I focus every thought on supporting my own weight, but Antony’s moving too fast and my legs have become two strange floppy things that aren’t attached to my body. I sink back into his arms, letting him drag me where he needs us to go.
Antony’s here. The guys. Everything’s okay.
We emerge into the round room where Mackenzie left her parents’ bodies.Our parents. It’s exactly as I remember it, except that my foggy, grey-tinged mind registers two differences – a rope ladder now hangs from the hole high on the other side. And there seems to be a giant hole and a pile of dirt, and two more coffins in the room, even though Galen and Tiberius dismantled them and disposed of the Malloys weeks ago.
No. That’s just my double-vision. I rub my eyes. Moving my hands makes my whole body lurch to the side. I grab onto Antony to keep from toppling over.
Two coffins, or one?
“Immmmooooo…” I try to say that I’m never going to be able to climb that rope ladder, but what comes out is a strangled moan. My vision swims.
“You don’t have to climb the ladder,” Antony says as he drops me. I can’t control my arms to break my fall. My face slams into the dirt floor. “You’re not leaving this room.”
Antony’s fingers grip my arm, twisting it so roughly I cry out. He kicks out his leg, shoving the lid off the coffin. I expect to see Howard’s decomposed body, but instead, it’s empty, the sides lined in fancy fresh satin colored ice blue to match my eyes.
A Walter Hart original.
“What’s going on?” I cry, although I’m not sure if I say the words out loud or just in my head. I can’t feel my lips anymore. “Where’s Howard Malloy?”
“This isn’t his coffin any longer,” Antony says. “It’s yours.”
45
Claudia
With a tenderness I didn’t know him capable of, Antony lays me down inside the coffin. In my head I’m screaming, pummeling him with my fists, hitting him with everything I’ve got. But my limbs won’t move. All that escapes from my mouth are incoherent moans.
I sink down into the plush silk, betrayed by the drug that’s pulling me under.
Betrayed by my cousin, by the closest family I have.
“What are you doing?” I try to say as Antony arranges my hands at my sides, positioning me like an Egyptian mummy at a museum. But my lips refuse to work. The words don’t materialize – only a low, anguished cry that I can’t believe comes from my own lips.
Antony peers down, smoothing back my hair. “I know you’re trying to speak, but the drug will keep you quiet. This won’t be like last time, I promise. You’ll just slip away into nothing. It’s more than you deserve.”
He steps back, looking satisfied. Mackenzie falls into Antony’s arms. He wraps her body in his, holding her close as he lays a kiss on the top of her head.
What?
Why is he looking at her like that, like she holds the stars in her eyes?
Somewhere back in the recesses of my mind, the pieces are fitting together. But I can’t access them through the fog of drugs. I don’t even know if I can trust the blurred, dreamlike images before me.
Antony and Mackenzie? What the fuck?
Mackenzie peers down at me, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction.
“Look at her face all twisted up,” she smirks. “She’s trying to understand. Should we explain?”
“That might make you a villainous cliche, babe.” Antony looks at his watch. “On the other hand, Nero’s still cleaning up at the docks, so we’ve got time. Whatever you want to do.”
“I want to tell hereverything. I want my sister to understand exactly how we fooled her. I want her to die knowing how the real queen took back her throne.”
Mackenzie leans against the side of the coffin, trailing her finger over my arm. I can see her doing it, but I can’t feel it.
“Once upon a time,” she says in a singsong voice, “there lived a wicked king and queen in their castle on the hill. The queen became pregnant, and the wicked king wasn’t happy with the size of his empire, so he sold one of his children to a criminal in exchange for some treasure.”
He sold me.
