Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
AUDREY
The Saferoom
Swivelling in my chair, I adjusted the headset as I turned up the mic, double-checking to make sure I had entered the encrypted chat room and that the cameras covering the whole mansion were still non-operational.
“Hey, little hacker, is the room clear yet?”
My voice bounced around in the silence of the safe room I had spent years making in the basement of this mausoleum, where I was forced to find a home. The same room the Yateses had no idea was sitting beneath the freshly polished tile floor of their ‘entertainment’ rooms.
“All good, Audrey. What was so important you needed to speak to me alone?”
Lilah’s face appeared on screen, the background making it obvious she was currently in her own hidden room…of sorts. Only hers was decked out with computers, screens, speakers, and technology gadgets galore. Everything she needed to ensure she was always a few steps ahead on the playing board.
“Game One. I’m concerned about what all it will entail…but more than that…”
“You’re anxious to see if I’ve learned who exactly they crowned as the new head. The new Canis Infernum.”
“Yes and…no. More like, how much you believe I should prepare for what they will inflict, if they suspect deceit. I’m sure you’re aware I plan to step into the Ellsworth name.”
Her eyes ignited, surprising me since I had been so sure Lilah had been the one who put together the plan Aleks, Cameron, and I devised.
Even so, the shock only lasted seconds as her brain moved into overdrive.
I could practically see her mind organizing this new information into files as it placed it wherever she deemed it necessary to go.
A glint expanded across her expression as she opened her mouth to reply, and I knew nothing good would come from anything said here today.
“This is dangerous. What you’re planning, Audrey…are you sure you’re prepared to face the consequences if more of your secrets were to come out?”
I nodded my head once, sharply, making sure I kept my face carefully blank.
Lilah seemed to be unaware that the one who had been airing all the Yates’ family secrets was me.
And that was something I planned to keep hidden until it was necessary to loop her into in my plans.
When her skills outweighed the likelihood that she was double crossing us.
“Taking on the Ellsworth responsibilities will force you into the spotlight. You know, you’ll no longer be able to hide…
” There was an edge to her that made me pause, and a shadow flitted across her face so briefly.
I was suddenly thrown back in time, when I had been hustled out of my late family’s London estate by our butler, while he swore under his breath about foul play and targeted takedowns.
A look in her eye reminded me of the way no one believed five-year-old me when I claimed someone had shot down my family, which sparked a memory, the face of someone who should not have had access to the Ellsworth plane back then.
It was the look of a vonBermere owning who they were—world-renowned hackers and programmers.
The people you hoped to never run across within the spaces of the dark web.
That look I saw occasionally in Kellan’s eyes when he spotted an enemy, or his next target.
It was so strange to see that same look reflected back at me now, on the face of a girl whom I had let in so thoroughly.
“You know what they’ll ask of you. Who you will have to become.
So, I ask again before we go further…” Her voice was soft, deceptive in the silent steel it exuded.
Her eyes held knowledge, hinting that whatever I said next, she would be the first to know, a fact I knew she would not be able to pass on, let alone ignore.
“I understand what it will entail. You’re not telling me anything I haven’t thought about a thousand times before. It’s irrelevant though, since what I’m about to ask…is something I have to confirm before initiation goes any further.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s begin then, shall we?”
Quick taps on a keyboard filled the air as she took over my screen and projected the files she wanted onto the television across from me.
“This is Cillian DuPont. He was the previous Shadow of The Guilda Sanguis Venenati before the current one. He was spotted recently completing hits on families who were previously known to be extinct or in hiding…”
An image of a pale, blond-haired man filled the screen. Next to it, a grainy feed from a street camera was pulled up. Lilah zoomed in and enlarged his face, the same menacing eyes visible under the hat he had pulled down low, but nothing hid the sheer evil his presence exuded.
“Last seen in London, but he’s since dropped off the face of the Earth again.”
Next, she pulled up the recordings from Worth’s trial, taking stills of each of the masked men, pausing briefly over the man who had made himself known as their leader. The new Gamemaster.
“These four are the ones we need to be wary of. I’ve only managed to identify the true name of one. The Rose.”
“Kellan vonBermere. Or Ellsworth now, I hear.”
Lilah snapped her head up, squinting at me like she could not fathom how I knew this information without her.
“My half-brother. Seems he’s been quite busy since his reappearance in town.”
“Yes. Kellan’s known as The Rose. The sect within The Guilda known for their skills in hacking, technological inventions, and code. Blackmail too. Quite fitting for the names of his bloodline, no?”
Grinning at her, I bared my teeth, nothing nice showing on my face.
It was widely known that while Lilah looked up to her disgraced half-cousin, she had never seen him as worthy of the vonBermere name, blaming him for the fall of their line when news of the affair got out, even if it was promptly covered up and erased.
“Who are the other three then?” Playing dumb, I hoped to get her to reveal any inkling of information she had learned.
I had been able to put a few pieces in place based on how they all acted or reacted to one another, but sadly, they never used natural voices, or their identities would already be solved.
“The Shadow. The Sun.” She enlarged the image hovering over the man with the mask with gilded golden bones and the one with the rams’ horns.
That meant the one with the mask resembling the jackal with blood-tipped teeth was Kellan.
Fitting for a man whose origin was literally lined in the bloodied jaws of revenge.
She brought up the image of the final man, the one that had worn the mask that had been blank except for the savage slashes cutting down from his forehead to his chin.
“The Hellhound. Or as The Guilda calls him, the Canis Infernum.”
Lilah’s jaw flexed as she said the last name, teeth glinting in the dim light of her technology cave.
The look told me the little hacker had more up her sleeve.
Secrets she was purposely keeping from the group, ones I would normally be inclined to disregard, but knew I couldn’t since I had to ferret out if she had dug deep enough into the dark web to figure out a few of mine.
“So, it’s true. The Guilda did induct a new head. And years before he was due to accept his position too…” My mind filtered what I had learned from the few words Lilah had given me with the memories that had been battering my brain since they’d begun resurfacing.
A sharp nod in my direction was Lilah’s answer before she opened a new screen. A gritty, static feed began to play as a nightmare haunted me in real life across the TV.
A girl was running. She couldn’t be more than five or six. Onyx hair flew off her shoulders as her eyes looked behind her, unknowingly locking onto the camera hidden amongst the trees.
Fear.
Hate.
Fury.
Emotions swirled in those eyes, too strong for one so young. Her head swivelled around as she tripped over brambles and brush. Her hands flew back, briefly, but long enough for the brand seared and cut into her palm to show.
A bloody viper with fangs dripping poison, curled around thorns and bones.
Three.
Three vicious slash marks lined her palm, longer and cruder than the brand marring her flesh.
Three.
A viper.
Thorns.
And poisoned bones.
The mark of a soul destined for doom, or greatness if she so believed. The mark of a fate no girl should face so young, but one she had stepped up to and accepted graciously.
“Remember, the Ellsworths bow to no man. No country…”
Her soft voice echoed around the forest, head swivelling as if she was looking for someone. Or something.
“No…”
A crash resounded in the distance. Her breaths stalled as she stood rooted in place, freezing as if she could become one with the woods.
“King.”
Her final words were met with a cacophony of whistles and jeers. Cloaked men stepped out from the trees, becoming corporeal, even if they were no more than shadows minutes before.
“Doll, you shouldn’t be wandering these woods…”
The moon chose that minute to shine through the trees, full and silvery in the need to shed light on the young queen taking her first stand among those who would rather see her and all Ellsworths dead.
“Little girl, little girl…run and hide if you dare…”
“Catch the little cunt. I say we show her what happens when filth is returned to The Guilda’s House of Liars.”
“AhhhhWOOOOOO!”
Howls surrounded her as the men sneered, their vehemence for the girl feeding into the vile thoughts filling their heads…
“Run, Princess…run…”
“There ain’t no prince here to save you…”
Refusing to cower, the girl drew the knife she was told to always keep on her from a child-sized holster on her thigh…
“Stop.” My voice was dark, throat tight as Lilah played one of the darkest memories I recalled from my days in London. “How did you secure these files, Lilah? There was a reason this was erased.”