Chapter 13 #2
“I hope you’ve carefully considered the worth of the consequences of all of this,” he says.
My eyes scan the fight. Micah gets his hands around Rath’s throat and I fire an arrow, embedding it deep in his forearm. With a howl, he releases Rath, just as Samuel plows into him, sending the two of them flying twenty feet.
“Something has to change,” I say as I watch Anna fight her way back to her feet. She whips out that small metal shaft, and from it ejects a deadly sharp, needle thin spear. “You don’t understand Jasmine.”
And suddenly the air is choked off, a hand around my throat and I go crashing back against the front door.
Jasmine’s red eyes are an inch from mine.
“He’s been dead for over a century,” Jasmine hisses. While there is plenty of anger in her voice, there’s also pain. “Why? Why would you do this?”
I claw at her hands, trying to tear them away from my throat. Over my shoulder, I see Nial attempting to fight off Cameron and Christian.
“You really expected me not to return your sick gesture?” I choke out.
“What gesture?” she screams into my face.
Jasmine is ripped away from me, and Anna flings her off the porch. I cough violently, my hand rising to my surely bruised throat.
Standing off, part way down the grounds, casually sipping on a bag of what is surely my blood, is Markov. He watches our fight with light amusement.
This is my chance to make my move with him.
I climb to my feet, crossbow still lightly in hand. I walk to the edge of the porch, and toss it down.
“Enough!” I yell. And I didn’t expect it, but every eye turns to me.
The scuffles momentarily still. “Jasmine,” I say, turning toward her.
“You and I can continue to fight until one of us kills the other. We can continue to play games and toy with each other’s heads.
But you need to realize that you will never control me. ”
Jasmine yanks out of Anna’s grasp and takes two slow steps toward me. Her eyes are bright and stare straight at me, black veins spreading out on her face. There’s hatred there, so dark and so heavy.
There are no House members between she and I. Anna may be able to stop her before she can launch herself at me and snap my neck, but maybe not. Everyone else is engaged in a fight with someone else.
“I will never claim the House for you,” I say calmly. “If you had let me die peacefully that night I offered myself, you would not have had war. But you killed the man I love that night, and that changed everything.”
And this, love, I find, Jasmine does indeed understand. I see it in her eyes.
“I want you to stop, Jasmine,” I say to her as my voice grows quiet.
Every House member, Voltera or Conrath, stands frozen, mid punch, on the ground, hands poised for attack, fangs bared.
“I want you to take Micah and whoever still wishes to follow you back to your House. I want you to peacefully stay out of my way.”
“I have ruled the House of Silent Bend for fifteen years,” Jasmine hisses. She takes another step toward me. Anna mirrors her movement. “And you want me to simply slip quietly into the shadows?”
“Yes,” I say softly with a nod. “I want the fighting to end. I want you to recognize that while you kept things going for a decade and a half, the royal blood has run through my ancestry for over a millennium. It was never your right to lead Silent Bend and the Southern region.”
“This is not the way this ends,” Jasmine says with venom. “You know this.”
I swallow once. Because she speaks the truth. “I know. It will end with the King’s arrival in three weeks and one of his games.”
The expression on her face falters. “Three weeks.”
“Yes, Jasmine,” I continue. I’ve got her. This is over. “Three weeks. One of the King’s own men informed me that is when he will arrive. I suggest you prepare yourself.”
Her expression grows more serious, her face pales. She takes one step back. And I can feel her defeat. She cannot win this. Not today. Not tomorrow. And certainly not in three weeks.
But that won’t stop her from fighting.
“I think you should go back to your House now,” I say as I take three steps down off the porch.
Jasmine takes another step back, her eyes having difficulty staying locked on mine. She takes another. And I can feel how much this is killing her.
But finally, with everyone holding their breath, she turns. She takes five steps, back toward the gate. “Let’s go.”
Micah shakes Rath and Samuel off with a hiss and immediately walks to Jasmine’s side. He places a hand on her lower back, but she flinches away from his touch. Trinity walks away from Lillian.
But Cameron hesitates. He looks from Jasmine, and back to me.
As if sensing his uncertainty, Jasmine turns back to him. And the red in her eyes sparks a little brighter. “It is time to leave,” she hisses. “Come now.”
Cameron looks between the two of us again.
Finally, he settles on Jasmine. “You know, I wasn’t even sure you knew my name for the first year I lived in your House.
You call me Toad half the time, because I have one wart scar on my finger.
And I hate it.” He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders slightly.
“But what other choice did I have? A life of solitude? I stayed, mostly for you.” He says this of Trinity.
“But it’s not enough. There’s got to be something better. ”
Trinity just looks at him with an impassive expression.
And something triumphant breaks out in my chest when he starts backing toward my House. He stops at Lillian’s side, who places a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Cameron,” Jasmine hisses, her eyes flaring. “Once this has been done, it cannot be undone. Consider what you are doing carefully.”
“I am,” he confirms.
And with the decision made, all eyes turn to Christian.
He stands in the middle of the two Houses. His eyes glow, but are dark and tormented. He stares at the ground.
“You shouldn’t go, brother,” Samuel says.
And I hear how desperate he sounds. Christian is only two years older than Samuel.
They are brothers. And they’ve been together for over seventy years.
This separation can’t have been easy on either of them.
“I know you feel loyal to what was once our father’s House.
But is the shame and reminders of past mistakes worth it? ”
Christian doesn’t look up. I see his nostrils flare and he takes in slow, deep breaths.
“Christian,” Jasmine says as she lays a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve been together, as a family, for your entire life. I have always taken care of you. Do not abandon me now.”
I hear Christian take another sharp breath. And then he takes a step away. Not toward me, not toward her. Just away. He takes another, and another. He walks in a line, in the direction of town, directly between the two of us. And suddenly he’s gone.
He chooses not to pick a side.
At least for now.
And suddenly Jasmine looks back. And now there is real fear in her eyes. There are seven of us, and currently only three of her House.
All eyes turn to Markov, who stands removed from the situation. In his hand he holds the now empty blood bag. Something shiny and bright in his hand catches my eye and I realize it is the crown I left for him.
He steps forward, toward the crowd, his shined shoes crunching over the gravel.
“Markov,” Jasmine says. She’s forcing love and devotion into her voice, but it just comes out sounding desperate. “Markov, surely you have loyalty. Surely you understand who has taken care of you for the past fifteen years.”
But his wrinkled face, those deep crows feet around those dark, calm eyes, they never leave my face. He continues walking forward.
And my heart races as I watch him walk past Jasmine, and continue walking in my direction.
“Fifteen years is not very long in my nearly two centuries of immortal life,” he says.
He slows as he approaches the steps I stand on.
“In my time, I have learned it is always wise to be on the most strategic leaders side. And Jasmine,” he does finally look over his shoulder back at her.
He sets his crown upon his head. “I’m afraid that is no longer you, my dear. ”
Everyone is deadly quiet and still. The air swells, ready to burst at any moment.
But it doesn’t. With death in her eyes and defeat in her shoulders, Jasmine takes one step back. Her eyes frantically jump from one face to another.
“You all will burn for this tyranny,” she seethes. But she takes another step back. “You abandon me for a child who doesn’t know anything.” Jasmine’s eyes suddenly jump back to mine and they glow bright. “You and I are not finished.” And a second later, she, Micah, and Trinity are gone with a blur.
Almost in unison, the seven members of my House turn to face me.
Waiting for my words of leadership.
Just six months ago, I was a poor girl in a tiny apartment with few friends and no family. I worked for very little money and I wondered how I was going to pay for a flat tire. I worried about the fact that I hadn’t been on a date in over a year. I worried about getting along with my coworkers.
It was all so simple and mundane.
But as I stand before my subjects, I feel as if this is exactly where I was supposed to be. I was born to do this.
This is my birthright.
“Thank you,” I state simply. “To say I appreciate you all being here is not enough, but it is a start. I promise to prove I am worthy of earning your loyalty. I hope you will one day be proud to be members of the House of Conrath.”