Chapter Twenty-One
GUS
Her face is a mask of fury, the fire burning in her eyes could have scorched this island. She thinks she has a right to be angry. The entitled bitch is wrong. I may be confused by how I am feeling toward her, but one thing I’m not confused about is my need for vengeance.
I can’t force her to confess to the world that she lied, but I can make her life hell like she has made ours for two fucking years!
“Revenge is what we are owed.” The truth in my words bounces off the cave walls.
“What do you think I did?” she screams, her hands slicing the air, showing her frustration. “I never lied—”
“You lied and sent us here!” Duke roars.
She flinches and stumbles back a step. He moves to step forward.
I should let him but I don’t. I grip his arm and hold him back, we agreed we wouldn’t disclose who we are to her but I changed that.
He yanks free of my hold. I grab for him again but he whirls around on me.
His eyes burn with bloodlust. I know him and I hate how much this fucking island has changed who he is.
He’s no longer kind, soft and caring. He’s angry, jaded and hungry for vengeance. “You taking her side?”
I shake my head. “I’m always with you.” My tone is firm.
“You won’t destroy our family.” Jaq’s pained words have us turning to focus on him. He moves until he is standing directly in front of her.
“I don’t want that,” she whispers brokenly.
“Then tell me, Cinder Soot, why did you lie and send us to this island?” She jerks back as if he struck her physically.
Her mouth is open and her eyes are wide. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I can hear the confusion in her voice. She looks from Jaq to us and I see a flicker of something in her eyes a second before her face falls. “Holy shit.”
“What?” Duke pushes, but she ignores him as she covers her mouth with her hand and begins pacing the cave. My patience is at its end.
“Speak!” I roar. She freezes near the entrance of the cave and looks back at us with fury in those baby blues.
“You think I’m the one who sent you here?
” She doesn’t pause to let us answer. “I don’t even know you!
I mean, yes I know of you but I don’t even know you personally to want to send you here!
” Duke bristles beside me but says nothing.
This time when she looks at me and Jaq there is recognition in her gaze.
“Two years ago, both the crowned heirs disappeared, with their best friend.” Her tone is knowing and I can’t help but stiffen.
She stalks toward Jaq and doesn’t stop until there is only a sliver of space between their bodies.
She places her hand on his chest, making him shudder. “I heard stories about how the princes were inseparable, fraternal twins. Always by each other's side. Rumor has it, the king hated his sons because they challenged him.” Her tone is low.
“What’s your point?” Jaq grits out as he takes a step back and comes to stand beside me.
Her eyes are brimmed with anger but I see remorse in there.
“Everyone searched for you.” Accusation is clear in her pained tone as she looks at Duke.
“I helped look for you three for months. I may not have known you then but I saw you around town. You were kind, cared and wanted to make our home better. Not like your father, who only serves himself and his greed.” A shudder of disgust rolls through her at the mention of our dad. “I never lied about anything.”
I stare at her. Something isn’t adding up. I hear the truth in her words and I have this knot in my gut that I can’t shake.
“Our father told us you were the one to blame us for a heinous crime.”
“The only crime I committed against your family was turning your father’s advances down daily!” she spits.
Jaq yanks his mask off, making her mouth part in a silent gasp. Duke removes his next and she just stares at them both in astonishment.
“Holy shit,” she breathes out. “You three have been here the whole time,” she mumbles.
“My father tried to fuck you?” Jaq’s tone is cold and filled with warning.
She cringes and nods, then begins to tell us about her stepmother who burned their family home down and how they came to be living in the palace.
“The night he threatened to chain me to his bed, I ran. My stepsister knocked me out before I could escape. The next thing I know I’m here with you three. ”
“You expect us to believe that?” Duke grits out.
Her eyes narrow. “It’s the truth.”
“My father could have any pussy he wanted. What makes yours so special?”
Outrage flashes in her eyes at my comment, but I stand tall and stare her down. “I have a hunch but I'm not willing to share it.”
Anger courses through me. “You either start telling the fucking truth, Cinder Soot, or we leave your ass in this cave to rot—”
“Fuck you!” she screams, cutting me off. “I’m telling the truth. I have no reason to want you gone. I don’t want the fucking crown—” She clamps her mouth closed, but I see the horror in her eyes. She didn’t mean to say that much.
Jaq steps forward, making her stiffen. “Oh, please, carry on. We are dying to hear why you think you have a claim to our throne.”
Her face slackens and she shakes her head rapidly.
Tears gather in her eyes. She bites down on her bottom lip to keep silent. She stares at my brother with a pleading look, begging him not to push her.
“Cinder—”
She cuts Duke off before he can finish. “I know why you want to know. I’ll tell you, but you will let me go.”
“No.” One word, the weight of it settles in the air like a storm cloud. “We already told you, you’re ours.”
Her bottom lip trembles. I suddenly have the urge to comfort her but manage to remain where I am.
Jaq grips her hands in his and looks down at her. “If you didn’t lie and send us to this hell, help us understand why our own father would lie to us for years and blame a girl we didn’t even know.”
“My name is Cinder Charming and I am the great granddaughter of Lucious Prince.” My blood turns to ice in my veins.
“Two years ago, my father tried to overthrow the king and claim the throne. The king fought against his allegations, ruined my father’s reputation and forced us into poverty.
His wife, Ava, used his death to her advantage.
She and her daughters have no idea why the king turned on my father and I kept it that way.
No one outside of my father, me and the king know the truth. ”
“That fucking cunt!” Duke hisses.
She ignores his outburst and continues on. “I believe the king lied and had you sent here so we would never meet. Your suitors ball was the weekend you disappeared. All females were ordered to attend, no matter their stature in the community—”
“Meaning we would have met you,” I breathe out.
She nods. “That cunt had us sent here in case we met, figured it out and claimed his throne through marriage,” Jaq grits out.
“He allowed them to move into the palace because he knew exactly who she was. He wanted her with him so he could knock her up or put a ring on it, then his claim to the throne would be solid.”
She gently pulls her hands from Jaq’s and steps back.
She loses a shoe in the process. The small space between us feels like it’s the size of the ocean.
Panic flares inside me. I was a fucking idiot for believing my father.
I harbored anger toward Cinder like fuel to a fire.
It consumed me for years. I let Jaq and Duke fall into the web of lies without stopping them.
I was fucking furious when we were sent here. I wouldn’t listen to reason. Twenty-four months of planning our escape, in the hopes we would find the bitch who wronged us and force her to clear our names, only for her to bring us to our knees with the truth.
Duke steps up beside Jaq and I can taste his anguish on my tongue. I feel it wafting off him like perfume.
When he drops to his knees before her, she gasps. He grabs her shoe, then grips her ankle and slips the shoe back on her foot.
“The shoe fits.” Her brows dip at his words. “You fit.” He glides his hand up her leg as he slowly stands before her, brushing his fingers along her body the whole way until he reaches her cheek and cups it. “We fit you.”