AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I was eight, Theo. Just eight years old when I attended my father’s funeral. Your father came too. I always thought that was his final insult to my father’s memory. One last chance to spit on his grave. The authorities who investigated the situation found your father innocent. Everyone called it a tragedy, but a few of us knew the truth. It was murder. But the worst part is what you told me last year, Theo. Attending the funeral wasn’t his final insult, was it? What’s your dog’s name?”
His voice ghosted out. “Roland.”
“Named after my father. I imagine he took a lot of pleasure from that. Watching a creature skulk around your estate, always underfoot, bearing the name of the man he’d just successfully buried. I might have never known that part of the story. Not without meeting you. But you wanted to know why I’m here. Aside from my affections for you, this is the answer. I am here to avenge my father. I’m here to seek justice for the man responsible for his death.”
The room fell silent. There was only Theo’s chest, rising and falling. Ren’s hands shook slightly at having finally confessed all this to someone. They stared at each other with the weight of new truth sitting on their shoulders. Theo broke the silence.
“You’re certain?”
“I am certain, Theo. As certain as I could be about anything.”
He bit his lip again. “That’s why you didn’t like me.”
Ren couldn’t help snorting. “I avoided you for that reason, but come on, the party? I had plenty of reasons to dislike you, Theo.”
He nodded at that memory. Ren could feel the slightest rumbling across their bond. She’d been waiting to see what emotion would come out of all of this. Pain? Embarrassment? Instead, she felt the beginnings of rage. White and hot and glowing from the very core of him.
“Tell me what you want me to do.”
The moment had arrived. Ren had dreamed it might come decades from now. If her original plan had worked, she’d be serving time in House Shiverian or House Winters, quietly working her way up through the ranks, positioning herself to strike back at the people who’d taken her father’s life. Instead, the moment was here. In this mountain pass, sitting across from a boy who could either unlock every door for her or slam the gates in her face.
“I want you to choose me.”
“I have chosen you.”
“Then choose me again. Choose me forever. Do you really think I could suffer to live out my years as Landwin Brood’s daughter-in-law? Imagine what that existence is like for me, Theo. Sitting at the same dinner table. Having to exchange words with him at every party. I will not live the rest of my life in the shadow he’s created for me.”
“So what are you saying? What do you want me to do? Kill him?”
“That would be a fine fucking start.”
Her words echoed off the walls. There was enough light that she could see dust motes floating in the air between them. Theo shoved to his feet. He didn’t turn to leave, though. He started pacing. Back and forth. Ren knew she was walking a narrow path. A tightrope that would require all her focus to cross.
“You’ve never imagined it?”
Theo shook his head, not looking back at her. “Of course I’ve imagined it. I hate my father, Ren. But there’s a large gap between hating someone and killing them. You’re talking about—”
“Justice.”
Theo turned back. “I was going to say murder.”
“It would be both,” she replied. “Who else could make him answer for what he did? What he’s done to you and to me? All the hundreds of sins that no judge or god will ever punish?”
Theo’s face looked wretched. “You’re talking about my family, Ren.”
“Yes. Your family. The people who grinned as your father sent you into exile. As you were forced to come to this godforsaken place—for the great crime of stooping to love me.”
She saw how that wounded him. The truth always struck the deepest.
“You didn’t hear the end of our conversation,” Ren said. “On that balcony. After I rejected his offer, your father threatened me.” She weighed how much she should stretch the truth. “He told me that I would be sent here to live with you. We would spend the rest of our days in Nostra. Exiled. And he told me that was the best possible scenario. That I would be lucky to make it out here in the first place. ‘Those mountain passes are tricky,’ he said. ‘Accidents happen all the time.’ ”
Ren felt how that stoked the flames within Theo. The way his rage continued building and burning across their bond. Theo was pacing again. He looked as ready as he’d ever be.
“But he would never actually…”
“Kill me? Listen to yourself, Theo. He killed my father. Why not me as well?”
Theo lashed out at one of the porcelain bookends on the nearest shelf. He sent it flying across the room. It struck the wall, shattering into pieces. She saw his hands were shaking.
