Page 4 of Shattered Jewel

“How long will you bide your time?” I ask him then, motioning to include the other three. “How long will all of you keep enduring their punishments and their orders and their torture?”

I hone in on Axe, the one who carries the most physical evidence of the Sovereigns’ wrath. His unreadable gray eyes carefully hold mine, sensing my hyperawareness of every brutal slash made on his skin. I have the feeling that out of the four, I could get through to him first.

Stepping toward him, I ask, “How many more scars will you carry until it’s too much?”

The room, deliberately quiet before, falls into deathly silence.

Axe flinches under my scrutiny, his throat bobbing as he struggles to find the right words.

“Finding the ruby... it’s our only chance to gain the Sovereigns’ favor,” he says hesitantly, avoiding my question.

“Enough with the vague answers,” I press. “What are you afraid of if we fail?”

A long pause fills the air before Axe continues, his tone gravelly and barely audible. “I’m torn between my loyalty to the Court and my growing distrust of the Sovereigns. I always will be.”

I stare at him, trying to comprehend. The man who had saved my life in the forest, who had touched me with a tenderness men like him shouldn’t possess, would still serve the very organization responsible for my brother’s death?

“How can you say that?” I demand, my voice rising with each word. “After everything they’ve done, after what they did to Maverick, to you, how can you even consider remaining loyal to them?”

Axe’s jaw works, his expression hardening. “It’s not that simple. The Court, the Sovereigns, they brought me out of hell.”

And dropped you into another one, I silently retort, but wisely keep my mouth shut. Even when Axe infuriates me, I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t know if I ever could.

“Turning my back on them,” he continues, “is not something I can do lightly.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “But they’re murderers, Axe.”

“We all are.”

I pivot, confronted by Kaspian’s unsettling smile after that confession.

“So that’s it then?” I ask with a tremble. “You’ll just keep following their orders, no matter how many people get hurt? No matter how many lives are destroyed?”

With deliberate slowness, Axe advances, his hand outstretched. “Elara, it’s not that simple?—”

I recoil from his touch. “Don’t. Don’t try to justify this. There’s no excuse for what you’re choosing, for what the Sovereigns have done.”

Wilder sighs, running a hand through his thick chestnut hair. “We’re not asking you for forgiveness, sweetwitch.”

Their indifference carves a hollow space beneath my ribs, eating away at my hope that I meant something to them. “You thought revealing Maverick’s fate would break me. You’re wrong, all of you. Instead, you’ve armed me with a fury that’ll turn your world to dust.”

I look at each of them in turn, my heart breaking with the realization of just how deep the Sovereigns’ corruption runs. These men, once proud and strong boys, reduced to mere puppets, dancing on the strings of their masters.

“I can’t do this,” I whisper, backing away toward the door. “I won’t be here anymore.”

Kaspian intercepts me, his eyelids fluttering once, twice, like chameleon sensing the need to reveal his true self. “You can’t go rogue on us, beastie. You’ll fail.”

I glare at him, my hands clenching into fists and tangling with the blanket. “Watch me.”

I shove past him, ignoring the pitying looks on the others’ faces as I storm toward the door. I wrench it open, the sounds of the debauchery below flooding the room.

“I’ll find out the truth about Maverick’s death, with or without your help. And when I do, the Sovereigns will pay for what they’ve done. To him, to all of you.”

The door slams behind me, the sound fading as fast as it came.

I’ve just lit the fuse. But as I stride away, I wonder:

How long before they light theirs?

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