Chapter 30 #4
I hit the final stair as my body’s momentum sent me flying, my shoulder and ass hitting a dirt floor as the taste of copper filled my mouth.
Warm liquid trickled down my face, eyes, and nose.
Blood. I raised my hand, pressing it against my face, finding a deep, painful gash at my hairline, ending just past my forehead as it pointed towards my brow.
Blinding pain sparked when my fingers touched the bridge of my nose. Fuck, that hurt.
“Where did you go, bastard? Show yourself.”
My voice was resilient and strong, no fear to be found even as the edges of dress shoes entered my vision, leading up to a figure that towered over me.
The same masked man who taunted me through Worth’s trial appeared, ready for his pound of flesh; that haunting mask only highlighted briefly as the gruesome slash marks over his eye caught the light.
“Little Vipera…we meet again. And this time there will be no escaping me…” His voice echoed as he came fully into view.
He stepped closer to me, causing me to notice the ruby encrusted collar in his hands that were covered in thin lines of scars and tattoos.
“I have decided to combine your last two tests…I feel the time has finally come for you to choose…”
The stone wall behind him rumbled the ground as the doors I hadn’t noticed before slid open, light filtering into the dark as my worst nightmare came to life.
In the room before me, five figures stood bound. A gun laid on the lone pedestal in the centre of the circular room.
“The tests you’ll have to complete are quite simple…
five people are behind me. Two hold your heart and two hold your blood.
Two hold a tie that would make your future engagement die.
” His voice elevated, attitude shifting into that of a showman, pretending at an evil that he was just barely missing, in the way his arm wavered as he continued his spiel for my final tests tonight.
“Three factions of ancient family lines fill this space tonight…”
The eerie voice continued in an almost gleeful tone, “You can pick only two to survive. And be warned, only I know which three have been slated to die tonight…so it will be your funeral we all attend if you choose the wrong ones.”
His footsteps faded into the dark as his voice drifted away, leaving me to walk into my last test and possibly my fate. Accept your true name. Aleks’ voice played on repeat as I picked up the gun, checking to make sure the safety was still on.
Lifting my gaze, I made a note that each of the five had a hood over their head, preventing me from knowing who they were forcing into this game.
I observed the two on the left, roaming my eyes over their expensively tailored clothes, noting they appeared older.
Age lining their hands as whimpers escaped their mouths, muffled by the fabric of the hoods.
I scanned the two on the right, my eyes snagging on the tattoos covering their hands. Dark ink in distinct patterns that caused fractures to splinter across my heart. No. It can’t be. No. No.
No!
I knew those hands and that ink. Aleksandr sat before me, bound and restrained to his seat.
I had no doubt the man next to him was the man I called back to town weeks ago.
Kellan, my half-brother, who returned from the grave, the same boy found wandering from the wreckage of the plane that took down all other remaining Ellsworths in our immediate line.
Why them?
No. I can’t. No…
The fifth person was unknown. I couldn’t recall anyone else who would fit this twisted test of loyalty enough for The Guilda to sacrifice themselves.
That haunting melody sounded again as a voice was heard up above.
Spinning to look up in time to catch shadowy forms floating across the beams in the ceiling, the masked man hit a button as he announced the guillotine I knew was coming.
“Tick…tock…the little rose wilted under the clock…the clock struck one…and The Shadow came undone…tick…tock…the hoods came off…”
All at once, the hoods were pulled from the five.
As I predicted, the two to the right were Aleks and Kellan.
Edward and Sonya Yates were next. I wasn’t surprised when their faces appeared to my left.
Their absence this summer had been too coincidental.
Too perfect. At least my choice was now only between three.
It was the fifth face that shocked me, though.
Katarina Antonov sat calmly in the centre chair, as if she knew what was about to come.
The unknown figure I had assumed was irrelevant, oh how irony was not lost. The pakhana sat proud, eyes identical to mine that showed how she had survived this long, and it was then I knew she had been playing this game too.
And now she had come, prepared to hand over her crown…
My babushka.
The only grandmother my mum ever introduced us to, faced me with a calm clarity of an old woman who had accepted what her fate had in store tonight. Locking eyes with hers, a mixture of sadness and fire met me.
“You have thirty minutes to say your goodbyes, make your choices, and advance to the centre of The Labyrinth beyond this room. Don’t make me wait…”
I hated how this horrific game would force me to choose.
The choice I thought I had at accepting my mum’s family name had been yanked away from me in one fell swoop.
Katarina nodded her head, a picture of grace as she made her final sacrifice to the Bratva she had held with an iron fist. Infamous enough that I had always dreamed of leading it.
A thin smile lifted the corners of her lips as she mouthed to me, “Bow to no man. No country. No King.”
Her eyes shone with pride, knowing I had already chosen my two. There had been no question, as soon as the identities came out, seeing the two people whom I knew I could not live without, two people whose deaths would also put a target on my back if I were to leave them for dead.
I turned to Edward and Sonya. The Yates family heads.
The parents who gave up their son, the man who was my world, in hopes of getting to mould a little girl.
That girl—they ripped away from her life as they plotted to shoot her family from the sky.
A girl who unravelled the skeletons they tried so desperately to hide and had found comfort in that son they pretended had died.
I pulled the trigger. Two shots blasted through the silence as they hit their targets.
The chairs fell back as their bodies jerked, and the life drained from their eyes.
I would feel no guilt. By the rules of The Guilda, they deserved to die.
For torturing me and hiding a son. Good riddance, hopefully the worms have fun.
“Pity that…they deserved a far worse fate. Fucking bastard.” My words were meant for the man I knew was watching from above.
Turning to face Aleks and Kellan, I dipped my chin in a grim nod as Aleks’ eyes filled with an inner fire The Guilda would grow to fear.
Kellan appeared to be sitting back, enjoying the show, watching as I was forced to spill blood and step into who I was.
Pivoting one final time, I was met with eyes identical to mine, eyes of the Antonov matriarch who sat wilful and amused.
Both of us accepted what her untimely death meant for us.
One final name to accept. One last death to claim before I could walk out of here with the two boys who had been by my side through it all. Hopefully I will come back from this.
“Babushka…” I stepped up to her, kneeling at her feet. Pressing my forehead into her shins, I whispered the words my family ingrained in me. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favour rather than silver and gold.”
“Come, child, my time has come. Make this old woman proud and accept who you are meant to become, let the Volkovitch boy make an honest woman out of you. You two will be the most powerful couple the Iron Thrones have ever seen. Promise me you will let him love you how you deserve to be…”
Her wrinkled hand locked around mine, raising it as she coaxed me to stand, ignoring the tears that had begun to line my gaze. Warm fingers gripped the gun, the muzzle pointed point-blank between her eyes, as her last gift to me was the strength to do what I must.
“Now stand and face your fate as only a true Queen can.”
With bated breath, I released the final shot. Blood spattered across my face, arms, chest, and hair as the whirring of mechanical locks sounded, and I was suddenly encased in strong arms, a rich whisky and pine scent, the feel of home.
“You did it, Printsessa. Now come back,” Aleks whispered in my ear, pulling me into him as Kellan came up to my side.
His hands combed through my hair, not caring that I was covered in blood, in gore, crushing me to his chest as he continued to wish sweet nothings in my ear. “Come back to me, my love.”
A smoky cigarette smell filtered in next, leather and oil and tobacco as a calloused palm slid into my hand, squeezing tightly, knowing it had finally become too much.
“Sister, I hope you’re ready for what these bastards made you decide here tonight…”
A thwack sounded as Aleks hit the back of his head. Kellan wisely shut up as they shuffled me from the room. The doors slid closed behind us as we made our way to the end of the tunnel, exiting to a grass-filled epicentre, one that had no place within the walls of torture it was encased in.
“Congratulations, you are the first to complete the game tonight. You are granted immunity from elimination and will be escorted home to await further instructions. May your truths stay hidden among The Shadows tonight, heir of Ellsworth and Antonov…”
Aleks lifted me, carrying me to where the masked man from before stood, not stopping even as the man left us with parting words.
“Little Vipera, remember what happens when one tries to outplay me. Your lucky fate chose to spare you tonight, but I won’t warn you again. You do not wish to make a true enemy out of me. May you play your remaining cards right.”
Closing my eyes, I burrowed into Aleks’ chest, drifting off to sleep as he led us out of the Labyrinth and all the fractured memories it dredged up tonight.
I was running…dark shadows encasing me from all sides.
Four boys appeared in front of me, covered in blood and dripping in secrets.
An infant wailed, screaming for love.
“Sleep, Printsessa, I’ll keep your demons away.” A light kiss was dropped onto my forehead as Kellan’s voice whispered across my ears.
“Survive, zmeyushka. I wish to see you again, but please just…”
“Survive. Do it for him.”
Your number has been called. Step forward to receive your fate.
Hands tightened around me as my mind finally drifted off to sleep. The world around me faded to black as I found myself locked within nightmares…or memories.
I was running…
Surrounded by eyes…
Dark navy eyes filled with storms. Pale jade irises threaded with silver sparks.
Dark violet orbs that glinted with danger. Brilliant golden eyes, drawing me in, filled with the promise of death.
Memories swarmed me, demanding I open my eyes to the fate pressing in on me. The brand in my palm burned as my nails dug into the scars. A coiled viper, fangs descended over crudely slashed scars. Warm liquid bled out under my nails.
Drip.
Searing pain shot from my hand as my grip dug in even more. Red blood lined the floor. The present and past collided painfully in my mind, that warm liquid making my palm slick as a large hand forced my fingers to relax. “She’s breaking…”
Drip.
Darkness surrounded me as Aleks carried me from the labyrinth. Sinister voices echoed in my head as I finally succumbed to sleep.
“Stay with me, Printsessa. Stay…”
Drip.
A tortured scream. A newborn’s wail.
Drip.
“Kellan, hurry. She’s fracturing.”
Your number has been called. Step forward to receive your fate.
You have come to repent, to make the Ellsworth line worthy again.
Your number has been called. Step forward to receive your fate.
She will be forged in the ashes of the betrayer and sheltered within a family outside of the Domus Veritatis, until she comes of age at twenty-one.
Drip.
Drip.
Blood dripped onto the floor as my screams shattered through empty hallways, begging for mercy or the swift hand of death…as I watched the red pool around me…drip, drip, dripping onto the floor…
Drip.
Drip.
“Stay, Printsessa…please, please, just…stay with me.” A rough voice pleaded with me as my mind began to fracture, refusing the cry of the voice that seemed so familiar to me. I reached my hand out in greeting to the darkness that encompassed me…
“Please. Please. I beg you to please stay with me…”
My mind shut down as my soul retreated, leaving me in my first seconds of peace. Silence. Never-ending darkness greeted me as I met the gaze of eyes matching mine.
I reached out in the darkness, taking the hand of my long dead twin. A small smile graced her lips as she guided me away…
“Come now sister, I’ll keep you safe until you can weather this storm…alone.”
1 Malyshka (Russian): Daughter
2 Solnyshka (Russian): Little Sun