.
Chloroform. My thoughts slowed, as my brain was engulfed in a fog.
My body slumped forward, and my legs gave out as the world around me darkened.
Rolling my head back, my eyes caught the edge of a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of the man whose mask had bleeding teeth.
The tail of a snake surrounded by thorns, barely visible as he squatted down in his attempt to catch me.
“You always have to fight, Little Vipera. When will you learn…”
A soft voice whispered in my ear as my eyes drifted closed, and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
A chill in the air startled me awake. My first thought was that Aleks left my window open again; the man always felt more at home in the cold.
I instinctively reached out to trace his skin, only to realise my hands were bound.
I cracked my eyes open, only to be greeted with the bright glare of a freshly cleaned ice rink. The arena.
Glossy ice reflected brightly under the lights of the arena, all of them seemingly pointed down on me.
Twisting my head, I tried to place where exactly I was on the ice, dread sinking in my gut when the rims of the goalie net came into view, and the thick line denoting the goalie box stared back at me in startling focus.
She will be the piece that breaks the boy tonight in Trial Three.
His robotic voice echoed in my head as I recalled what I was doing before the unknown men abducted me for trial number three.
Closing my eyes, I released a sigh. A sense of calm permeated my thoughts as I relaxed into the restraints locking me in place.
I knew that anything I did would only make things worse, and I did not doubt that Wentworth was already close to losing that scary, long fuse he always seemed to have.
The silence of the arena was broken by footsteps.
Five masked figures, all in dark clothing and shined shoes, stepped onto the ice, each one carrying a limp form in their arms until the last one appeared, under the sudden brightening lights.
Him. He made his way forward, a bloodied and gagged Worth dragging behind him as another one of his minions walked slightly behind, as if tracking Worth’s progress across the ice.
Stopping on the centreline, his slash marks glinted in the fluorescent lighting, casting an eerie shadow across his covered features.
Shoving Worth forward, he quickly locked metal cuffs around his wrists. He paused for a minute before removing the gag and then stepping back as if admiring a masterpiece. Tilting his head to the others standing silently behind him, he motioned them forward.
“It has come to my attention,” he began, the robotic voice echoing around the cold air in the arena, “that the five of you have been digging into The Guilda. Trying to uncover the face of the man inducted as its new head.” Raising his arms out to the side, he opened his hand, showing the narrow collar dangling from a finger, one lined with rubies and threaded with silver and onyx.
“Well, congratulations…you found him. And now…” He paused, adding weight to his next words.
“We’re going to have some fun.”