Page 124 of Uncrowned

If I couldn’t meet with Penelope, she would get free eventually. When she did… I would be waiting.

CHAPTER 42

Vaughn

Sanity lived only in the spaces between chaos and rage.

I didn’t know any other way to function.

Losing Penelope when I thought I was coming close to getting her back was torture to the man who was ready to storm Grove Square. Had she only said yes, I would have risked everything. I would have sent my men. I would have gone in personally and demanded her release knowing very well they’d want to finally get me in their clutches. Possibly kill me.

Even now, months later, I still couldn’t stop secretly standing outside of her building. Watching. Waiting. Every day, I suffered through reading her text.

How had that article gone so wrong? How had they convinced her that my love was so superficial that it would compare to something that happened nearly a decade prior?

I hated them for turning Penelope against me.

What I hated worse was knowing that when I brought her back, we’d have to start over. There was no escape. No backing out from her vows. The Order owned Penelope now, and whether she reined at my side or not, she’d never escape it.

“Anything?”

Theo sat down across from me, shaking his head at my question as he took his place at the main dining table in the Great Hall. It was elevated above all the rest by a good few inches, giving me height so I could oversee the Masters below. I picked at my food, more stabbing and pushing it around instead of eating. Jovial laughs gritted my nerves.

“I see you’re having another bad day.”

I glanced to Theo, lowering my eyes back to my plate.

“It won’t be much longer,” he continued. “After we stopped trying to get our men inside, things calmed. The air around the building is finally lifting. Penelope and Marian are getting comfortable. They have a routine when Marian is home. Fighting,” he smiled. “Penelope’s still training. That has to be positive, right?” At my silence, he kept going. “The fact that Marian is even leaving for business trips now gives us hope. When she leaves, Elliot, her bodyguard and head of security, leaves with her. She’s home now, but we already know of her impending trip. If we get ready. If we can somehow lure Penelope to the first floor, we can take her.”

I still didn’t look up. We’d had this plan before. Something always blocked our path. First it was added security from the SLB. Then it was Marian canceling at the last minute. It was one roadblock after the next, and I was sick of it. No… I was enraged.

Katia—Agent Marchase.

That was the name Penelope gave me, and I knew it was the woman responsible for poisoning Penelope’s mind and turning her against me. Heat grew within, building as I let my anger and frustrations focus on Marian and Katia. Marian may have been taking care of my queen, but she would not escape this unscathed. Pain and blood would be her payment, but it would be so much more than that. My plans were plentiful—my revenge eternal. Consequences… they were coming.

“Any luck with my grandfather’s journals?”

I dropped my fork, leaning back in my chair to pin Theodore with my irritated stare.

“I take that as a no. Sheesh. You’re horrible to be around when you’re like this. I think it may be worse than that one time⁠—”

“Don’t start with the stories.”

Theodore’s mouth tightened as he took a bite of his dinner. I mindlessly stared around the large room. At The Reeve entering, I sat a little straighter, hating the slight excitement that pinged in my chest as he headed my way. It was like that every time, and every single time it was always about The Order. Never about her.

“Sire, I apologize for disturbing your meal, but I’m afraid I have news you may want to hear.”

“What?”

“Perhaps we should meet privately.”

There it was. That thump-thump that loved to beat up my chest.

“Is it about her?”

He nodded.

“To my study.”