Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
AUDREY
Audrey’s Room
The moon casted shadows, covering the path I must take.
Run.
I was running. I couldn’t remember where I was or why I was afraid.
Run, little girl, run.
The hounds are out to play.
The last thing I remembered was a strange man picking me up from the plane, talking about how fortunate I was that the Yates family took me in…
Run. Audrey. Faster.
No. No!
Telling me all I had to do was…find my way back. Tumbling to the ground in time to see the taillights disappear into the fog.
Run!
Don’t let them catch you. The hounds.
I could feel the rocks cutting into my feet as I searched for anyone who could help.
Run, Printsessa! Don’t let the hounds catch you!
“Help!” I yelled, only to be met by silence. The woods were scary at night, every tree casting eerie shadows over the light I needed from the moon…
“Run!”
“Who are you?”
I came to an abrupt halt. My six-year-old mind struggled to understand why another child was out here alone. Utterly alone, surrounded by darkness and moon rays.
A young boy, with white-blond hair that looked almost silvery in the moonlight, and the lightest green eyes that appeared almost grey. Soulless eyes that were looking right at me.
“Who are you?” he repeated, silently stepping closer, looking at me inquisitively. Like I was the one who should not be there. Like I had stumbled upon something wrong. Somewhere I should not be.
“I just want to go home,” I whispered to the night sky, suddenly angered by the questions from the boy. Getting frustrated, I repeated, “Can you help me?”
Shaking his head, he answered my unspoken question. “I am waiting. My brother is coming. The hounds are hunting tonight.”
“Hounds?” I stuttered, thinking of the large beasts my family used to have.
“The Hounds of Hell run in these woods, marking death for all who stumble upon them.” Stepping forward, he grabbed my hand. “My brother will help, come.”
I stepped back, not liking this boy. Shaking my head, I continued backwards, hitting something that was not there before.
“Found a little snake, have you, Solem1?” a new boy asked, standing tall over me. Grabbing my arms, he turned to me, forcing my gaze left to his. “A rule-breaker at that, hmm?”
My body shook, adrenaline filling my veins as his voice struck a familiar chord. Eyes looked down at me from above, dark-golden orbs that I had only seen once before. “I know you,” I whispered. “You’re that boy.”
“Little Vipera, you shouldn’t be here.” He spun me around, blurring the woods around me, pausing when the white-haired boy came into focus once more. “Bad things haunt these woods in the dark.”
“But…” I began, turning around to find the others, but only being met with emptiness instead. Spinning, I looked everywhere, anger building when the truth was shown to me.
They left me alone. In the woods, being hunted by hounds.
I spun again and began frantically running, running. Yelling for someone, anyone, to hear me. Hoping to find someone to pull me away from this forest and away from this nightmare I had found myself in.
From the boys who would come to haunt me for years to come.
A silvery-haired boy with pale green eyes, cast in moonlight.
A boy with dark-golden orbs and ink-black hair, full of shadows and scars.
Boys that felt like family but whispered of danger. Darkness and sins.
The truth of those boys in the woods, another secret learned in these woods that I was not supposed to know, followed by an echo of a voice I felt down to my soul.
The boy must be protected at all costs. Do what you must…
I woke up screaming. I could feel the hoarseness in my voice as I swallowed the sounds trying to escape my throat. Sweat coated my body as I came out of the recurring nightmare that was happening more recently than not.
A nightmare or a memory. A piece in time that was fractured from my young mind, trying to shield the truth of who I saw that night from me. The boy must be protected at all costs. Images flickered across my mind. A forest. A shadow. A crypt.
An abandoned church.
The altar where I last saw my mum.
Memories swirled and blended as my arm reached out for the man who grounded me in life, only to find his side was empty and cold.
He had to stay home tonight, my inner voice reminded me.
Aleks had familial duties to attend to, as his parents prepared to return to The Cove for his upcoming birthday this week.
Tick…tock…
Twelve days.
I had twelve days to decide if I was woman enough to accept his offer to become his wife.
Twelve days to permanently begin weaving his life with mine.
Is there really a choice? My inner voice obviously woke up and decided to be a bitch tonight, making me face the truth that I had kept so close to the vest.
Could I really watch him love someone else?
Watch him walk away? Fall in love?
Would I be able to sit by as another woman called him hers? Had his children?
Took his name?
My heart cracked as the answer became clear.
A truth crystalised, one I had tried so hard to hide, yet could no longer deny.
I was in love with him. Had been longer than I was even comfortable admitting to.
His soul was the twin to mine. There was no reality where we didn’t become intertwined, like the sun and the moon, constantly circling as one drew closer, only for the other to back away.
I love him.
I. Love. Him.
The truth hit me all at once as my hand reached out to grab my phone. I dialled a number I knew by heart and prayed that he would be able to answer.
“Da, Printsessa?” His husky purr filled my ears as my heart calmed down from the nightmare and from the revelation that just occurred to me. “Everything okay, Lenochka? I was just about to go to sleep…”
“I need you.” I love you, I whispered, my voice breaking halfway through. “Please, Aleks…I need you here with me.”
“Let me go put—”
“No, bring him with you. Ask Cam, too.”
“Printsessa…it’s a risk…especially with what you went through in the game last night…”
“No. No, I need my boys with me tonight.” A weighted sigh left me as I heard Aleks yelling down the hall, grabbing what he needed to make his way to the Yates’ house. “I have something I need to tell you, King.”
“Okay, okay, Lenochka. I’ll be there soon. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Da korol…just need to be with you tonight.”
I heard the pounding of feet as Cameron made his way to Aleks’ side, his laughter echoing over the line, his steps drowning out the voice who had been grounding me to reality right now.
“The boys’re all ready to go…let me go wrangle the man-child. Don’t bother to unlock the door. I have a key.”
I nodded, cursing internally when I realised he couldn’t see.
“I love you, Printsessa. Today, tomorrow. Fore—”
“C’moooon man, I wanna go see the Little Queen. Tell her we’ll be there soon and save the fucking mushy shit for your own time from now on…”
I heard a muffled thump and a groan, followed by doors slamming as Aleks ended the call. I seated myself atop my bed as I waited for them to arrive.
I woke up to Cameron jumping on the bed, realising I must have drifted to sleep after ending the call with Aleks earlier.
The recovery had been slow since my time in The Labyrinth.
My overwhelming lingering fatigue had been irking me, increasing the growing annoyance I felt for how masochistic these games were becoming.
And maybe you’re worried a touch about something else… at least tonight would be comforting.
“Hey, Little Queen, I brought the zoo with me. Your man’s jealous that I somehow got you all alone first, though…given you’re practically sleeping naked for me.”
A grin split his face as his eyes squinted with a sly cat-like glint. My body tingled, warning me pre-emptively, as a masculine presence pressed behind where I was lying on the bed.
“Lenochka.” Tattooed hands flattened across my stomach, his fingers splaying possessively, as he pulled me back and positioned me across his lap. The move created space for Cameron to sprawl out with his arms behind his head, his eyes drifting towards me.
“Your boys are here now because you asked, Printsessa. Just remember, I’m the only man you need.” His playful growl rumbled in my ear, and he dipped his chin to Cam, a silent command to bring Mishka in as we settled in for the semblance of freedom we planned to steal.
“Thank you,” I whispered, watching Cam carry over Mikhail, whom all the secrets we had been weaving the past two years were for. “I just needed this tonight. That nightmare came again, but…”
“Shh…Printsessa. You’re safe here with me.”
“Aleks, I wanted to tell yo—”
“I know Lenochka. You don’t need to be brave—”
“I have an answer for you…”
“For me.”
We talked over each other as Cameron let out a laugh. Lying back down, he clicked through the channels, staring at the TV on the wall across from us. “For two people so in sync, you two sure have trouble communicating with words.”
Aleks glared over at him, his hardened gaze softening briefly as his eyes landed on Mishka, still dead asleep.
“What did you want to tell me, Printsessa? I thought you were already on board to accept whatever your birthright demands of you…”
“Yes, but not that. Something else.”
I trailed off as they swung their heads towards me. Cameron momentarily paused in his search for what to watch. Even Mishka stopped moving, as if sensing a change was about to occur, even though he was lost in his dreams.
“Are you?” Aleks whispered, his face dropping into my hair, his hands gripping me in a silent plea to answer him.
“Yes, I want to marry you.”
His arms tightened around me as a shutter worked through him. His heart pounded against my back, his whole frame relaxing as if he was dreading what I would tell him tonight.
“Lenochka…”
“No, I love you, Aleks. It was always going to be you…from the first time you stared at me in the old manor house.”
“You were such a fierce little thing, ice-violet eyes lit with fire, but your attitude spitting ice. A contradiction of different strengths, even then.” He chuckled, recalling the memory of us much younger, squaring off in the foyer of the Ellsworth Manor in London.
A time that felt like another life, even as I prepared to step back into the fold.
“I told you not to worry, brother, and yes, I’m still here. Assholes. Don’t forget about me, Lenochka. You know I’m what sweetened the deal…”
“Fuck you. Like she needs your immature arse.”
Grinning, I snuggled into Aleks, reaching out for Cam to pass Mishka over to me.
Looking down at his sleeping form, we began to talk about all the things that taking the Volkovitch name will mean for me, especially after The Ludi’s games had forced me into becoming the rightful heir of the Antonov line, the Ellsworth name already having been secured by me.
“Can we just have tonight? Just us four and some better memories? We’re so close…so close to being able to walk free…”
Aleks kissed my hair, his chin resting on my shoulder as he watched me and Cameron bicker back and forth. His fingers traced patterns from my hip to my belly, always trying to comfort me.
“Cameron, remember when Lenochka’s dainty little heels first stepped onto campus at Prep? Remember how she looked? Confused, lost…much like a deer in headlights as she realised she was no longer the one on top?”
“I think your brain’s recalling what happened wrong, brother.
I remember her prancing in and lighting a fire under your ass.
” Grinning, Cameron flashed fingers guns at me, making a ‘pew, pew’ sound effect.
That’s where Mikhail gets it from. His eyes brightened as we recalled events that pulled me closer into their orbit and world.
“Nothing has quite been the same since.”
“Hah, remember what you told me after she refused to bend her knee to you?” Cackling, Cameron rolled his head onto my pillow. “Remember, King?”
“Da.”
“You said…‘I’m going to make that girl mine one day. Hope she realises she can’t escape me even if she tries to run from me’.”
Aleks grinned, pressing his lips against my shoulder as silent laughter shook his chest, recalling how he had a claim on my soul far before I began at Prep.
“Well, you know Cam…my infatuation with the Little Queen started before that…”
Telling the story of how we first met, Aleks’ voice soothed a part of me, the memory recalling a much simpler time when we were kids. A time when a young girl with ice-violet eyes still had her twin, and the three knights who ran wild with her in the forests on a London estate, all those years ago.
1 Solem (Latin): The Sun