AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I bristle. “Why am I important to you? Why am I here?”
His beady eyes flick to the door. “Follow me.”
I trace his footsteps through the room and up the stairs. As soon as we reach the top, four people come into view, where they stand against a clear wall that displays the entirety of the room that hangs from the ceiling.
“This is Salem.” He doesn’t say her last name, but the girl’s blonde hair hangs between her shoulders. He moves to the girlbeside her. “This is Eloise Evans, or you might know her better as—” His smile widens. “Lala.”
“Danny’s daughter?” She keeps her head down, her fingers twisting in her lap. “I thought she died when we were young. I remember hearing my dad talk about it with my mom.”
“Not dead.” The man steps between the bodies of kids. “I just, well, took her.” I’d never met her before, and our families were sworn enemies from beef that dates way back. We had to have a treaty between us and everything, but right now, I don’t see an enemy. I see a girl who has had her soul ripped from her, left with nothing but the shell of who I’m sure she was.
“Now, this one, this one here is where you come in.”
I follow his line of sight, down to another girl who is probably my age. She has washed-out ruby-colored hair that hangs down her back and a small, heart-shaped face. She’s the only one I can get a good look at, because she’s staring right at me. “Katsia Stuprum.”
I also know who she is.
“Now, obviously, she is a little late to the party, since we only just managed to get her the night I gave you the video. Of course, once I found out that she isn’t at all a Stuprum, well… I had to direct my attention elsewhere, and well—”
I swallow past the swell in my throat. “That’s why you threatened to take River. Because she’s a living Stuprum.”
He lowers his body onto the sofa, crossing his legs at the ankles. His head bends to the side as he studies me. “Yes. But you know, then I thought, hmmm… Was this set up? Did Mother Katsia know that I was going to do this and adopt this useless bag of bones as a decoy to protect someone else?”
He shrugs.
He was wrong. The old Katsia wasn’t even of Stuprum blood.Good to know our classified files stay that way.
“I guess we’ll never know now that she’s dead, but I had a better idea. I use River to get to you. A Hayes. Not just any Hayes, but one who is also Venari. How is your grandfather, by the way? I must say, I’ve not seen him in a long time.”
I clench my teeth. Of course, he knows Pop. Every bad man in this world knows him. But they always forget, Pop was nicknamed Hector “Mad King” Hayes, and whispers are fast swirling about Priest “Mad Prince” Hayes. Something I’ll never get to see. The rise of my brother taking the gavel. As us Kings. It hurts too much to feel, so I squash it down with my anger.
My teeth grind together to stop myself from losing it. Waiting a few moments until I’m calm, I move to the final boy. “And him?”
“Well, this one right here is Deacon.” The man’s eyes flash with pride. “Deacon Hayes.”
My heart stops as the boy lifts his head up to me. Forest green eyes that I’m sure will burn when given the chance, and soft sable hair. His chin is pointier than mine and Priest’s, but he has the Hayes cheekbones.
“What?”
“Mhhmm. That’s right. Your grandfather hasn’t been as honest with you lot as you would have liked, and by ‘you lot’, I mean your father.” Acid rises up my throat.
“Pop had another son?” My brows knit together. Not possible.
“No.”
My eyes fly to the aged piece of ham on the sofa.
“Your grandfather actually gave me this idea, so I should give him props. I bet not a single person knows this, not even your mother, but when your father and the Kings were, I don’t know, around your age, Hector was still running around as the Mad King.” His eyes widen as if reminiscing. “He ordered the three of them to give samples of their semen just in case, ya know—" Hewaves his hand. “Someone got someone pregnant and then the rest also needed to get pregnant within that birth window that you lot are wild about, or worse, none of them settled but they still needed another generation to carry.”
“You’re a liar.” My nails dig their way into my palms. “How would you know this? No one is privy to King business.”
“I know, Halen, because I was your grandfather’s oldest friend.” The wrinkles in his cheeks deepen when he smiles. “Think of you and Evie.”
My blood turns cold. “Don’t you ever say her name again.”
“Noted.” He pushes up from the sofa. “As I was saying, the samples were saved for a long time. When your father met your mother, and Nate and Brantley, and so on, they all ordered Hector to destroy them. Your pop did, because at that point, he was allI’m a good father now.Which is also around the time we stopped being friends.” He stops a moment.
No one knows much about Pop’s life, and I can bet that the mothers didn’t know this happened either.
