Page 30 of Queen Crow
She was only a child.
Of course, they all underestimated her. Who’s expecting a thirteen-year-old to be able to do the things she could? They also don’t understand desperation or what happens when you’re brought up in very specific conditions.
There’s another timeline somewhere out there where Lips was brought up by parents who loved her, and that girl couldn’t have survived this, but this Lips was starved and beaten and forced to take on the mask of a monster to make it out alive.
The crowd is restless, but there’s too much fear in them still to worry about them. There shouldn’t be any problems tonight, not after everything that has gone down in the last few months, but Lips still sidles up to me, carefully watching the crowd as much as she’s looking out at the tree line for the first signs of the competitors. The guys all position themselves around us, close enough that they’re able to dive in front of either of us if someone starts shooting, but far enough away that there’s no mistaking who is in charge here.
No one needs to know that our family works with a democratic voting system, and while Lips might know more and have a greater say on most issues thanks to her experiences, she’s still not our boss. Not the way they all think anyway.
There’s the very clear sounds of fighting, grunting, and male screaming echoing through the night air, and my body breaks out in a very specific type of goosebumps. It’s eerie, like the sounds aren’t just from tonight and instead we’re listening to the sounds of generations of competitors fighting for their survival.
Jesus.
Aodhan’s hand squeezes mine again and I glance up at him, carefully keeping my face blank. He’s scowling at the trees along with everyone else, focused entirely on whatever horrors are happening out there.
Everything changes tonight.
Luca makes it out first, dragging one of the other men’s corpses with him and dropping it at the edge of the clearing as proof of death. His chest is heaving a little and he’s covered in dirt and streaks of mud, but other than bloodied knuckles, he’s unharmed.
Lucy is a close second, a bruise forming on her cheek and her hands are torn up a little, but she’s also in fairly good shape. Neither of them attempt to look at each other, let alone size each other up. There’s no point, there’s three seats open on the Twelve now and they’re both being sponsored by allies.
It’s everyone else who needs to die.
The other three men all arrive within seconds of each other, and they all go straight for Lucy. I wonder if Lips is the reason they’ve learned not to just leave the girl for last? Whether it was her strangling a man with her thighs and stabbing another that taught them the lesson.
It doesn’t matter anyway, Lucy is ready for them, and even with the tiny limp she still has thanks to the last Game, she is more than prepared to take them on.
Luca doesn’t hesitate to throw himself into the melee. They have to be careful to only kill two out of the three men, but it’s not a pretty or skillful fight.
Two of the guys split off to take on Luca together, one of them viciously and the other one holding back a little, like he knows he’s seconds away from a seat if he outlives the other two. Lucy gets her guy on the ground with a sharp jab to his healing bullet wound and then she sets about strangling him, holding him down long enough to find one of the many heavy rocks on the ground.
There’s an audible crack as Luca snaps a neck, flinging the body away from himself right as Lucy lifts a rock without hesitation, slamming it into the asshole’s skull, his entire body jerking as his brain is pulverized.
“She’s good,” Lips murmurs to me, loud enough that Aodhan hears and gives her a curt nod of approval.
He doesn’t look at Luca, doesn’t attempt to watch the man who killed his cousin win his own spot at the table. It’s going to be a problem for us someday soon, the two of them forced to endure each other when there’s so much bad blood, but for right now, all that matters is that Luca is alive and going to take a seat at the table as well. We’re about to have six seats of our own, six people who will always vote together, and the Bay is ours. No matter what else happens here, we’ve accomplished exactly what we’d hoped for.
There’s a moment of tense silence, only the panting of the three winners breaking through the quiet of the night, before the moment all of this violence and bloodshed has been for.
Lips doesn’t hesitate to move forward, taking up the leadership role now that Atticus isn’t here to do it. When she gets to Lucy, she says those same words that every other member has heard, standing there panting and covered in blood.
“Welcome to the Twelve. You’re replacing the Lynx. Who do you choose to be?”
Lucy takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly before answering with a clear and steady voice, “I am the Scorpion.”
I nod slowly. It’s a good choice, appropriate for the poisons expert, and Lips takes another step down the line. Luca nods at her respectfully and she says again, “Welcome to the Twelve. You’re replacing the Jackal. Who do you choose to be?”
He’s faster with his answer than Lucy, his eyes a little too fixated on Lips for my liking. “I am the Eagle.”
The last guy is shaking a little, his broken arm still clutched to his chest, and when Lips says the words one last time, he replies, “I am the Hyena.”
And then there were Twelve.
Chapter Ten
I start to think that Harley might gouge Luca’s eyes out if he doesn’t stop looking at Lips.
There isn’t anything left to happen after the Wolf declares them all members of the Twelve, and we should be able to immediately move back to our cars and get the hell out of this haunted forest, but there’s a tenseness in the air as the other, older members of the Twelve stare down the new members.