Page 81 of Reign

No. Chase wants to change things.

“I wrote the email,” I pipe up, shifting a tiny bit forward, away from the hearth of skulls and towards some very alive, gnashing teeth.

“We know,” James drawls. “It wasn’t too difficult to put two-and-two together, possum. We didn’t come down here for that big reveal. What we’re truly interested in is why you fucking outed us to the entire school and everyone associated with it, and now expect us to listen to your cunty mouth—”

“Then you might be surprised to know I was standing behind her the entire time she wrote it,” Chase says, but it’s a whisper. A purred warning for James to close his mouth before Chase fists it shut.

James shuts up.

I give a small, meaningful smile to Chase, then turn back to the room. “Chase shouldn’t have to defend me. You’ve all read the email, and yeah, you’re pissed I gave a public name to all the inexplicable shit that goes on at Briarcliff. I’ll tell you my reasons. These secrets have turned some of you into accomplices. Ignorant bystanders. Killers. Your counterparts, these soulmates of yours, are being abused under—”

“You said she’s dead, you fucking liar.”

My speech stops in my throat. It doesn’t take me long to locate the source of the spiteful voice. Riordan.

Chase raises his hand to his friend. “Let her speak.”

Riordan stands, shoving his hands into his slacks’ pockets, but it does nothing to relax his posture. “How am I supposed to sit here and listen to you parrot the same lies you wrote when I know for a fact Ivy isn’t dead?”

“Riordan,” I plead. “She is. I saw it.”

“We saw it,” Chase adds quietly. “I’m sorry, buddy. She died in Callie’s arms.”

“Not true,” Riordan spits. He pulls his phone out. “I have a message from her last night. She went home because her mom’s sick, and you assholes are standing up there with this propaganda bullshit because you want the society for yourselves.” Riordan focuses on Chase. “It’s easy to read the room when you saunter in, bro. You despise your father, laugh at our rules, and defy our nature like you’re some kind of lost rebel here to expose the relics of this membership. We are not artifacts. The Noble maxim isn’t some lost language you have to re-translate and sell to new members. I don’t want to listen to you spout off about changing our brand when, you know what? It’s really fucking awesome already. I’m graduating with Ivy. I’m marrying my soulmate and taking the position the king has offered me as soon as I finish at Yale, and I’m gonna fucking sail through that college, too. Using the tools the Nobles have given me—”

“Like advanced copies to the exams?” I cut in, unable to listen to his false tirade. “Fake grades? A doctored GPA? How very deserving you are.”

Riordan loudly blows hair through his nose. “Leave, bitch, before I—”

“Touch her, and I’ll smack your head against that bench and taxidermy it for our fireplace over there while you’re still fucking screaming at me to stop.”

A few boys nearby gulp. I, for one, hold steady, but I don’t enjoy the look on Chase’s face that accompanies his statement. This is getting way out of control.

I rest a hand on Chase’s arm, and say softly into the silent room, “Ivy’s dead, Riordan. Sabine killed her. Everything I wrote in that email is true. And if you don’t believe me, believe Chase. He’s never lied to you, has he?”

“I have her voicemail,” Riordan defends instead of answering. But his voice grates. His chin trembles.

“Then you hear the fear in her when she talked about her mom,” I say. “Her voice shook, didn’t it? Her sentences trailed off, her words turned to whispers … the Ivy I know bursts with sound and talks so fast, she has trouble catching her breath. She speaks before thinking and shares information because she genuinely thinks she’s doing Briarcliff a favor when she gives in to gossip and spreads the latest.”

Riordan’s brows shadow his eyes, but he doesn’t interrupt.

“And when it comes to her family, she confides to her closest friends. And before me, there was you. She was forced to keep a lot from me because of the societies, but she’d never keep anything from you. Would she?”

“She said she’d just heard the news about her mom,” Riordan says, his tone rough. “In her voicemail. She said she was surprised by it.”

“Then you should find her message suspicious, because when she’s truly upset, when something really shakes her up and takes her by surprise, she swears. She cusses like a goddamned sailor.” My voice shakes. My hands tremble at my sides. “She didn’t do any of that in her message to you, did she? Riordan, she was coerced into saying those lies to you.”

A deep line forms between Riordan’s brows. His mouth drops open, then goes slack before his keening roar disrupts the room.

“Jesus!” James shouts before he grabs his friend, helping him sit down. “C’mon man, you can’t honestly believe the possum. Sack up. Ivy’s chilling with her parents. These are more lies crafted by a bored prince who doesn’t want to be a prince anymore.”

“James,” Chase grinds out. “What the fuck are you doing?”

James lifts his head. “Putting it out there that you have your own motives in play and don’t give a fuck about the rest of us.”

“You’re a fucking douchebag. You know how much I’ve sacrificed to stand where I am today.”

“Yeah? And I know the spoiled legacy living inside you that loves to create nonsense and chaos—”

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