Page 112 of The Pawn

I look at it, remembering how it broke when Enzo cut me down and I landed on it. I feel the pain of it now. I nod and Cassian leads me down the stairs and out the door. It’s full day now and all over the field are strewn the bodies of fallen soldiers on both sides. Those who remain alive are walking like the dead. Even men used to such violence aren’t immune to it.

Jet meets us at the door. I smile to see him.

“Hey.”

He’s unhurt, but not unaffected. There’s a patch of gray hair at his temple that wasn’t there before.

“You all right?” he asks me.

I nod. “Thank you,” I say.

“It’s what friends do for each other.”

A sound from the field distracts me and I turn to look. I can pick out Cassian’s men. They’re in fatigues with bulletproof vests. They’re herding those who came to battle Cassian, those on Malek’s side, into an area nearest the woods.

“Come, Allegra,” Cassian says, opening the door of an SUV riddled with bullets.

“What happens to them?” I ask.

“They’ll have the opportunity to accept that Trevino and Moretti families are now united with one king and one queen. If they do, nothing happens.”

“If they don’t?”

He studies me in silence. That’s my answer. I glance once more at them, recognizing many faces. Does it make me a monster if I don’t care?

“I need to ask you one thing,” Cassian says. “What do you want me to do with Malek’s body?”

I don’t hesitate. “Burn it.”

42

ALLEGRA

One Week Later

Cassian set fire to that field. After collecting the bodies of the men who fell in his name, he burned it to the ground. The corpses of the traitors, the lake house, the blood staining that earth and the bones beneath it.

He’ll look after the families his men left behind. I heard him talking to some of the mourners, the mothers, the wives, the children. Cassian is kinder than most realize.

My villain will do right by his allies. But woe to you if you are his enemy.

The only body he carried out of there was Enzo’s. I watched him do it. I get it. They were not only cousins, but friends. Or Cassian was a friend. Enzo? I don’t know when he turned on his cousin, if his mind was poisoned by Malek or if it was pure jealousy and greed that fueled hisambition. We’ll never know, and I see how it’s on Cassian’s mind. I wish I could take away the pain of Enzo’s betrayal, but I know I can’t.

For me, leaving Malek’s body to burn, that was an easy choice. From the day I was born, he was my enemy. Hell, from the day I was conceived. I don’t mourn him. My thoughts are on Amal and Daniel. Will they look at me differently now? Daniel is too young to know or understand, but Amal, she may not ask who did the actual killing, but she knew her father. She knows what he did to me although I haven’t told her about the rest of it. How far back his betrayals go. He’s still her father. I know what it feels like to know the blood of a monster runs through your own veins. I don’t want to burden her any more than she already is burdened. I know every time she sees me, sees my hands, she’ll know.

She and Daniel will remain with their grandmother for a while. I think it’s a good idea for all of them. I got to meet her over Facetime. She was playing with Daniel and just seemed sweet. The opposite of her son.

Now, Jet and I stand inside, watching Enzo’s casket being lowered into the ground from the window. It’s just Cassian and Angelo out there and Angelo can barely stand. Although he is refusing a wheelchair.

I don’t feel for him either. He knew about Enzo. He learned the truth days before and he didn’t tell Cassian. He was there at the house when I was Malek’s prisoner and he walked away. He could have changed what happened and he didn’t.

A soldier clears his throat behind us. We turn. Jet raises his eyebrows.

“They’re starting to arrive,” he tells Jet.

“Keep them waiting. I don’t want them inside until we’re in place,” he says with an authority that matches Cassian’s.

Today isn’t only Enzo’s burial. It’s the day the remaining members of the inner circle of my family will meet with Cassian and a new treaty will be signed. I’ll be sitting at Cassian’s side for this. He’ll take the lead. I shouldn’t be anxious, but my stomach is in knots.