Page 4 of Reign

But with Chase’s arms around me, I manage to slip away and avoid their gnarled beaks, falling into a fitful sleep.

2

Callie

I crack my eyes open, and for a moment, think they’re still closed. Darkness blooms out of every crevice in my bedroom, so blinding I can’t possibly be awake.

Then it hits me.

This blackness has exploded out of my soul and blanketed the room. Ivy’s dead.

“Are you up?”

Chase’s soft whisper tickles the hair around my ears. On my exhale, my body molds into his. “Yes.”

He squeezes me closer. “You were having a nightmare.”

“It’s not a nightmare if it actually happened.”

“Baby.” Chase lifts to his forearm, stroking hair from my forehead and kissing me gently. “Don’t take this poison in. It’s for me and my sister. We’re the ones who brought you closer to the societies. Maybe…” Chase’s dark eyes are the only glimmer in the room as he looks down at me. “I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to leave. If you want to run out of these doors this morning and never look back.”

The thought occurred to me, but I don’t allow any flicker of it in my expression. “I’m not leaving Ivy. She deserves—”

Justice.

They all do.

Piper. Ivy. My mother.

Chase sighs. “I understand. I want to avenge her, too. Fuck, I want to rip the Nobles to their bones and have them grow new, untarnished skin after this. We have to take responsibility for her. Sabine and all her Virtues.”

Chase comes to a sit, staring out at the gray dawn coming from my window. “I’ll start today. Call a meeting, and tell them about what Sabine’s done.”

“No.” I sit up with him, my joints feeling like a middle-aged woman’s instead of an eighteen-year-old’s. “If I’ve learned anything about Sabine, it’s that she excels at grooming her charges. She’s prepared for this moment, Chase. She wants you to stand in front of your Nobles and accuse her of murder. I bet you she has a plan to discredit you, to make you the enemy and strip your Noble title.” I bring my knees up to my chest, digging my chin into the cartilage. “She wants both societies for her own. And while she started with me, she’s ending with you.”

Chase shakes his head. “I won’t allow it.”

I approach my next question delicately. “How did she get you to the temple?”

“Ask it like it is. You mean, how did you find me on my knees in front of her?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. A fucking pillow case was tossed over my head when I was at my desk in my room and I was dragged to the temple to face her. She knows my weakness, that bitch. Sabine used my sister and you against me, said she had both of you locked up in the crypt’s cages, and I lost it. Didn’t think. ”

“You were taken against your will?” I stare ahead, wondering how many Virtues it would’ve taken to bring down Chase Stone. “They must’ve caught you by surprise.”

“It wasn’t the Virtues. These arms were stronger. Broader.”

“They were guys,” I conclude with him. “You think Sabine’s turned some of the Nobles.”

“She’s not a damned super villain. I will take her ass down.”

“Did you know about my lineage?”

The sensitive change in topic shuts him up. He swivels to look at me.

“Don’t lie,” I say before he can open his mouth to do just that. “If you respect me at all, if Ivy’s death truly means something to you, don’t keep hiding the truth.”

---