Page 18 of Reign

And be gifted a circular room where she could be the center of attention by her future husband.

The thought gives me pause. I wonder if the name of the new library ever gives Sabine hives.

I certainly hope so.

“We’re here,” Chase says as we step into a low-ceilinged, stone-lined room with rows of wooden pews laid out in front of a large, skull-framed hearth.

“Holy shit,” I murmur, breaking away from Chase to wander closer to a fireplace taller than me. Above it is a life-size, iron insignia of the societies’ raven. “I’ve been here before. Snuck through there to get to you when you were—” I glance at him.

“In the cage. I remember.” Chase throws his lighter into the fireplace, the dried, corroded wood igniting with a whoosh of heat.

I watch the fire dance. “This was also in Howard Mason’s journal. A fireplace rimmed with the skulls of English nobility.”

“The nobility part is suspect,” Chase says behind me, “since a lot of these skulls were found through local grave robbing.”

I shy away from the fireplace and sit in the first pew. “And Howard Mason?”

Chase glances in my direction. “What about him?”

“First the renovations, then the trivia of your skeleton hellmouth over there. You’re chock full of information. You must know what happened to him.” I search his face for clues of knowledge and if he knows who our headmaster really is.

“I’m more concerned with your own well-being right now.”

“If you’re truly worried about me, you’ll tell me about Howard Mason.”

“Callie, what are you getting at?”

Shoulders tensed, I decide to just get it out. “Headmaster Marron. That’s not the last name he was born with. He’s Howard Mason.”

It’s imperceptible, microscopic, but Chase’s entire body stiffens in front of the fireplace. “How did you find that out?”

“By accident. He called me into his office this morning.” I explain what Marron said and how my reaction tipped over a few pictures.

Chase curses, a blasphemous echo seeping into the hollowed-out eyes of the skulls.

“You knew, didn’t you?” My accusation doesn’t reach nearly as far. “This whole time—when you threw that journal at me in your father’s study, disguising it as something else, something important.”

Chase’s response is quiet. Monotone. “I told you, when you first came here, I was under strict instruction to lead you astray.”

“And you were so good at it, too.” Now, oh now, my voice reaches echoing levels. “Dumping garbage on me, harassing me in the dining hall, encouraging the bullies—Piper—to do their worst. And then stripping me naked and sleeping with me.” I swipe at the sudden dampness under my eyes. “I could’ve handled a quick fuck. It wouldn’t have split my heart open. You could’ve turned me into an entertaining story for your buddies the next morning, and it would’ve sucked for me, but I understand some guys are just rotten. And I would’ve gotten over you.”

The barest wind flutters through Chase’s lashes, and I tell myself it’s coming from the fireplace. It can’t be from a flinch of hurt.

“Instead, you used me in all the ways you could. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. Verbally, the way you tossed around ‘soulmate’ like it meant something. When now, here we are, and you’ve kept another piece of the society to yourself. Marron was a teacher when my mom went here. Another key to my past you refuse to give over. Why? Because you want to control me? Just like Sabine?”

Chase jerks like he’s been slapped. “Don’t you fucking come at me like that.”

“Why not?” I stand, my voice reaching a terrible, gut-wrenching level when I do. “Why do I have to peel you like a goddamned onion in order to get the answers I need? What kind of hold do the Nobles have on you that you want to betray them one minute, then protect them the next? Choose a fucking side, Chase!”

“I choose you!” he roars, and I shrink at the decibel. “I chose you. I made a promise that I wouldn’t keep anything else from you, and I—Headmaster Marron is Howard Mason, but I—there’s not—I didn’t want you to—ARGH!” Chase digs his hands into his hair and spins away. His shoulders hunch over and his voice shreds when he screams, “FUCK. THIS!”

Adrenaline leaks into my bones, the joints of my fingers trembling, my teeth chattering with invigorated fear, but I force myself to be strong. “I’ve learned a lot since coming to this godforsaken place. About this school, the people here. But I’m noticing a common thread, and it starts with my mother.”

Chase says nothing, so I continue. “I learned the hard way that mistakes don’t define a person. Their choices do. She left Briarcliff behind when she became pregnant with me. Meredith Ryan ran from the place that tried to hold her prisoner because she couldn’t stand still and let the Harringtons either kill me or recruit me. My mom chose me. And Piper? Piper helped Emma, even though it was to her detriment—even if she put her family’s legacy at stake by discovering Rose Briar’s hidden bloodline, buried by her ancestors. That was her choice. Then there’s Ivy, who defied Sabine despite the great risk that her family would be forever indebted to the cruelty of the Nobles and Virtues.”

When Chase still doesn’t react, I spit, “Hell, while I’m at it, my stepfather found out about my mom’s affair and confronted her, slapped her, and she ended up dead that night before they were ever able to forgive each other. And you? You bowed to your father’s mysterious instruction to distract the new girl while they figured out whether I was worth saving. Do you see where I’m going, here?”

Chase, breathing heavy, lifts his head enough to peer at me through his fallen strands of blond hair. At last, his lips move. “Yes. We’ve all been defined by our choices.”

---