Daddy’s words echo in my head. And even though I’ve lived through the aftermath of his own betrayal, even though he’s not really my daddy at all, I never for a moment imagined that I'd feel the same sting from my three princes.
They’ve kept me strong through this hellish year and now… and now I’m right back where I started from. Alone in an empty house, caged by a legacy I wanted to escape.
My phone beeps. It's Livvie.The drop is set up. You good?
I’ll never be good again. I brace my hand against the glass, suck in a few shuddering breaths.
I'm good, I text back.
I'm Claudia August. I have to be good. I don’t have time to fall apart.
42
Claudia
It’s the Ides of March.
Not an auspicious day for a plot to capture my sister, but I’ve already been betrayed by the people I loved most, so what’s the worst that can happen?
I pace across the ballroom, flicking my knife from my sleeve, barely noticing the blade nicking my skin. Blood trickles from my palm, dotting the marble with specks of claret.
It’s five days after the boys walked out, George and Yara at their heels. I haven’t left the house, haven’t showered, barely slept. All I do is drag furniture and statues into the rage room to smash and scroll through videos on my phone of the fighting in the street.
A bunch of Cali’s haters blew up Constantine’s gym. Luckily, Cali and her assassins were out on jobs, but the workers in the Korean restaurant downstairs all died. I stare at the footage of the smoldering wreckage and feel nothing but a giant, gaping hole in my chest.
I’m made of glass. Cold and hard and as if one wrong move will shatter me to pieces.
I look at the clock again, even though it hasn’t changed since ten seconds ago when I last looked at it. Today is the big day. The day of the drop. The day I lure my sister out of her cave. I should feel triumphant, nervous,something.
But I feel nothing.
None of it makes sense without them. I was doing all of this for them, for us, for our future. But they’re not my future anymore.
I’ll have to get to the drop-off point soon. To face my sister. I can’t even muster up any enthusiasm. After all her crazy attempts to finish me off, I’m the one who blew up my life all on my own. It’s better this way. I was a fool to think I could rule a cruel world with love in my heart.
And yet…
And yet I dared to hope.
I don’t have a ride. I sent them all a text this morning. I didn’t tell them what I needed. Iasked. Because that’s what this is about, isn’t it? I’ve been acting like their ruler instead of their equal. So I asked for their help. I offered the olive branch.
And they’re not coming.
They’re not coming back to me.
The three people I wanted at my side, the ones I trusted to always have my back, and they won’t be there when I finally take down my sister.
It’s over.
I’ve been holding so tight to them that I didn’t even know I was holding sand until it trickled through my fingers.
I don’t want to do what I’m about to do. I wanted to keep him out of this. He’s the person I’ve turned to again and again. He told me I’d regret bringing so many people into our world, and he was right. And I can’t bear looking into his dark eyes and knowing that I cost him his chance to escape this life because of a lie.
They didn’t come. It’s over.
If my chest is empty, if my heart has shriveled into a dead, broken thing, then how can the cavity ache so much?
I’m running out of options. I hit the CALL button on my phone.
