Page 73 of Dark Reign

It made me sick inside to consider it.

“Like Blackbird?” Elle’s eyes stretched wide with the question, and even more when I nodded.

“Yeah … like Blackbird.”

Saying that name was like uttering a curse word among my family and my father’s advisors. That one girl had cost them so much—their reputations at times, credibility, pride.

“So, why don’t we ask her?”

I chuckled at Elle’s suggestion. “Because, regardless of how fond you are of our guest, Elle … she’s a liar,” I replied. “A good one.”

I zoned out, recalling how so many had rolled off Corina’s tongue in such a short amount of time.

“You don’t trust her,” Elle restated, “but you returned her things without going through them. That must mean you trust her just alittle, right?”

The innocence in her expression always made things seem so clear-cut, even when they were complicated, and an absolute mess, like they were now.

However, trust had little to do with it. I returned Corina’s things out of respect. Respect I hoped she’d return some day. With this being my home, it was up to me to set the tone for how we were to get along here. I held off on breaching her privacy because if I gave in to the curiosity, there would have been no undoing it. Assuming I found some way around being jailed or worse for what I’d done, I hoped that, one day, Corina wouldn’t feel the need to keep so many secrets.

“You may not understand why you’ve handled Corina the way you have, but I stand by what I said. Regardless of who she is, where she came from, I still believe you did what was right,” Elle assured me. “You’re bound to her by a legal contract. One stating that, for the rest of her natural life, she belongs to you. And I know others might disagree, but I believe that should include protecting her,” she added with a smile. “At all costs.”

It hadn’t been easy to resist prying into Corina’s personal affects, but now I didn’t feel like an idiot for placing my respect for her above curiosity. Having Elle’s seal of approval on the decision meant a lot because she’d proven to be well-versed in a language I admittedly knew nothing about. A language I hadn’t taught her because I didn’t speak it.

Elle spoke woman.

Because of that, I took her word on this one. I’d taken the right steps today and it was just a matter of time before Corina came around.

Elle walked off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Eventually, I backtracked toward the steps, deciding to do as she suggested, and brave whatever my brothers had to say about what I’d done.

They were present when I returned, carrying Corina in my arms. They saw the blood covering us both; saw the state she was in at the time.

No, I hadn’t said a word to them as I took her to the Blue Suite, for Elle to get her cleaned up to rest, but … they may have known. If not that I’d turned her, they could at least guess I’d bitten her. It wouldn’t have taken much to put the pieces together, though. Once everything came to light, I could imagine there would be one question they’d all want an answer to …

‘Why?’

The problem was that I, myself, had yet to figure that out. All I knew was I had to help her, had to save her … had to keep her with me.

***

Levi

Footsteps echoed somewhere outside the study, and I exhaled sharply.

A thick silence hung in the air. We’d all been pacing while we waited—Roman back and forth in front of the fireplace as flames roared inside it, Silas in front of the window. Finally starting to feel the effects of the whiskey I nursed, I ambled near the bookcase.

Confronting his father was supposed to be Julian’s only task today. How had that endeavor ended with the gruesome scene we witnessed—Julian rushing through the door slathered in blood, carrying his newly-purchased Doll? More blood oozed from a fresh bite wound on her throat, whichappearedto be half-healed. Only, she couldn’t possibly have been healing.

Because if she were, that would mean what we saw was more than the aftermath of a feeding frenzy gone wrong.

I was almost certain the others hadn’t noticed that one, pertinent detail. If they had, there would have been at leastsomemention of it, considering the implications. So, for now, I kept it to myself. My hope was that he’d come with some explanation other than the conclusion I reached on my own.

Therehadto be another explanation.

No one made eye contact as Julian’s steps carried him to the couch where he dropped down to sit. It became abundantly clear none of us were eager to initiate a conversation, so it was he who eventually took it upon himself to break the ice.

“There’s no excuse for what I’ve done today,” Julian sighed.

“Please,” Roman grumbled when he reached his own conclusion, stepping away from his post. “You’re not the first royal to succumb to the urge to feed straight from a host, and you certainly won’t be the last. And it’s not unheard of to get … carried away,” he added, likely revisiting the bloody scene when Julian rushed in with Corina.

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