I found him in a corner, leaning against a tent pole.
He straightened as I approached. “What’s up, Buttercup?”
“I need to use one of my secret questions.”
Morty stared at me, face illuminated by the moonlight, and didn’t look away. I didn’t appreciate the scrutiny, but if it got him talking, I’d deal with it.
I blinked at him, communicating my lack of ruffled feathers despite his best attempts to rile me up.
When he’d looked his fill, he stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. “You first, little princess. You claim he’s yours, but if that’s true, where’d all your fight go?” He shrugged, and I snapped my gaze to his, knowing damn well what he was about to say. “Sort of looks like you gave up.”
My words cracked through the quiet, echoing around us. “I’ll never give up on him.”
His eyebrows jumped, and I crossed the space between to get right in his face. Staring up at him, I lowered my voice, but I made sure he heard me loud and clear. “You act like this is all a game to you, but you know the stakes better than anyone. Better than I did, that’s for damn sure.”
I pointed a finger at the dance floor, where the rich bastards who’d killed Desi drank, laughed, and danced as they hadn’t a care in the world. Then I listed what I’d figured out, adding one finger with each moment of proof I gave him.
“It’s why you turned me away at the gate. Why you let Brutus—yourdog,notMax’s—come after me. And why the scent of citrus, filling the air right now, has been everywhere.”
Every moment I’d pieced together, I threw it in his face. Each time Morty had secretly impacted my journey.
“I thought it was Kingston or Merle, but Kingston wasn’t there the night I drank the drugged wine, was he? And he didn’t have a connection toLe Redoute Vinlike you did.”
Morty’s jaw tightened, his spine straightening as he stood at full height.
But I didn’t back down.
“Just like Merle, the father you hate and the man Kingston needed out of Pendragon, didn’t know I’d been attacked at the lake until I showed up at his door. Because he wasn’t there making sure I breathed in chloroform, was he?”
He opened his mouth to speak but I kept going.
“Not enough to knock me out, but enough to make me weak, right?” I hurled the truth at him like stones, vicious jabs of a knife right into his gut. “Merle wasn’t there to make sure they let me go before any lasting damage was done. So, he wouldn’t have been able to tell Kingston how it was Elaine, the bitch who came up to me filled with bullshit remorse, that egged the girls on,escalating the attack so your presence was necessary.” I scoffed. “I bet neither of them poisoned the food, hoping I’d be stuck in bed when Ben planned to lure me away.”
His eyes narrowed, but something shone in his dark brown depths that I’d never found in his father’s identical shade. Something I’d only seen in his brother’s eyes. Every time he looked at me as I spoke the truth.
Pride.
“You’ve been behind every attempt to scare me away from here.Tryingto save me. That’s what you said. And you laugh like it’s all some big joke because you know exactly how real the threat is, and sometimes that’s the only thing you can do—deflect with a laugh—once you’ve seen how far they’ll go to win a game none of you ever asked to play.”
I leaned closer, raising my voice loud enough to make my next point crystal clear.
“But I’m not like the rest of you. Not because I’m poor. Not because I’m an outsider. Or didn’t come from a well-bred, psychotic family. I’m different for one reason and one reason only.”
“And what’s that?”
I punctuated each word by jabbing my finger in his chest. “I.Signed.Up.”
When his eyes flashed dangerously, I pressed harder.
“I asked for this. I chose it. Chose him. So, yeah. Max Dread? He’s mine.Theyare mine. And I won’t rest until this place burns to the ground. Until they’re free from the insanity your parents have been getting away with for centuries.” Sinking back on my heels, I lifted my chin. “You think Kingston picked me because I’m clever?”
Tilting his head, his lips twitched in challenge.
“He picked me because life has thrown me nothing but fucking lemons. The ones this place plants as a symbol. Becausehe knew I’d roll with the punches as the hits kept on coming. And that I’d adapt and understand when the man I love needs me to fight a quiet battle beside him, while he does what he thinks he has to do to protect what’shis.”
Morty traced a path down the side of my face, his eyes glinting in the moonlight as he saw me in a new one.
My chest heaved with ragged breaths as I let out everything I’d been turning over in my mind, quietly sorting out for days without seeing it, until last night.
