The calm his mother had managed to project throughout the morning disintegrated in a matter of seconds. The woman’s face crumpled in on itself, her eyes flooding with unrestrained tears faster than anyone could process the prince’s words. Her hands moved to cover her face, muffling her sobs but the pain embedded in them was difficult to ignore.
Demetrius had seen his mother sad on a few occasions, but never had the grief been so severe.
His father looked helplessly from his wife to the prince. “I…I beg your pardon, My Prince. Perhaps my wife and I have misunderstood…”
“I don’t see how,” Alexiel said, his mother’s tears not moving the man in any particular direction. He remained the picture of contentment. “Rejoice! You’ll soon be the family of royalty—there’s no higher elevation. You’ll be the guests of honour at the feast. Now, we don’t have much time to wast
“Demetrius, stop!”He wouldn’t listen. The boy grabbed the nightstand that sat by his bed, tossing it with enough force to have it splinter as it collided with the concrete wall. He reached next for the headboard of his bed, yanking it viciously from the base. Slamming it to the ground, the boy shoved his foot in its middle before tugging on one end until it snapped in two.It wasn’t enough.None of it would be enough.The rage he felt had no outlet but the inanimate features of his bedroom. When he was done breaking them, his sister would still be held captive, and the wedding would go on. The futility of his violence only served to further stroke the flames of his ire, provoking him to the very edges of his sanity.Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear Jamie yelling for him to be done with the destruction, but he couldn’t stop. If not the furniture, he would have nowhere to discharge the excess of ill feel
Demetrius grimaced as images of that night danced their way to the fore. “Scar’s only offense was politely refusing his advances. No one says no to the prince, after all.” The grimace deepened. “Dad told me I had to make sure I kept them both in my sights. The banquets had a way of getting…out of hand when the wine and blood began to flow. When Cassidy hadn’t come back from the bathroom, I left Scar to find her and when I got back…she was gone. I shouldn’t have left her alone.”Demetrius shook his head, trying to dislodge the images that etched themselves into the back of his eyes. “I…I wasn’t there.”“You can’t blame yourself for that—”“I should’ve known.”“Demetrius…you were a kid…you couldn’t have known. Your dad should’ve been the one watching her…watching all of you, just like he s
Demetrius pulled for a patio chair, placing it by the table so they could have a look at the picture together. There was…a certain sense of relief, an undeniable jolt at the thought that something—if only very little—was going right.“I need you to tell me more. It might be the leverage we need for your case.” He could have it presented to the head guardian and with the right argument, they may even escape punishment. “Who were the people who attacked your family? What were they after? It doesn’t seem like you were entangled in anything massive enough to warrant such destruction.”“There was a secret that needed protecting and too many people who already knew it.”“Save the cryptic talk for after the hearing with the head guardian. What exactly were they after?” It was hardly the time to cling to those secrets and put him through riddles. Carlton would seek to have her punished to
The door to conference room 5 opened with a soft whoosh, granting the four access in a place they had no business. Wynona Hawthorne stood at the front of the room, giving what looked to be a presentation on increasing security measures. The woman caught the movement at the door immediately, her lips setting into a deep scowl.Noting the soured look the head guardian wore, those gathered in attendance shifted in their seats to take a look at the ones who’d garnered her attention.For her part, Hawthorne did little to hide her exasperation at their appearance. The woman sucked in a deep breath, willing herself to remain composed despite the sudden intrusion. “I assume this is of the gravest importance, Finley—so important that the safety of the realm with have to wait. So important, in fact, that you would throw protocol and decorum to the wind and simply let yourselves in.”Demetrius flushed at the woman’s rebuke but his mot
Carlton walked into the room looking about as pleased as Demetrius had imagined. The man’s grimace could be seen as he walked in. While his gaze was for the woman who summoned him, there was the briefest moment when his eyes met the boy’s and they conveyed all that needed to be said.It brought Demetrius back to the threat the prince’s guard had made at Jamie’s house, but there was nothing to be done. The boy needed to ensure he was the one who passed along the news to the head guardian—not for the praise he used to crave but to ensure no one could remove details that were less convenient or begin their own kind of coverup for the sake of preserving connections.It was well known that Carlton’s loyalty was first and foremost to the prince, but along the way he’d managed to form other little advantageous alliances that might prove themselves a conflict of interest.“I believe you’re looking for these,” h
Her hands in his hair were enough to clear every thought from his mind. Demetrius felt Jamie’s urgency with each tug, responding with a hunger of his own.He’d convinced her to take a break. Having missed the revision week, she was thrust back into school with only enough time to sit her finals and it had made her worryingly preoccupied with verb conjugations and mathematical equations. There was a part of him that was surprised she conceded to his distractions, but another part of him was too busy getting drunk on the taste of her mouth.“We should get back to studying,” she whispered, teasing a nip at his lower lip.“I can’t hear you,” he whispered back before recapturing those saucy lips that sought to ruin his fun.How she managed a coherent thought with their bodies pressed so closely together was beyond his level of understanding. Demetrius could feel her every curve as her body fit itself into his contours.
True to his word, Jamie’s father had cleared out a large portion of the furniture. The only note he’d left was a reminder that his soon-to-be ex-wife be grateful he’d decided against taking the house. Helena had taken the wipe-out on the chin even after discovering that the man had taken the bike he’d bought for Valerie.It was the kid’s prized possession; she hadn’t taken it so well.The week ran off as quickly. Between the guardians that came and went for interviews and the preparation to head over to the castle, Demetrius found his exams to be the thing that grounded him, giving him a more controlled feel of the passage of time. He pushed himself for the sole reason that he respected Jamie’s time too much to waste it, but as he walked out of the final exam, the boy couldn’t ignore the way his head throbbed painfully or the distinct lack of ability to form coherent thoughts.It would’ve been e
“Jerry…what…what’s this about?” “You’ve got some nerve,” he said, pushing past her to enter the living room. Behind him, four other men entered. They all did their best to avoid making eye contact with the woman despite having let themselves into her home. “Who are these people?” “The movers. Get the books off the second and third shelves,” he said. “Honey, I—” “Don’t call me that,” he said, snapping despite the lack of necessity for such hostility. “You don’t get to call me that, not after what you’ve done.” “Daddy,” Valerie tried, too cautious this time to reach out for him. “Where are you going?” The man gritted his teeth. “I’m not your father, despite what your whore of a mother’s led you to believe—the things in the third bedroom from the stairs, too, men. I want the nightstand, the dresser—leave the bed. That slut’s done too many things on there while I was at work. She can keep that for the next time she runs into