Page 200
Story: Princes of Chaos
Listlessly, I swing my gaze toward the window, finding a cold, dreary sky.
“Oh.” Stella pauses, the heavy brocade of the curtain still clutched in her hands. Outside, rain is pelting the window. She shrugs. “Okay then, rise and gloom, because it’s almost three in the afternoon, and we’ve got a jam-packed evening! What do you say we begin with a trip to the solarium, hm?” When no response arrives, she turns to me, meeting my gaze.
Gradually, all of her chipper spirit plummets away.
“Hey,” she begins, deflating as she perches on the side of the bed. “I know the other night was…” She glances down at her wringing hands. “Well, it was a nightmare. I’m not going to put any sugar on it. I managed to buy you some time with the King and his staff, but Verity,” she says, eyes pleading. “You need to eat. You need to take care of yourself. And somehow, you have to find a way to plan this ridiculous Valentine’s Day party, because there’s only three days left. You can’t just give up.”
That’s exactly what I’ve done, in fact.
I didn’t even get dressed after the shower. I allowed her to tuck me into this bed, and aside from a few trips to the bathroom, more than once to dry heave into the toilet, I haven’t moved since. I didn’t even realize a day and a half had passed until just now.
“What are they gonna do?” I ask, voice full of gravel. “Kill me?” The smile I give her is flat, but feels utterly jagged, and from the flash of panic in her eyes, she sees it.
At this point, death would be a mercy.
“You listen to me, Verity Sinclaire,” she says, the words hard. “You’re no pampered little East End socialite. You’re West End. You’re a fighter!”
The laugh scratches its way from my throat, dry and rough. Those are the same words I used to bolster myself that first week in this Palace. “Who am I going to fight, Stella? My Princes? Their King? Myself, for stabbing them in the back?” Rolling over, I wrench the blanket up to my chin, putting my back to her. “You should go. He’ll be here soon.”
She touches my hair. “Who?”
“Wicker,” I say. It makes sense that Pace didn’t come yesterday. After all, he’d already made his second deposit this week. But Wicker? “If it’s really Saturday, then he’ll be coming.”
After a pause, Stella’s fingers catching on my knotted hair, she says, “Prince Wicker isn’t here. None of them are.”
My eyebrows knit together. “What?”
“They’re at the All-Eastern tournament,” she explains, picking through a mat in my hair. “They won’t be back until late Monday.”
I turn to peer up at her. “When did they leave?”
“Thursday night. Right after…” Her eyes shutter and she sighs, dropping my knotted lock of hair. “I’ll try to clear the rest of your day today. But tomorrow, you’ll have to leave this room. Perhaps we’ll start with that trip to the solarium. You love the solarium!” Standing, she nods at the bedside table. “And please, eat?”
I follow her gaze to the covered tray I haven’t even considered touching. “I can’t.” Every time I close my eyes, I swear I can still feel them on me, the hot splash of semen tickling like a phantom illness that sends me scurrying back to the bathroom.
In a hopeful tone, Stella adds, “Danner can have anything made. He wants to. He’s been asking after you.”
It’s shame more than bile that rises up my throat. It takes me a long while to swallow it down, breathing through the urge to purge it. “I can’t,” I say again.
I can’t look Danner in the eye. He’ll know what happened to me. He’ll know what I did to instigate it. That I did it on his watch. He’ll look at me with those gentle eyes and see something less than Verity Sinclaire. He’ll see a traitor. He’ll see a victim.
I’m not sure which is worse.
It takesa long time for the idea to percolate in my head. Mostly because my thoughts are constantly invaded by the memory of the Royal Cleansing, but also because a part of me isn’t sure it’s worth it.
In the end, it’s desperation that drives me from the bed that night, slipping into the soft, worn clothes Stella left here for me two nights ago. There isn’t any hope behind it. No optimism. Nofight.
It’s just that if there’s one thing that can be salvaged from all of this, then it has to be this.
Ithasto be.
I open my door and cringe against the sconces in the hallway. They’re not bright, but my temples throb with the glow of them. Padding down to the door that leads to their rooms, my heart begins hammering frantically against my ribs. Stella said they were gone, but what if they aren’t? What if I open that door and they’re all inside, waiting?
What are they gonna do? Kill me?
It’s become my new mantra, and no matter how concerned it made Stella to hear it, the general sentiment is true. Unless this works, I have nothing left to lose.
When I push the door open, I’m strung tight in anticipation of finding someone on the other side. Luckily, all that greets me is their dark, vacant sitting room. I tiptoe out of instinct toward Pace’s room, the open door about as inviting as a guillotine.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213