Page 24 of Unmasked

Even though the woman wasn’t reactive, her body was. Her lips parted, moving the smallest amount as crimson gushed out.

I brought up my hand, placing the tip level with the pad of my index finger. I pushed in, watching as my own skin split and blood beaded at the surface. More questions. More pain. More… heartbreak at the history I was becoming part of.

I traced the red over my lips. Lowering, I kissed the upside-down crown, placing my bleeding finger on it with a vow of my own.

“For what was lost.” I paused, not holding back. “For what is now mine.”

Slowly, I stood, taking my place as I held to the dagger. No one spoke. No one moved. My past had me wanting to ask a million questions. Should I not have spoken? Should I apologize?

For what? For being honest? For claiming what I felt in my heart belonged to me? I would not apologize for that.

The Magister slowly bowed his head. Still, seconds passed before he finally spoke.

“We will see you next Holy Night… Intended.”

With that, he rushed from the room, and The Judic quickly followed. My lips parted in confusion as I turned my head, watching them leave. Footsteps had me looking over as Vaughn approached.

Even he didn’t speak. His lips softly met mine, and he took the dagger, placing it on the table along the wall. He quickly bandaged up my finger, taking my good hand to lead me back to the room I’d come from, easing the robe from my shoulders. Slowly, he pulled the pins free, removing the crown. When he lowered to his knees and hugged around my waist, my tears wouldn’t stay in. They fell down my cheeks. With their escape, came a tidal wave of ‘whys’.

Why was no one talking?

Why did things have to turn out as they did?

The questions came, but they stayed inside.

A queen wouldn’t break. She wouldn’t think of herself when the man at her feet needed her. And Vaughn did need me. He didn’t say it with words, but his actions spoke for themselves. He… needed me.

The realization had the weight lifting.

My hands cupped his jaw, bringing his face up.

“You’re not alone anymore. I’m going to pass these trials, and I’m going to be the best queen for The Order. The Crown will be yours again. We won’t stop until it is. This ends with us. Okay?”

He nodded, hugging around me tighter, repeating it. Believing it, just as I did.

“This ends with us.”

CHAPTER 7

Vaughn

I wasn’t alone anymore…

Penelope’s statement haunted me just as much as it comforted me.

I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t alone…

There was no fighting it. Nothing was the same. I’d never been allowed nor took the time to be part of a Holy Night ritual. I’d only gone so I could watch my Intended. So I could spend more time with her. Seeing Penelope in the crown, wearing my family’s crest—speaking those painful words that were the foundation of my history…

How could moments completely change everything you knew? Everything you were? Not an hour before, I thought I was confident who Vaughn Edward Ambrose Masterson VI was. I was an orphan king. The one who’d lost everyone close to murder, even my uncle, who raised me. I was the hunted. The threat. But I was the one who’d become king again or die trying.

But then came Penelope…

She’d taught me so much. Her presence also revealed things I didn’t know. Things I couldn’t remember. Like how my mother had run The Order. How it was my dad’s job to raise me into being worthy and strong. How this entire world I knew didn’t begin with just the death of a king… It began with heartbreak. With the mission of a determined queen.

She’d created The Order… not her son.

She… created—no, forged—the path of our futures.