Page 19 of Vicious King

7

Tatum

I keptmy eyes closed as I nestled into Elias’s shoulders, letting his warmth seep into me. I wasn’t asleep, but I needed some time to silently process everything that’d happened. It still didn’t seem real. I’d come so close to death today, only to be ripped from its jaws by one of the men I thought I hated most.

Elias saved me, and in doing so he showed me a whole new side of him.

I’d felt it in the way his hands closed in a death-grip around mine when I was dangling off that cliff, as if his life would be over along with mine if I fell. I’d felt it in the way he looked at me with such fear in his expression, in the way his heart didn’t stop hammering hard and fast enough to feel it through his shirt until we stepped inside the relative safety of the mansion. I’d felt it in the way he set my core aflame with a few simple words, in the way his lips devoured mine as if he’d starve without one more taste.

I had a sneaking suspicion that was the real Elias. Not the angry, arrogant asshole who seemed to take after his father in every way. Not the man who claimed to hate me with every inch of his being. No, the real Elias was hidden behind a mask, and I’d seen it slip today.

It took me almost dying to force him to reveal a few glimpses of that side of him, and I didn’t know how I could make him do it again without putting myself in another dangerous situation. All I knew was that I wanted to see more.

I wanted to know all his secrets, wanted to know what it would take to get him entirely on my side. I wanted him to stop hurting me, and I wanted him to care about me. I wanted him to take me in his arms and tell me he’d protect me from the nightmare my life had become.

Even though his family and secret society was the nightmare.

That aside, there was a chance now. Something in Elias had shifted, and if I remained compliant and grateful, he might eventually let his mask slip all the way. If that happened, I might have a real chance at escaping the clutches of Crown and Dagger.

That meant from now on, I had to be as good as gold around Elias, had to acquiesce to all his demands to speed up the process of getting him on my side. If doing that meant experiencing more instances of today’s mind-blowing sex, I wouldn’t even mind….

I shifted on my seat in the helicopter. Elias stroked my hair, his skillful hands making goosebumps rise on my scalp. “It’s a twenty minute flight,” he murmured a moment later. “And then a half-hour drive to the Lodge. As soon as we’re there, you can eat and rest.”

I opened my eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered, staring up at his handsome face. As much as I wanted to continue simmering with hatred for him, I couldn’t. Not after today. Not after he saved my life and showed me that caring side of him, rare as it may be.

I let myself doze off properly for a while, and when I woke, the helicopter was approaching the mainland. My heart leapt as I recognized some of the buildings on the ground below. We were landing in New Marwick. I could see the tall old clock tower at Roden gleaming in the late afternoon sun, and beyond that, the old town square with all its shops and cafés.

I was so close to my old life, to my old friends… and yet still so far.

The helicopter finally swooped down lower, landing at a private airfield just out of town. After that, I was bundled into a black car with tinted windows. Elias stayed with me, keeping a watchful eye on me the whole time.

The winter sun was only an hour or so off setting, and the trees on the edge of the road glowed with an orange-red gleam as the car whizzed past them. The tall buildings and busy roads of New Marwick had been left in the distance, and it looked like we were heading somewhere northwest, into a more rural area where the houses grew increasingly farther apart and set back off the road.

Around thirty minutes later, the car slowed and veered to the left, approaching a wide set of black-iron gates with intricate scrollwork. There was a towering iron arch over the gate with ‘Scarborough Estate’ picked out in gold on a crest. Stone pillars flanked the gate on both sides, giving way to a tall privacy wall covered in thick green moss and ivy, flecked with crisp white snowflakes.

There was a small stone gatehouse on the right. Two men stepped out and waved for the car to stop as we pulled up. They were dressed in black clothing similar to the outfits worn by the guards at the Finishing School.

The driver put his window down and spoke to the men. One of them glanced into the back, his eyes widening as he saw Elias. “Go ahead,” he said, stepping off the road and waving his hand forward. The other guard stepped back into the gatehouse and pressed something, making the gates swing open a second later.

Nervous twinges bit at my belly as the car pulled through and headed down the long driveway. It was lined with cypress trees and tall cast iron lampposts, and at the end it swung in a semicircle around a gentle slope of snow-flecked grass that seemed to go on forever. At the top of that slope was the Lodge.

I realized now—foolishly late—that the name was one of those silly ironic nicknames people like to come up with, like calling a seven foot man ‘Shorty’. It was by far the biggest and most extravagant mansion I’d ever seen.

I drew in a deep breath as we drew closer, my eyes widening at the sheer splendor of the place. It was five stories of breathtaking Jacobethan architecture faced in beige limestone with mullioned windows, gables, and soaring turrets and spires. At the front of the magnificent mansion was a sunken courtyard with a fountain surrounded by marble tiles. Beyond that were beautiful gardens, somehow intact and alive with greenery and colorful flowers despite the bitter winter weather.

Once upon a time, it may have been someone’s ancestral home, with horses and carriages and dainty ladies in long dresses fluttering fans at their faces. It was so dazzling and beautiful that it was hard to believe such a wicked, immoral organization had use of it now.

How times change…

In the distance, I could make out more fountains and gardens. There were also smaller (but no less grand) buildings with private courtyards of their own, and even what appeared to be an enormous hedge maze. Beyond all that was more snow-flecked lawn, stretching for miles before ending in a wall of thick forest, dark and foreboding.

The car came to a stop in a large parking lot just off the driveway. It was filled with expensive cars—Mercedes, Aston Martins, Jaguars, McLarens, Ferraris, even a Rolls Royce.

Elias helped me out of the car and led me toward the classic stone-column portico which demarcated the entrance to the Lodge from the rest of the place. Wide steps led upward to the enormous golden-arched double front doors. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if I heard that they were inlaid with real gold.

We stepped into a foyer and then through another arched doorway. I almost lost my breath at the spectacular vision before me. The interior was like something straight out of a Disney princess film. Right in front of me, a grand double staircase swept up to the second level. The floors were polished marble. Extravagantly ornamental carvings lined the moldings and ceiling panels, glittering chandeliers provided soft, shimmering light, and statues and paintings adorned the walls.

To our left was another arched double doorway leading into a room the size of a gymnasium. It was darker in there, lit only with tall crimson candles and a roaring fireplace on one side. What I saw left me flabbergasted.

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