Page 42 of King of Lies (Mayhem Manuscripts Season One: 1nf3ction #6)

August

I spoon-fed William tiny snippets of visions over the next few days, reeling him in slowly with tales of the beautiful—and completely mythical—woman.

I described her dress, the way she wore her hair, and invented a tragic past in which her family had died, leaving her desperate for a man like him.

Someone strong. Someone sure of his place in the world.

Someone who could rescue her from the drudgery her life had become.

He devoured it like a starving man savoring the crumbs offered to him.

If not for the passing of days and the knowledge Keaton was waiting, I might have enjoyed wrapping William around my little finger. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how loud the bees must have become in my absence.

Then there was Bruce. Whenever he was around, there was a watchfulness in his gaze that unsettled me. He never said or did anything. But something in his expression made me suspect he wasn’t buying it. So I watched him while he watched me, both of us locked in a silent, unspoken dance.

He and William were close, but how close? While I whispered in William’s ear to maneuver him to my side, did Bruce pull him in the opposite direction behind my back? I had no proof, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

Men like William didn’t get where they were without being clever. Were we both playing a role? And what about Bruce? He seemed like more muscle than brainpower, but what if that was a role too? A game within a game within a game.

The longer it went on, the less I slept. And without sleep, my cognitive abilities would decrease, and my objectivity would go. Clever would turn stupid. Two steps ahead would become one step behind. I needed to bring this thing to its conclusion, and soon.

With that in mind, I was seconds away from feigning a vision when Bruce blundered into the room without knocking. I cleared my expression, hiding my irritation behind a veneer of neutrality.

“Problem?” William asked.

“Someone let Rebecca go. We went to check on her, and she wasn’t there.”

William took his time turning the words over in his mind, as he always did. “How do you know someone released her?”

“The rope was cut,” Bruce said. “The tide didn’t wash it away.”

I cursed Keaton silently for not taking the rope with him. I’d taken the one used on Madeleine for that very reason.

“What about Rebecca?” William pressed.

“Not there,” Bruce said with a shrug.

“Did she turn?”

Another shrug. “I’d thought you’d want to know. Especially after what we suspected with Madeleine.”

Oh, they’d had suspicions, had they? Interesting that they’d never mentioned it while I was around. “The man released her,” I said, making a snap decision I hoped wouldn’t prove my undoing.

Both heads turned my way. William’s eyes narrowed. “What man?”

“I’ve seen him,” I said carefully. “I just didn’t know how he was relevant?”

“And how is he relevant?”

I glanced Bruce’s way, the message clear.

“You’re dismissed,” William snapped.

Bruce left without another word. Annoyance sharpened William’s features as he turned to me. “A man has been releasing my children, messing with what I’m trying to achieve here, and you didn’t think it worth mentioning. Whose side are you on, Gray?”

I didn’t like that question. It cut too close to the truth. “Your side,” I said without hesitation. “Unequivocally.”

William studied me, searching for the lie. I didn’t fidget, and I didn’t blink. He looked away first. “Tell me what you know.”

“He has a vendetta against you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. The Lord has not shown me that.” How did I use this to get him alone? That had always been the hardest part. William had followers eager to do his bidding, so why would he risk himself, rather than remaining safe in his ivory tower?

“That’s why he’s freeing the women,” I said. “He doesn’t believe in your work. He thinks you’re a crackpot.” Just like everyone else outside this castle, until you worm your way into their heads.

“A crackpot.” Amusement flickered across William’s face.

“His words. Not mine.”

“For someone you never mentioned, you seem to know a lot about him.”

“Most of my visions of him came before I arrived at the castle. I thought the Lord simply wanted me to know what you were up against, the challenges you face from non-believers. But…” I paused deliberately. “I see now I was na?ve, that I should have looked deeper. And I feel him close.”

William thought for a moment, tiny frown lines appearing. Then he shrugged. “He is of no consequence.”

I rose casually and walked to the window, looking out at the abandoned houses of Dover below. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“We’ll leave guards there next time,” William said scornfully. “Out of sight. If he interferes again, we’ll deal with him. Problem solved.”

As convenient as it might seem to have a vision now, I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t act now, my plan would fall apart. Gripping the windowsill, I let my knees buckle. William rushed to my side as I sagged. “What do you see?” he demanded.

I didn’t answer, keeping to the previous pattern of being so overwhelmed by the images I couldn’t speak. When I swayed, William steered me back across the room and into the chair. I blinked a few times, feigning blurred vision.

“Well?” William asked when I focused on him. He leaned forward in his chair, his rapt attention making me want to smile. Yeah, I still had him.

“It’s a test,” I rasped. “The Lord wants you to prove yourself again.”

“How?”

“You must meet this man. And you must go alone. That is the test.”

Something flickered across William’s face. Something that convinced me he was about to call bullshit.

“The girl is with him,” I added softly.

“What girl?”

“The girl?”

“The blessed one?”

It was hard not to roll my eyes every time he used that title. My immunity was genetic—an aberration from my grandmother’s bloodline. No deity had bestowed it on me. If they had, I’d hardly be conning people for a living. “The blessed one,” I agreed. “I saw her in my vision, and she was with him.”

“Does she lie with him?”

That made me want to laugh. Both for the old-fashioned phrasing, which was ridiculous from a man who bedded multiple wives daily, and for the amount of jealousy it conveyed. He was jealous over a woman who didn’t exist, one I’d invented. Perhaps I’d done too good of a job.

“I do not think so.”

“Then why is she with him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you could ask him.” My voice held a challenge. This could still go tits up. For all I knew, William was a coward.

He thought for a moment. “How am I supposed to confront him if I don’t know where he is?”

“He’s close. The Lord has assured me He’ll provide further guidance once we set out.”

“We? I thought I was to go alone?”

“Alone, yes,” I said smoothly. “But with me as your guide.”

“So not completely alone?”

Anybody else, any other situation, and I would have sighed.

Was Keaton really worth all this? Did I truly believe we could work?

Strangely, I did. We’d needle each other, compete, argue fiercely, but we’d also blaze hotter than an inferno when it came to makeup sex.

My grandma had once told me, in one of those conversations that made me want to shrivel up and die, that passion was the foundation of everything. I was beginning to believe her.

“Gray?”

“Huh?” I almost broke character. Concentrate, August. There won’t be any future with Keaton if you fuck this up.

“Another vision?”

“No. I was just…” The narrowing of William’s eyes demanded an answer.

“I was wondering why the Lord feels He must test you.” I let a thread of anger slip into my voice.

“Haven’t you done enough? You’ve devoted every waking moment to Him, recruited followers to his cause, lived in this draughty castle, enforced His standards.

What more must you do?” I shook my head. “You’re right. You shouldn’t go.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Ignoring him, I pressed on. “You are Beloved Father. Let this man come to you if he has a problem. Let him meddle from afar. Let him keep the girl. We’ll find another who is blessed.

Someone more suitable. Someone untainted by her association with those who are not worthy.

Her soul must be black from the time she has spent with him. She does not deserve to be your wife.”

William’s expression grew stormier with every reason I gave. “That is my decision, not yours.”

I bowed my head. “Of course, Beloved Father. I am merely pointing out that you shouldn’t feel pressured into anything.”

“I do not fear this man.”

I laughed. “Of course not. He is nothing.”

“I am confused about what the Lord expects me to do with him if he bears such a grudge.”

“I suppose that will become clear when you speak to him.”

“Perhaps.” William looked thoughtful. “When do we go?”

Elation filled me, bright and buoyant. “Now?” It wasn’t guaranteed Keaton would be there. I assumed he found something to do during the day. But if we reached the tunnel to find it empty, I could spin William a yarn about the Lord giving him the opportunity to lie in wait.

William shook his head. “Not now. I have a matter to attend to. Two hours from now. Meet me at the gate at midday.”

I bowed my head again. “Two hours, then.”

“Leave me.”

I obeyed.

Those two hours stretched into the longest of my life. In my room, I paced, turning over every way the plan could collapse. William might change his mind. He might bring others. He might be playing me as much as I was playing him.

When the sun’s position in the sky told me it was midday, I headed to the front gate. Since arriving, I’d only left for Rebecca’s punishment at William’s insistence. That night there had been eight of us, nine if you counted Rebecca.

Now it was just me. Curious looks followed, but no one stopped me.

Bruce was nowhere to be seen, and it wasn’t like a man of his size could hide.

Gerard stood at the gate in Bruce’s stead.

He shrugged when I asked about the other man’s absence.

He opened the gate without argument to leave me outside, truly alone for the first time in weeks.

As the minutes ticked by with no sign of William, I considered whether this could be it.

It was possible he’d seen through my machinations and reasoned that the easiest way to rid himself of me was to pretend to go along with my plans, shepherd me out of the gate, and then simply refuse to let me set foot back inside.

The sun burned, the heavy robe stifling. One way or another, I’d get to take the damn thing off today. The question was whether it would be with the reek of failure hanging over me, or the far sweeter scent of victory.

The wait reminded me of my first day here. I waited. And waited. Finally, the gate creaked open, and William stepped out. Alone. No guards. No Bruce.

William being that na?ve almost disappointed me. Which was silly when that’s exactly what I’d been working toward for weeks: him trusting me enough to put himself in a previously inconceivable situation.

“Ready?” I asked.

William nodded. “Ready.”

He had a resolve about him that made me ponder what he thought might happen when we got there. Was he armed? Just because I’d never seen him with a weapon didn’t mean he didn’t have one. There were few people in this world who didn’t carry something. Even children had knives from an early age.

Halfway down the cliff, I glanced back. We were definitely alone, the castle gate remaining shut, and no one following. Relief loosened something in my chest. Whatever weapon William might carry, he stood no chance against two of us.

William didn’t speak, and I was happy to follow his lead. Three quarters of the way down, I conjured another vision. “I know where to go,” I said after. “The Lord has shown me where this man hides.”

“Show me,” William said.

Lagging a couple of paces behind gave me the luxury of smiling without him being able to see.