Page 100 of Reign

I don’t hesitate. Sprinting to the nearest staircase, I take the steps two at a time, the knife sharp and heavy at my side.

I burst onto the balcony, the shouts and pummels down below somehow echoing louder up here, but I force the distraction away, centering all my senses on Sabine.

She reclines against the railing, her arms spread, her red dress lifting at every silky, invisible movement. The French twist in her hair is intact, and she’s as regal as ever as she stands above the chaos she’s caused.

“Your mother cried while she was dying,” she purrs.

My feet turn to rocks. Immobile with the weight of the Earth.

“She did,” Sabine assures, her hands trailing across the top of the railing. “And her last words were, don’t hurt my daughter. Oh, my.” Sabine mock frowns as she watches me process her words. “Tough, isn’t it? To realize the very nightmares you had over how she died were probably correct.”

“You … monster.”

“Did you think I hired a hitman, or manipulated one of my impressionable Virtues, or even James, that dear, malleable boy, to do my bidding? No, Calla Lily. I wanted your mother for myself. Our time together at Briarcliff was wrought with conflict. She had everything at her fingertips—her heritage was known by my future grandmother-in-law at that point. In fact, Prudence Harrington was grooming her for the succession, proud of Meredith’s rise from nothing and many accomplishments, despite her buried upbringing no high Noble or Virtue wanted to admit to. But then something changed.” Sabine arcs her stare up to the elaborate ceiling, pondering her words as though pure chaos isn’t exploding around her. “I believe she realized that if she accepted the role, she’d have to confess all her sins, including her illegal affair with a teacher. I do believe her mind started backtracking when she realized she was pregnant with you, sweet child, and she finally understood that once you enter succession, all your heirs are automatically obligated to enter the process, too. She didn’t want that for you. At that point, she’d noticed the foulness, understood the dark nature that one had to possess to truly rule the Virtues. You see, she walked in on a princess and a Noble doing … well, you’re aware. Hmm. Now that I think of it, it was our newest Senator, dragging the girl’s thighs toward him and positioning her to best accept his cock.”

I wince, the dagger shaking by my side. “That’s enough.”

“Is it, my dear? Don’t you want to hear how I found your mother after she ran, kept apprised of your upbringing, and waited for the perfect moment to kill both of you so there would never be a question as to my rule? Or would you rather we skipped that part and go straight to the crime scene I orchestrated when you were annoyingly late to your weekly dinner plans and I had to MacGyver a scene of destruction you were responsible for.”

My brain screams at me to remain standing when my knees buckle. I right myself, but my vision’s blurred. My lips seize.

“How was I supposed to know you had an impressionable detective in your pocket? As an aside, you do have a knack for convincing men you’re so small, fragile, and innocent. I wish you’d use that talent, but sadly, here we are. Ahmar Kazmi covered up everything I planted, forged a police report and put his job and future on the line. All for … you.”

“Because Ahmar loves me.” The wet whisper coats my lips. “An emotion you’ll never come to understand. He believed in me so much, he couldn’t let me fall for something I did not—would never—do. That’s what you can’t fathom, you witch. The idea that men love me for me, not for gain, or indecent motive, or blackmail. Ahmar loves me.” I take a step. “Dad loves me.” Another step. “Chase loves me.” One more. “My mother loved me.”

Sabine’s eyelids twitch, her lips thinning in fury. “I’m well aware of what love is, you pitiful trash. I loved my daughter! Piper was everything to me, and your meddlesome cunt took her from this world! Chase was hers. If he were hers that night, she would never have fallen.”

“She was pushed by your other, forgotten, neglected daughter,” I retort. “Playing favorites doesn’t really work when it ends in murder, does it, you felon-of-the-year?”

Sabine’s face twists into haggard rage. “You wasted, undeserving slut of a girl! You’re nothing! You will become nothing! I’ll never give you this throne. I’d rather take your life just as I took your mother’s.”

“It’s over, Sabine. Look around you. This chaos is yours. You’re done—”

Sabine’s hands wrap around my neck. She squeezes so tightly, my muscles shrink, tendons pop, and I gag on my own insides.

“Callie!” I hear Ahmar scream, and my bulbous eyes move past the railing to down below, where Ahmar is frozen between two fighting cloaks, his neck arched as he spots me and attempts to separate himself and get to me.

A red cloak swoops in just as he disentangles himself, the hood falling back and revealing Headmaster Marron, grabbing Ahmar by the arms and pulling him back. I guess he came late to the party.

Marron wants me to die? floats through my addled mind, but the black stars bouncing into my vision prevent me from dwelling on it.

Watching Ahmar be wrestled to the ground sends me into a fit of panic, and in a feat of pure desperation, I lift the dagger and shove it into Sabine’s side.

Sabine gasps with a shocked kind of pain, her eyes widening, but she doesn’t release me.

Worse, she glances down behind her at the floor below. Then she looks back at me and smiles. “Do you want to know how my daughter felt?”

“N—N—” I garble, dropping the knife as my hands flail and scratch against her forearms.

We grapple on the balcony, Sabine using her full, rage-filled force to bend me over the railing.

She doesn’t resemble the groomed, sleek woman she’s presented herself as all this time. Large, streaked blood vessels pop red in her eyes, the tip of her nose is a vicious scarlet, and her ruby lipstick is smeared across her too-white teeth, her canines shining with saliva.

“Piper will finally be avenged, and you’ll die knowing your mother’s murder will never be solved,” she whispers hoarsely. “And my Virtues? They’ll live long after you.”

My side strains against the stone, my legs screaming for me to relent, but my lack of breath prevents any sort of failsafe. I’m being forced over the rail, Sabine’s stick-thin arms growing the strength of ten vengeful men…

Fight, Callie. Fight!

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