Chapter 38 #2
“A love to be tested in a matter of three. Two to test his heart…”
“Shut. Up. Shut up. No…I can’t.” He swivelled, searching for the source of the voice as it changed into a childlike tenor. Knocking the knife from the pedestal. The loud clatter shocked him as it bounced and slid across the floor.
“A love to be tested in a matter of three. A son will choose to accept the consequences of unrequited love of a girl whose heart was fated at birth.Will he choose his own end in tragedy or joy?”
It was the words from the trial card I realised, belatedly.
The voice was reciting the words on repeat, in bits and unordered pieces…
trying to provoke a reaction as time continued to tick down steadfastly.
Lexington began to break, me bearing witness as his body shook, and he fell to his knees.
Scrambling to pick up the knife, his moral compass still fighting him on the decision that guaranteed his life.
Although he would die once Aleksandr learned what he did to me.
“Leenhxx,” I whispered. “Lexunghtngton. Stahhp!” I put more force into my words as I tried and failed to pull his attention back to me. Violently, I thrashed my head, twisting my mouth until the gag slipped free. “Lex. Lexington James Kenton.”
The singing continued, fading into background noise now. Eerie and haunting, echoing relentlessly.
“Three choices to be made as he watches that love fade into oblivion. A love must be poisoned, and a heart must shatter…” Lex suddenly moved, darting to where his shoe laid at the edge of the room.
He launched it at the shadowed corner, the one corner that was hidden from my view.
The chilling rendition of the trial card was cut off.
Blessed silence filled the room once more.
He turned, bloodshot eyes meeting mine as he took me in for the first time, splayed out and served to him on a feather soft mattress for his own enjoyment.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered brokenly, as he looked down in confusion at his slacks that were unzipped and open at his waist. It was almost like he was unaware that his hands had subconsciously moved. “Sorry. Sorry. Audrey, I can’t.”
Lex spun, gripping his pants, as the bulge of his erection became evident.
“No. No. No.” His free hand held that knife, the one more ornamental than practical, and I hated that I thought of asking him to end this by killing me.
“Audrey…” I turned my head, unable to bear witness to the choice he was being forced to make.
Unable to watch as something I promised Aleks would never happen again, was forced upon me against my choice again.
I heard the knife hit the stone as Lexington drew closer.
The scent of musk and earth filled my nose.
He had been somewhere. Somewhere he was not supposed to be.
Refusing to give him my face, I slowed my breath, attempting a calm I had mastered two years ago.
“Audrey, look at me.” His voice was urgent as fabric swished to the floor. “Maybe they won’t know…” I shook my head at his hopeful voice, knowing where he was going and refusing to even allow him to put the words out into the room.
“No, Lex. It's not worth risking it. What they would do to you—us—if your deception was discovered.”
“But…I can’t…please. No. Don’t make me do this.” He barged to the area where the door slid shut, banging on it in a vain attempt to be let out. “I promised! I promised Audrey. I promised her…”
I felt it then. His heart breaking as the meaning behind his words gutted me.
I had known. An inking. An assumption that I now hated being right about, that he had always held that torch for her, Callie Rose, and this trial was not meant to target me…
but her. The girl who returned to The Cove, a forgiveness that would be impossible if he went through with either choice.
Life. Death. He would never get to know if she was meant for him or if he could move on, settle down, and live a life that he deserved.
My mind fogged, time slipped away as I spiralled into the dark abyss.
Fatigue swept through me as I accepted that I would not walk away from this trial unscathed.
Righteous fury lingered in the recesses of my thoughts as I obsessed over what The Ludi was doing to me.
How fucking much more would they demand I lose?
The answer was obvious but the sheer amount of stubborn pride I had told me that whatever happened tonight, would not break me. I refused.
“One hour remains.”
That mechanical voice interrupted his banging as the drug ramped up, the fuzziness drowned me as my eyes struggled to lift. “Le-xx…some…thhiing…wronhugg…withhh…me.”
My words were garbled as I faded in and out of consciousness. Fear filled my heart as a thought formed in my mind. I was going to be raped. The reason they were able to sneak into my house and move me here, all while binding me and locking me up.
No. My arms instinctively jerked, trying to reach my side, my stomach, my face. I only just found out…the world spun around me as I imagined the life I could have had. The love I found. How unfair it was that we would finally cower to men who dawned masks and hid their identities.
Horror struck me as I came to the realization that, while I may have protected the secrets my blood would have shown…I may have also damned those secrets to hell since The Gamemaster, The Hellhound, had no way of knowing the harm this trial could truly do to my soul. My heart.
My life.
“Lexxyinton…” I tried to yell, only for my voice to falter and fade out, my body beginning to shake and thrash as I fought whatever drug was attempting to knock me out.
“I can’t. I won’t. She won’t ever forgive me. He will never stop haunting me…”
I watched, though slitted eyes, as Lex crawled to the pedestal holding the knife. Grabbing onto it, he held it like a lifeline as that voice echoed in the air again…
Lexington used the stone table to help him stand, leaning his weight onto it and alerting me that something was also wrong with him. His eyes were even more bloodshot now, as fine tremors skated down his arms and legs.
“I am so sorry, Audrey…” My eyes struggled to stay open, refusing to let him decide his fate alone now that our time was running out. “So, so, sorry…that I have to make you watch this too…” He held the knife, deathly still…
One.
Two…
His feet moved then, carrying him to where I was laying restrained. Kneeling on the bed, he leaned over me. At some point over the hellish hours in here he had undressed so he was fully nude.
Three.
Leaning his weight onto me, he brought the knife up to cut my clothes. He’s really going to…harsh air rattled out of his chest as he spotted all the bruises, the marks. The hickeys that lined my chest.
Oh, Aleks…no. Scrunching his eyes shut, he continued cutting down, down the length of my shirt and shorts. Slicing clean through my panties, the holster I had started wearing under my clothes, until I felt cool air everywhere.
“Forgive me. Forgive me.” Dropping the blade, his hand gripped his length. Still hard even if his brain shouted at how wrong it was, to abuse and take like this. “No. I can’t…”
Squeezing his cock as he convulsed, his body betrayed his desire to win. To live. Pre-cum glistened at the tip, splattering my belly. Tears fell, mixing in.
“Callie Rose…”
“Forgive me. Forgive me please.” Warm skin hit me then, a hard shaft, throbbing heat. Slick skin covered in sweat as he prepared to enter me.
“Thirty minutes remain…” At the reminder of time, his eyes flew open. Frozen in place until he scrambled back, his arse landing on my legs, hands clambering for purchase on the sheets. Backing off the bed as his body thudded, his hand reaching out to grasp the knife again.
“I can’t. I’m sorry…please.” Pushing himself to his feet, he brought the dull edge to his neck, running his finger along the sharp teeth lining the blade as he sombrely brought his eyes to me.
In a movement so quick my delayed senses couldn’t track, he flipped the blade, so the sharpened end laid against his neck.
His pulse pounded widely against the metal.
As blood began to drip from his nose and eyes, his smile was serene as he whispered his final words to me.
“I will always love you, Little Queen…but my heart…it was always hers. Tell her…there was never a choice, and I don’t regret what we did all those years ago…”
Lexington pressed the blade further into his skin, bright red blood dripping over the blade and onto the floor. His eyes fluttered shut as his legs started to shake, showing that his body was losing the battle he was forcing himself to face.
“No. Noo!” I shouted right as he sliced it across his neck. Blood poured from the wound as my brain shut off, blackness surrounding me as my brain succumbed to the poison pumping through my veins. Dripping sounded as his blood splattered onto the stones…
Drip.
Drip.
Clapping filled the room as a voice sounded from somewhere above.
“Well done, well done. You have passed Trial Four.” Steps grew louder as a presence stood over me, gentle fingers trailing down my face as a familiar voice greeted me.
Drip.
“It’s okay, zmeyushka, you’re okay…take a breath and when you open your eyes, refuse to show The Gamemaster your fear.” The point of a needle pierced the skin of my neck. Cool liquid pushed into my blood, burning as it travelled into my body.
Drip.
Drip.
“It’ll all be okay, little sister. This will take care of the remnants of the sedative given to you. Perfectly safe. I’ll always protect you…” The restraints holding my wrists clicked open, followed by the ones at my feet as Kellan’s words landed like stones.
Drip.
Strong arms engulfed me as I was lifted from the bed. The scent of whiskey and pine filled my nose as the feeling of home surrounded me. “Aleks…” I sighed, as my body finally relaxed and gave into sleep.
“I’m here, Printsessa. Rest. I got you from here. You’re both safe. You did so well…” His hand smoothed down my spine as it came to rest over my hip, splaying wide as his fingers tapped my stomach.
Drip.
“I have you, you don’t need to be strong for me.”
Drip.
Drip.
He bundled me to his chest, lifting me as he carried me out, pausing briefly to speak to someone before he left the room, where the once pristine floor was now covered in blood.
“The heir will live. The question is how will he overcome what he was forced to do here?” That eerie robotic voice followed me into sleep. My body sought comfort in the arms of a man who held my soul in his hand.
Drip.
Drip.
I did it, I thought. I passed this trial; I did not succumb to the fear or hate The Gamemasters had planned for me.
At what cost? my brain supplied. Always there to remind me that in these games of power and greed, there was rarely a victor though, when death always claimed what it was owed. Even if I still planned to be one of the four who claimed a seat.
Drip.
Drip.
“Ten minutes remain…”
Drip.
Drip.
“He’s crashing! Call The Reaper!”
Drip.
Drip.
“Two minutes remain…”
Drip…drip.
Rivers of blood filled my dreams. The wail of a newborn. The grin of a boy.
Drip.
“Save the heir. He must live. He is a chosen one!”
Drip.
Drip.
Sobs filled the room. Beeping sounded as someone screamed.
Drip.
“Lexington!”
Drip…drip.
Drip…
“My boy! My son! Give him back to me!”
Drip.
Drip.
The forest surrounded me as I reached to take a hand. My mum smiled down at me, her bright blond hair shining under the moon.
Drip.
“The boy! Save the boy, his time has not yet come!”
Drip.
Drip.
Looking down, I saw blood covering the floor…dripping from my arms, trailing down my legs. Screams surrounded me, ones that came from me I realized, before I gave into sleep.
Drip…drip.
Drip.
My mum’s words were a whisper in my ears as oblivion claimed me. “Remember malyshka, you must not show fear.”
Drip.