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“Isn’t that obvious? You,” Maverick stated.
“She couldn’t keep you safe and knew all about the game. She went through Judicium years ago. None of us believed her when she said you didn’t know what it was. Turns out she was telling the truth.”
I turned and looked at Ciaran directly and finally asked what had been bugging me since the thought came to mind. “Are you the one that got her pregnant?”
Maverick smothered a laugh by pretending to clear his throat again. Ciaran’s eyes went glacial. He clearly didn’t like the implication. He leaned forward and made sure he had my full attention. “The only Serpine I’d ever waste a single breath on, is you. Never forget that.”
He said my family name as if it were riddled with disease. If he didn’t like them then Grace and Mel’s families were on his shit list too. It was the timeless divide I’d heard about all my life.
He and his friends belonged on one side and us on the other. The Belair’s were morally no better than Serpines, though. So where was this hatred coming from and why did Lamia trust them enough to bring me and Ciaran together.
“Okay, now that we’ve established none of us like one another--.”
“I never said I didn’t like her,” he interrupted Mel.
Maverick snapped his fingers to summon our attention. “Listen, I’ve got the cliff notes. You three should know all about the game because typically, you’d be the one doing all killing after your inductions. Since you’re all so oblivious we assume, and I can bet my asshole, you are going to be highly bid-on contestants from start to finish.”
There was an unspoken if you live that long hanging at the end of his sentence.
“Can you maybe add some enlightenment? Contestants for a game where we kill people or get killed?” I queried, not buying this was an actual thing.
The barn incident I could believe because I’d been there. I knew our families had wealth and shady ass people of power in their pockets. Getting away with murder was done as easily as Maverick had just snapped his fingers, but this was extreme.
“Puppet, if you don’t kill them, they’ll take immense pleasure in killing you.”
“Especially given who your family is,” Charon added. “They’ve already got some master scheme for the new playground.”
Maverick bobbed his head in agreement. “I didn’t even consider that. The bids that would come in for just one of you being on the wrong side of the game full throttle would be insane. The spectators would love it.”
“Spectators?” I repeated in a sad attempt at keeping up with the foreign language he was speaking.
“It’s a lot of complicated parts to this. We don’t want to overwhelm you,” Ciaran said in a way that warned Maverick he needed to stop talking.
“So, our families will just send us off to die?” Grace asked
“No. That is never the goal, especially when it comes to your family. Heirs are the foundation,” Ciaran explained. “As I said, there’s a lot that goes into it.”
Grace sighed and rubbed her temple, “This is unbelievable.”
“You better start believing because Judicium was child’s play. In our reality you don’t get to leave and go home at the end of the day,” Kyrous stated with a roll of his shoulders.
Mel laughed dryly. “Are we going to be locked away and forced to play along?”
“Yes,” Charon replied matter-of-factly.
I could tell by the energy in the room and their serious expressions that they were being serious. That didn’t make it any easier to accept. If Lamia was aware of this, she’d been keeping more from me than I thought.
If she wanted me to get involved with Ciaran, she had to have a reason, a pretty damn good one. The night of Judicium, he said it was to keep me safe. I was beginning to have a hunch on who she wanted me protected from.
Ciaran’s next words further solidified the culprits in question.
“We have a theory on why your families have been keeping you in the dark, but right now it’s better if you’re none the wiser.”
I worried my lip and sat back. “You never said why you decided to drag us into this at my sister’s behest.”
Ciaran gave me a look as if he was the one confused. “You think I’m doing this because of…? Lana, I don’t give a fuck about your sister. That had nothing to do with my decision.”
“But you know where she is?” I challenged.
“I have a general idea, but it isn’t something I would tell you.”
“Where is my sister?” I asked again with a calmness that was at odd with the tumultuous emotions warring inside my head and chest.
“I do not like repeating myself, so stop asking the same questions.”
I’m not sure what happened exactly in my thought process. One second, I was on the arm of the chair and the next I was damn near straddling his lap with a hand wrapped around his throat. “Where the fuck is my sister?”
