Sovereign (7 page)

I studied the oldest one, the seams still tight. Its artistry reminded me of what we once were—sharecroppers and seamstresses. When my great-great-grandfather unwittingly saved the life of the reigning Sovereign, he’d damned us to this life. Seeing us now, raised so high amongst our wicked cohorts, would he regret his act of mercy?

I closed my eyes, blocking out my history, and relished every point of contact I had with Stella as her breath tickled my chest.

I’d been back for two weeks, ignoring my work and, instead, focusing on her. She trained and fought, thriving despite the hellish environs of the Acquisition. I wondered at her strength, where it came from, why I didn’t have it. But I also saw her self-destruction—how she pushed herself further to the brink every day. Her torment was mine. It pained me to see her so hell bent on punishing herself for wrongs she never committed. Still, trying to stop her was like trying to stop the Acquisition itself.

She shifted and her breathing quickened. Perhaps my shadowy thoughts had invaded whatever pleasant dream she’d been having.

“Who was Cora?” Her voice was still thick with sleep. “Renee told me she was your aunt, but nothing else.”

“What makes you think of that?” I ran my fingers along her smooth side.

“I dreamed of that night. The one with your mother.” Her eyelashes fluttered against my chest.

That hellish night. I sighed. I kept nothing from her anymore. She knew me, all of me, and yet she still lay here in my arms as if I weren’t a twisted monster. I kissed the crown of her head. “My aunt, yes. She was the youngest in my mother’s family. The one my mother fought to save.”

“She was Rebecca’s Teddy?”

“Yes.”

She rolled back so her head was nestled on my shoulder, her green eyes piercing even as she emerged from the cobwebs of her dreams. “But Rebecca won. So, what happened to Cora?”

“Cora witnessed it all. She saw what Rebecca and Renee went through. She knew from the start that it was her life on the line. Years after it was all over, she hung herself in the woods.”

Stella clenched her eyes shut. “God. I’m sorry, Sin.”

“I don’t remember her much.” Her red hair and warm smile were almost lost to me, just like my mother—both women erased by the Acquisition. “My mother took it in, ingested the blame like a fine meal, and let it drag her down even further.
It was all for nothing
. My mother screamed those words at Cora’s funeral.” The memory of her, all in black, sinking to her knees and screeching at the clear blue sky, passed before my eyes before disappearing.

Stella scooted on top of me and cupped my cheek. “You were too young.” The unshed tears in her eyes glistened, and I wanted to take them away.

“That’s why Teddy can never know.” I smoothed my palms down her back. “That’s the past. We have plenty to think about without it.”

Resting her chin on my chest, she said, “One more week. I just wish we knew what the trial will be.”

“So do I.” I’d tried to get information from Sophia, but she was almost as cold as her father. I still had my claws in her, I knew—she’d been texting me while she was in New York for the past few weeks. I hadn’t failed with her, not yet.

Even if she agreed to an alliance with me, I still had the problem of her lover, Ellis, to deal with. If Cal found out she was seeing him instead of setting her cap at the next Sovereign, his displeasure would be lethal. So, if she wouldn’t go along with my plans of her own accord, I could always dangle Ellis in front of her like a tasty lure. I would be the hook.

Still, she’d divulged nothing about her father’s plans. The trial was almost here, and I hadn’t been able to divine the actual mechanism Cal would use to wreak havoc on Stella. Rage exploded in my chest, and I beat against the cage I was born into like I’d done so many times before. In the end, I was still trapped, still lying here with the woman I’d kill to protect, but harm to save Teddy.

A light knock sounded at my door.

I pulled Stella next to me in the bed and covered her with the blanket. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry, sir. There’s a man at the gate demanding to see you.” Farns’ voice wavered through the wood.

“Who?”

“Red Witherington.”

“Fucking hell.” I moved to the edge of the bed and stabbed my legs in my jeans. “Farns, let him in.”

“Very good, sir.”

Stella rose and pulled her tank top over her head.

“You’re staying here.”

“Like hell I am.” She yanked on her panties and jeans.

I turned. “He hates you. If he has even a shred of information that can help us, then I need you out of sight. Understand?”

“What makes you think he came here to help?” She threw her hair over her shoulder and pulled her top down the rest of the way, covering the sight of her mouthwatering breasts.

I strode to her and grabbed her shoulders, holding her gaze. “I don’t know why he’s here. But if he sees you, it won’t matter. It will all go to hell.”

She opened her mouth to argue, then then closed it.

“Do you trust me?” I asked the question I had no right to even think in her presence. I held my breath, wishing we were different people in a different life. Even as we were, could she give me the trust I didn’t deserve but desperately wanted?

She rested her hand against my chest, over my heart. “Yes.”

She must have had something in her palm, because warmth spread from it as surely as if she were the sun on a hot day. I kissed her harder than I’d intended. I must have put the weight of everything I felt, everything I was capable of feeling, into it. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer, matching me with the same fiery intensity I’d seen in her the very first day we met.

She broke the kiss and stepped back. “Okay. I’ll stay away, but I won’t promise not to eavesdrop.”

I took her hand and kissed her palm. “I would expect nothing less.”

I turned and strode out and down the hallway to the main stairs. I met Lucius on the landing. Dragging his carry-on behind him, his clothes were rumpled and he needed a shave.

I smirked. “You look like hell.”

“Thanks. Just got back from Brazil. Rough fucking flight.”

“Everything all right?”

He shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Good.” I dropped down the next few steps.

“What are you up to?”

I glanced over my shoulder at his curious expression. “We have a guest.”

“Who?”

“Red.”

He let go of the handle on his carry-on. “Fuck yeah. I’m dying for a fight.”

“We aren’t fighting.”

“Since when?” He raised an eyebrow and stripped off his jacket.

He had a point. We’d never gotten along with Red, even before the Acquisition.

“I need to see if he has any information about the trial. That comes first.”

“So we’re just going to take his shit?” Lucius shook his head.

“Of course not. Still, we will listen to what he has to say.”

He followed me down the stairs. “I can live with that, but if he pulls anything, I’ll knock his goddamn teeth out. Where’s Stella?”

“I just left her in her room. She’s getting dressed.”

His jaw tensed, and I felt a decidedly non-brotherly satisfaction in him knowing I spent the night with her.

Farns waited at the door in the foyer and swung it open before Red had a chance to knock. He barreled inside, his hair mussed, and with dark circles under his eyes.

“What the fuck, Red?” Lucius stepped ahead of me, already itching for confrontation.

“You.” He pointed at me. “I need to talk to you.”

I smirked. “It may shock you to know this, but there are phones for that very purpose.”

“Fucking prick.” Red stepped forward, and Lucius matched his advance until both men stood nose to nose.

“Let him through, Lucius. He can say what he came to say before we come to blows.”

I walked down the hall, feeling Red following at my heels as Lucius trapped him between us. “State your business, Red. I assume this isn’t a friendly visit.”

Turning into my study, I waved Red to a seat as Lucius closed the door behind us.

“Is that bitch here?” He looked around, as if Stella might be hiding in the drapes. My hands itched to crush his voice box, but I remained still and stared him down.

“Cut the shit. What do you want?” Lucius crossed his arms and leaned against the door.

“Evie.” Red turned his bloodshot eyes to me.

“What about her?” I sat on the sofa across from him.

“Promise me you won’t—you won’t—”

“Kill her if I win?” I finished for him. “I can’t promise that and you know it.”

“But I’ll promise I won’t kill your brother if I win.”

“That’s not really an issue for me. You aren’t going to win. I am.”

He shook. I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or rage. I hoped it was the former. “I know what you did at the last trial. I know it was you who caught her and brought her back.”

An icy trickle of unease slid down my spine, but I affected an air of nonchalance. “What of it?”

“I’m sure Cal would like to know of the rules violation.”

“I’m sure he would, too. Then what? I’d be disqualified?” I steepled my fingers and drew out the logical conclusion that he feared most. “You’d have to go up against Eagleton alone. Eagleton would win, obviously. You’re already coming apart, and your Acquisition broke in the first trial. Eagleton won’t cut a deal with you, but he will cut your sister’s head off and hand it to you by the hair.”

Red dry heaved and clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Vomit on this rug and you’re buying a new one, asshole.” Lucius curled his lip in distaste.

Red swallowed hard and tried to compose himself. “P-please. I have information.”

“Why this sudden urge to work together?” Lucius asked. “You’ve always been a royal fucking prick, and now, out of the blue, you want to be a helpful fucking prick instead? What changed?”

“What you said. Brianne is broken. She’s not strong enough. She’s not like your bi—”

“Call her a bitch, cunt, or anything other than Stella or Ms. Rousseau, and I can promise you, you will not like the results.” My words were calm and even, though my need to do violence increased with every syllable of weakness Red uttered.

“N-not like Stella. I can feel it. You are going to win. I know it. But if you do… I can’t close my eyes without seeing Evie dead, and I-I’m the one who…” He ran a shaking hand over his face.

“What’s the information?” Lucius walked over to stand behind Red. “What did you want to tell us?”

“Not until you promise. You have to promise me Evie’s life. Please.” He leaned forward, his hands clasped.

I glanced to Lucius. He shrugged. If Red told me and I won, my promise wouldn’t matter. I could kill Evie and kick Red’s family out of the aristocracy. Then again, I never broke my word.

“If I promise you that, and I win, they would rip me apart. The rules are clear. If I win, Evie has to die. No losing last born has ever lived past the coronation.”

“Fuck the goddamn rules!” He screamed, his voice raw and explosive.

I studied him as he took a deep breath, torment in every movement from the shake of his hands to the sorrowful look in his eyes.

“Please, Sin. Please. I can’t kill her. I can’t let you kill her. I’d rather die. I thought I had a chance to win. I thought I could save her myself. I can’t. I need you. Please.” He slid to his knees. “I’ll do anything you ask, give you whatever you want, just please—spare her.”

“Fucking pathetic.” Lucius slapped the back of the sofa.

Red didn’t move from the floor, only stared up at me with watery eyes. I liked him broken and begging. Even so, I needed whatever scraps of information he’d brought me. If it would help Stella and Teddy, I had to have it. I would sort the consequences later.

I leaned forward. “The deal is this. You win, you spare Teddy. I win, I spare Evie. But the upfront price for this bargain is that you tell me everything you know about the remaining trials.”

“I know what happened ten years ago. I can give you the details.”

“That’s it?” Lucius pushed off from the back of Red’s chair and walked around to glare at him. “Some shitty intel from ten years ago?”

I held up my hand. “Let him talk.” Any shred of information was helpful at this point.

“Okay, okay.” Red pushed himself from the floor.

“No. Stay there and tell me.” I pointed to the rug beneath him. This brief negotiation had done nothing to wipe away the insults and threats he’d made to Stella. He would pay for each of them in time.

Red slid back down to his knees and glared up at me. “That year, there was this hellacious obstacle course. Crawling through glass, swimming in a leech pit, climbing barbed wire.”

“Jesus Christ.” Lucius sat next to me.

“The winner was the only Acquisition who made it through.”

“I suspected something like what you’ve described.” I would deal with all of the horrors later, when Stella and I were alone. The thought of her suffering through any of it made acid boil in my stomach. “But why does this trial focus on family? I didn’t hear any family angle whatsoever.”

Red rubbed his eyes, grinding his palms into them as if trying to erase an image. “Because the last-borns were part of the trial. The two losing families had to send their youngest through the same obstacle course as punishment.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

S
TELLA

“
H
OW WILL WE KEEP
it from Teddy?” I punched Dmitri’s palm and ducked as he swung.

“I’ve called him home from school. He’ll stay here with Lucius.” Sin walked around us in a wide circle as we sparred.

A courier had arrived earlier in the week carrying a missive with the familiar Oakman seal. The trial was set, and my time was up.

“He hasn’t been summoned with us tomorrow?” I dodged Dmitri’s hand and smacked him on the back of the head as I dashed past. “For the triathlon?” I added for Dmitri’s sake.