Chapter 34 #2
“Does anyone ever think she continually plays us?” His words reminded me of something Lenochka once said about the Yates family.
They only see me how they want to; nobody ever sees how evil the innocent doe-eyed girl will be…
until it’s too late for them. The comment was innocuous at the time since it was said amid a chase, shortly before she had been sent away for what the Yateses claimed was a ‘break in sanity’ from the trauma she faced so young.
“She knew she’d need to accept her birthright eventually.
She likely has many plans in play, ones that I’m sure we’ll never truly know the reasons for.
” Kellan looked at me pityingly, his eyes searching like he was now wondering if the situation I had found myself in once again with Lenochka was planned.
“My sister…is vicious. She was trained to kill from the age of four. We all know what happens when her demons are unleashed…”
“Anarchy,” Cameron and I said as one.
Nodding, Kellan brought up the feed from the test of the mind during the first game.
On the screen, Lenochka’s face was detached, her normally fiery ice-violet eyes blank.
Void of life, just like her face. Her mouth moved over silent words of prayer as she watched her family’s plane go down.
I looked at Kellan again, noting the way his face was leaching of colour and his eyes were losing signs of life as he grew into an emotionless soldier that matched Lenochka on the screen.
“Destruction. Death. Vengeance will be rained down upon those who sought to take who she deems worthy from her…again. She was never met to repress herself this much. Audrey was born to bathe in blood, not be a media darling for whatever the Yateses brainwashed her to be.” His words were a warning, hinting that he knew the truth of how—why—the Ellsworth plane had been shot from the sky, leaving him as the lone survivor against the odds of fate.
“The Hellhound was merciless in the way he forced her to overcome her mental blocks. I saw how she struggled to bounce back after each test, but the one at the end…forcing her to choose between Katarina, you, or me. That was the death blow, if I wasn’t sure I knew his end goals were…”
“He wants her to break…”
“Yes. But I believe he’s trying to help in his own way. Forge her into the Queen she needs to be, the one we’ve all known she would become…”
I continued to watch her as she systematically fell back into the training the Ellsworth line had beaten into her.
The mind games, the manipulation, the beast taming.
How they both, Kellan and her, were able to detach when the world became too much.
The only thing I had ever dreaded when it came to Lenochka was the fear that one day, the world would demand too much, and she would get lost on her way back to me.
She already left you once…and the danger then was pennies compared to this.
“But she surpassed their expectations for the game. I don’t think anyone expected her to so readily accept the consequences of formally putting the Antonov pakhana down. Of shooting her babushka, point-blank in the face.”
Cameron’s words shifted something into place. Flashes of a young girl being chased through the woods swam in my mind.
Obsidian hair. A mischievous grin.
Pools of blood under a full moon.
Golden eyes locked on mine in a silent promise.
Two hands locking over a smaller one.
Brands of roses, thorns, vipers, and bones.
A wizened voice whispering in my ear, telling me to stay the course and that my time would come.
My mind raced. Images came faster, spiralling me into things best left locked away until this nightmare passed.
Lenochka screamed for me in pain.
A small cry as a boy was carried from a room hidden from the world.
Tears filled my Printsessa’s eyes as she realised that her fate was cruel.
Her hatred towards me was fiery when she returned to the Cove at nineteen and heard of the marriage announcement my family had put out. Another choice that was taken from her hands, too much too soon.
“She will be demanded to name a husband within the year. Being a female heir, the other pakhans will insist. As far as they’re concerned, she’s already shirked the old traditions by being over the age of eighteen.
” My voice interrupted whatever Kellan and Cameron were discussing, beckoning their attention.
“This works out perfectly. A few nights ago, she finally acc—”
“Little Queen finally told our broody bastard King ‘yes’. We’re all so thankful she finally put him out of his miser—”
I slapped Cameron across the back of his head.
“She’s agreed to become my wife before my twenty-fifth birthday next year.
” The proposal, now a formality…grinning, my chest expanded.
The one good thing to come of all this shit was that she finally believed me, that she would never need or have to walk through life alone.
“Damn.” Kellan shook his head, and a cheeky smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “She actually said yes? I honestly wasn’t sure she ever would.”
“She wants to announce it soon. I think she believes I don’t already have her ring.”
“The boy’s fucked. Goodbye brother, goodbye home-cooked food…we’ll never convince him to leave the place between her legs now…”
“Cameron. Watch your mouth,” Kellan gritted out, jaw twitching. “That’s my sister.” He puckered his lips like he tasted something foul, his hand clicking that fucking lighter again. “And soon, she’ll be the rightful Queen to whom we’ve all sworn promises for.”
“Do you think her accepting his proposal will sway The Hound at all? After the blood results come back? Or will he be wanting his pound of flesh even more…”
“I’ve no doubt that he plans to destroy her with the boy’s trial coming up next. I just hope we’re right to assume he wouldn’t let it go too far, that he’d still call the trial if the outcome started to push her to the point she may not return from.”
“Lexington Kenton will become an issue.” My voice was a growl as my words cracked through the air.
“King’s jealous, the boy has a hard-on for Little Queen, even though he’s never stood a chance.”
“For once, I agree with Cam, King. My sister was always meant for you, and anyone who’s ever seen you two together would agree. Like fate made you each other’s perfect match. Just took my sister a little bit longer to both accept and see it.”
“I just worry…how much more can she take before she no longer desires to pander to the rules The Guilda set?”
“She was not given the moniker of ‘zmeyushka’ during her training for nothing. The girl refuses to stay down. And if she finds a time where she will not get back up…you will become the legs she needs to stand upon until she is ready to stand on her own again.”
“But…” Cameron interrupted what would have degenerated into an argument. “How much worse can they truly make Trial Four?”
Grimly, the three of us looked down, silence blanketing the room after his question.
An eerie chill blew between us as the final person in our group of four showed his face, his steps silent as he walked into the dim light flickering from the computer screens, his face shadowed with the flickering of the footage from game one.
His words delivered a blow straight to my chest.
“As depraved or as vile as I desire it to be. We all know she first must fall on her swords before she can truly ascend to who The Guilda and her family will require her to be.”