The Red Queen (31 page)

“To keep you company and entertained,” Bayrose said. “She’s with Ashburn.” And immediately she saw insane jealousy burning darkly in his hazel eyes. Of course it didn’t sit well with him that he sucked out part of the Siren’s poison so she could have fun with his rival. His pain diluted the acid roiling in Bayrose, just as his jealousy increased it.

The angry fire in his eyes turned to cold stone. “Leave,” he said.

“I came because I wanted to,” she said. “You need a friend who really cares about you, who will never use you and then discard you.”

“You're no friend to me,” he spat. “You used me to deliver the poison. I was a fool to trust you. Now wipe that innocent look off your face and get the hell out.”

His words were full of venom, but to her surprise, the jagged pain in her chest only dulled. At least he was talking to her. He was telling her that they had a trust issue and that he was still hurting from her betrayal.

“Be fair. You used me first to get a hand on Nexus Tear. You didn't know Lucienne’s father was going to add poison to it, and neither did I. How could you hate me for other people’s sins?”

“I hate myself more for poisoning the only girl I love.”

Could Vladimir hear the sizzling when he pressed a hot iron over her heart as he professed his love for her rival in front of her?

“You didn't poison my sister, neither did I,” she said. “I hope one day you can find the truth in your heart and know that I'm innocent. If I had a hand in that scheme, I wouldn't have come to Sphinxes. I wish more than anything that my sister gets well soon. I pray to God every day to let me take her place and poison me instead. Do not keep hating me, please. I can’t bear it. It’s the Sealers founder and his cronies we should hate.”

Pure hatred lit like black flame in Vladimir’s eyes. “I swear on my soul I'll seal him and all of his minions in cheap coffins,” he said through his perfect, clenched white teeth. “I’ll bury them alive.”

At least he didn’t include me on the list of those he wants to kill
, Bayrose thought.
That is quite an improvement.
“I'll assist you, Vlad. We have a common enemy. I’m so glad I escaped with Kian. If I hadn’t succeeded, I’d never have met my only sister, and I’d never have seen you again.”

“I don't need your assistance,” he said.

It was strange that even though Vladimir resented her, she found it much easier to talk to him than Ashburn. She was always lost for words in Ashburn’s presence. Then again, she wasn’t alone. She noticed that no one, except Lucienne, knew how to engage Ashburn in conversation.

Ashburn was at ease with Lucienne. When she was her insane self, the chemistry between them rocketed so high that the Czech prince would risk his life to break them apart.

“You need me, Vlad,” Bayrose said. “I’ll prove myself to you. I’ll earn your trust back.”

He looked straight at her. “Don’t think for a second that I’ll trust you again. I’ll never forgive you, just as I’ll never forgive myself for my girl’s suffering. I haven’t torn you apart because you’re Lucia’s sister. Hurting you would hurt her. But make no mistake—if a mere thought of harming her pops out of your little skull, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

“Point taken,” Bayrose said. She’d take his wraith. When it faded, she’d regain his grace, and then his affection. And when Lucienne checked out, Bayrose would be the one to comfort the prince in his grief. She’d worm her way back into his heart. She’d do whatever it took to get him back, and humiliation was part of the package. She was only being practical. Her future happiness was more important than her pride.

“Then why are you still here?” he asked.

“I need you to promise me to preserve yourself. If you keep taking in the poison, you'll burn out. You’ll be like her. You can die, and I can't allow that.”

His eyes sharpened to dark blades. “Allow? Who the hell do you think you are? Whatever is between Lucienne and me is none of your business. It’s none of anyone’s business.”

He looked at her as if she were a rattlesnake. It was such a sharp contrast to how he gazed at Lucienne—all tender, loving, and fierce. In that instant, Bayrose’s heart hardened. “Have you not cared even a little about me?”

“I do not care about you. I don’t even care if you were innocent or not. All I know is we both had a part in poisoning her. Lucia keeps you here, so I have to live with that. But I want to have nothing to do with you. The truth is: I can’t stand the sight of you.”

“I once knew you. You're many things, Prince Vladimir, but I didn't realize you could be so spiteful, unforgiving, and heartless.”

“Get used to it,” he said callously.

She’d heard of his notorious reputation with girls. Her ally Mirrikh and other friends had warned her. She’d been confident she would be the exception, but it turned out only Lucienne was immune to his cruelty—if only because she was even more malicious than him. The two villains deserved each other.

“Now get out of my room,” the Czech said.

And Bayrose snapped. She no longer cared if it was his own venom talking or the venom he took from the Siren. “I hate you too!” she said, forcing back tears.

He wiped his lips with the back of his hand to clean off her scent.

Bayrose fled to the door and almost tripped over the toppled chair.

She’d lost everything, including herself, because of the Siren.

Hate was a bottomless well, and the Shadow hovered above it.

Lucienne and Vladimir had doomed Sphinxes. Soon, a war the likes of which the world had never seen would rain its wrath on the Siren and her people.

Bayrose’s pain evaporated. Her heart had never felt so inhumanly cold.

CHAPTER 27

SLEEPLESS NIGHT

The cacophony of billions of living and dead strangers’ memories echoed relentlessly in Ashburn’s mind, but they couldn’t dull his awareness of Lucienne’s presence. She was near. It was another sleepless night for her.

Ashburn left his bed and exited the mansion.

Lucienne wandered in the dark forest. The rim of her white gown, almost shining in the moonlight, glided over the leaf-paved ground. The wind hugged her thin gown to her body, revealing her shapely figure. 

Ashburn drew a long breath and trekked toward the girl of his dreams.

Two of her guards immediately whipped around toward him, guns drawn.

“It's Ash,” Lucienne said without turning.

Adam lowered his gun as he saw it was indeed Ashburn.

Lucienne now looked at Ashburn over her shoulder. Ashburn’s pulse spiked. His heart forever beat for her. His soul sang to her. He only hoped the sane Lucienne could hear it.

“Ash,” she greeted.

He gave her a smile and joined her. He rarely smiled these days. “Can’t sleep?” he asked with concern.

She shook her head, then asked, “What kept you up?”

“I sensed you,” he said, “without tracing your guards' memories.”

Adam and the other guard looked uncomfortable. They gave Lucienne and Ashburn a wide berth, wishing the distance would weaken Ashburn’s mental intrusion. Ashburn ignored their futile resistance. He didn’t mind them. He didn’t mind anyone, except Lucienne.

He’d changed and continued to change. TimeDust bestowed him great power, but it also took away part of his humanity. The bond he had with his parents and Violet was now as thin as a piece of paper. He gazed at the only person he still cared about and wanted very much to wrap his arms around her. The Lure swam around them
, dwelling on his skin. But Ashburn wouldn’t touch her without her permission. He willed her to give him a hint of invitation.

A twitch of muscles on her beautiful, stubborn jaw told him otherwise. Ashburn swallowed as pain slammed into him as well.

The mad Lucienne would never fight their attraction, with or without the Lure. The uninhibited Lucienne indulged it and welcomed it. She wore her feelings for him in the open. She was wildly enchanting and more stunning than the sane, regal Siren. Ashburn suddenly realized that part of him preferred the insane Lucienne, and that thought shamed him.

“I sensed you as well,” Lucienne said, holding his guilty gaze. She must have mistaken it for the punishing pain he was enduring. For a fleeting second, he swore he saw her ruefulness as she appeared puzzled by why she had to fight the Lure and their connection.

“Ash, I want—”

“What do you want?” he asked urgently. He knew what she wanted. He felt the same desperate need too. He wanted her.

Was this Lucienne going to give in at midnight, when her will weakened, when her need heightened?

“I—” She looked up at him, stepped closer, and laid her hand on his arm.

Ashburn regretted wearing a jacket. He should have put on a thin T-shirt so his skin could feel her touch. Silently, he watched desire and reason battle in her whiskey brown eyes. A second later, she withdrew her hand and stepped back. Her reason and loyalty won again. Blazek, the forever nuisance, was still between them. And Ashburn couldn’t get rid of the Czech before his worth expired.

“I need to go away for a little while,” he finally said.

An alarmed look widened her eyes. Her need for him became palpable.

“Lucia, I’ll be back,” he immediately added.

“It takes longer and longer for you to come back each time.”

“I can't sense the passing of time inside the Rabbit Hole.”

“I understand you need a break. You need the silence in your head, but—”

“I need to find an answer.”

Lucienne tilted her head. “But you had the answer.”

“I've seen Jekaterina's memories,” he said. “I’ve
been watching her lab work.
She has the partial code.” But he didn’t trust her selective memories.
He’d never known anyone who could manipulate their own memories like she did.

And some of her memories made him wince. He’d seen her tremendous labor pain giving birth to Lucienne. The baby survived, but who would have thought it’d grow up to be the most gorgeous girl in the world? The squirming baby was quite ugly.

Jekaterina’s partial code could fix Seraphen’s broken memories, and Ashburn would have the final answer to the cure.

“Jekaterina told me the code,” Lucienne said.

“You know what it’s about?”

“Ash, I don't trust her.”

“Can you trust me?”

Her gaze on him softened, then saddened. “With my life.”

The love for her churned inside him. He couldn’t help but step toward her and brush away a strand of hair blown by the wind from her face. Her eyes glinted with longing, but it was gone the next second. Again, she repressed it.

“I must know if it’s the only solution,” he said.

“If it is?” Lucienne asked.

“For our sake,” he said, “I hope it isn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t want you to do it.”

He swallowed hard. She was never as selfish as she claimed to be. Then he forgot that he was waiting for her invitation to touch her and pulled her into a tight embrace. She didn’t protest, but stood very still. A second later, Ashburn tore himself away from her softness and warmth and summoned his ride.

In the air on Spike, Ashburn couldn’t tell if the sharp pain was from the Lure or from his own heart. And he couldn’t bear to look back at her standing far beneath him amid the dark maple trees under the moon.

CHAPTER 28

A PIE

Bayrose had never imagined this could happen to her—she’d fallen into the ranks of those girls subjected to the Czech prince’s cruel treatment.

She was the princess and the secret new leader of the Sealers, and she’d humbled herself before him. “I just want us to be like before.”

He’d said impatiently, “Before was a mistake.”

He was right. He and all those he cared for would soon pay for that mistake. When Sphinxes fell, all would know that Bayrose wasn’t just any girl to be dismissed and disposed of easily.

The moment she’d snapped, she’d no longer wanted to follow through on her previous plan to infiltrate the Siren’s circle and take over Sphinxes at Lucienne’s death. She wanted her enemies to see her glory before they went down. She wanted to see their dumbfounded looks when she proudly revealed her true identity. She hadn’t asked for this war, but both Lucienne and Vladimir had forced her hands. One killed her father, stole her mother, and took her great love; the other killed her hope and her ability to ever love again.

Together they’d turned her into an invisible shade.

The Shadow affected her every minute of the day. She couldn’t remember how long ago she’d actually laughed. But the Shadow granted her a strength she hadn’t possessed as the former Bayrose. With its superpower, she was no longer petrified of leading the Sealers into war.

The Shadow agreed. “You’re taking back the birthright that was cheated out of you and your ancestors.”

Bayrose knew the story: at the start of the human race, twin boys had fought to be the heir to the first Siren. The younger one had tricked and threatened his older brother into giving up his birthright.

Lucienne Lam was the last descendent of the treacherous younger twin. Bayrose was the other side of the coin.

“You’re the
true
Siren,”
the Shadow confirmed. “You’ll right the wrong of the secret history of the world.”

“I was the only one who ever took in the Shadow,” Bayrose said.

“You’re brave.”

“And naïve,” she said. “But as long as Lucienne Lam lives, I’m doomed to be in her shadow. I must end the Sirens’ line.”

“And become the one and only Siren yourself.”

It was one thing for Bayrose to want to take out her sister, but when she saw how fervently the Shadow wanted to murder Lucienne, she felt a chill slice up her spine. “Will I be free of you once I kill her?” she asked.

“You know the cost.”

Yes, the cost. She’d never get rid of it. She’d become a slave to the Shadow in her.

“You must act before Jekaterina interferes,” it said.

Yes, Mother knew that Bayrose had taken in the Shadow. Did she know about her daughter’s plan for vengeance? Would Mom betray her to her sister? The hollow panic that arose in Bayrose soon eased. With Shadow shielding her, no one could read her true intention. Yet, the look her mother had given her was more than unsettling. There had been no sunlight in Mom’s look.

But Bayrose had other advantages over her powerful mother besides the Shadow. Kian and the generals considered Bayrose innocent. Lucienne accepted her. Their security no longer put her under their radar as they did Jekaterina. Furthermore, Sphinxes wouldn’t expect the Sealers to rise again so quickly to strike back, and that Sealers’ founder, Bayrose Thorn, was right in the enemy’s heart to direct the blow.

The Sealers had no need of its own army. They were the shadow government behind many nations, and those nations, including the United States of America, were anxious about Sphinxes’ growing power. The Brotherhood would keep pumping fear into those nations’ veins.

Their combined nations’ forces would hit Sphinxes at its weakest point—its uncrowned Siren queen was half-mad and fatally poisoned, leaving her nation-to-be most unstable and vulnerable.

The prince and all those who had underestimated Bayrose would see how great and terrifying she was, and the Siren would be forever diminished in Bayrose’s shadow. History would reverse and right itself.

That night, Bayrose baked a yogurt and apricot pie from one of her mother’s recipes. When she brought it to Lucienne, her half-sister was in the middle of a bath, singing a bawdy song.

Vladimir was in the sitting room, shaking his head at the song and waiting for his insane girlfriend to come out. He barely gave Bayrose a glance when she brushed past him and stepped into Lucienne’s bedroom.

When she was sure to be out of anyone’s direct sight, Bayrose picked up Lucienne’s phone on the vanity table. She hit the password that the mad Lucienne had revealed to her. Within two minutes, Bayrose sent
Mirrikh Schwartz
the maps of Sphinxes’ military bases, classified labs, and the location of the Siren’s white mansion.

Then she texted Mirrikh the access code to Devourer.

Bayrose put the phone back and wiped the sweat from her palms on her pants.

The last thing the Sphinxes’ team would check was their Siren’s private phone line. And before they had the chance to look, Bayrose’s army would be here.

She was cutting the pie when her sister threw open the bathroom door and danced out in a scarlet mini skirt.

“A pie!” Lucienne cheered.

Probably your last one, Sister
, thought Bayrose.
Enjoy it while you can.