All of us snapped our mouths shut at his command, that one word so powerful that we could do nothing but listen. I turned around to face him. It was the first time I heard him say anything since I woke up. To be honest, I’d completely forgotten that he was in the room. My fear and anger over Tatiana had consumed me so entirely, I lashed out without thinking.
The silence that followed after so much yelling and screaming was totally jarring.
Autumn coughed awkwardly, the sound ringing out through the room. “Well—”
Father spun on her and pointed a finger. “Not one word out of you.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “Aye-aye, Mr Grouchy.”
Lukyan snickered, his hand flying to his mouth to try and cover the laugh.
Just like that, the tension in the air disappeared and everything went back to normal. Illayana and I looked at each other.
“Sorry,” we both grumbled at the same time.
“Ahem,” Lukyan pointed at his chest. “Where’smysorry?”
Illayana and I rolled our eyes but both offered him an apology as well.
“Alright,” Father began, crossing his arms over his chest. “Now, we need to come up with a plan—”
The huge metal door at the end of the room swung open and we all snapped to attention as Dominik walked in. Whatever differences we had a moment ago were gone. We presented a united front, each of us moving to the front of the bars and glaring at the man responsible for putting us in there. I gripped the bars so tight that my knuckles turned white, imagining they where his fucking neck.
He looked exactly like Father, but he didn’t at the same time. They were identical twins, so they had the same facial features. But where Father looked strong, tough and in shape, Dominik looked weak, slightly pudgy and pasty. He didn’t have the same terrifying aura that my father exuded, the instant respect people felt a man like Dimitri deserved.
I think that had always been one of the contributing factors to the hatred Dominik felt towards my father. He hated that he could never measure up to him.
“My family.” Dominik smiled, his arms spread wide as if he was preparing to embrace us in a hug. “It is so nice to see you all again. It’s been so long since we’ve all been together like this.”
“You mean since you blew up my wedding?” Illayana snarked, arching an eyebrow.
Dominik waved that off. “Oh, that little thing? That was just a little fun.”
Illayana smiled, a truly dark and evil kind of smile that made Dominik stiffen despite being separated by thick, metal bars. “So was disembowelling your daughter.”
His eyes narrowed but then he just shrugged. That was one of the big differences between my father and Dominik. Father loved all of his children with every cell in his body. He’d die to protect us. Dominik, however, couldn’t care less. He used Rayna as his pawn to accomplish whatever plan he had and then just tossed her aside when she was no longer of any use to him.
“If she wasn’t such a fucking disappointment, I might actually care,” Dominik chuckled. He let loose a self-satisfied sigh, walking up and down our row of cells with admiring eyes, like he was so happy to be seeing what he was seeing. He stopped in front of Aleksandr’s cell and tilted his head. “You remember our last conversation, don’t you? I bet you’re wishing right now that you took my offer.”
Aleksandr leant forward menacingly. Dominik slanted back on autopilot, an unconscious movement he couldn’t stop that showed he was afraid of my brother. Aleksandr said nothing, letting his murderous gaze do all the talking.
Dominik swallowed nervously and licked his lips. He moved away from his cell and stopped in front of mine. If it wasn’t for the situation we were in, I would have enjoyed watching that.
“Hi, nephew. Sorry about the dart.”
“No, you’re not,” I scoffed.
“I really am.” He almost sounded…sincere. “You’ve always been my favourite, you know. I would have liked to keep you out of this but when I saw you here at the first round of the games, I knew I couldn’t.”
I frowned. “You saw me?”
“I’ve been waiting to witness Dimitri’s downfall since I was ten years old. Did you really think I wouldn’t be here to watch him die?” He shook his head. “I was up in one of the box seats watching the fights when I saw you as one of the security guards. Smart, sneaking in as one of the workers. Talon couldn’t believe it when I told him.”
They’d known I was here since the first round? Why didn’t they capture me straight away then? They still let me roam around there until—
“You waited until I watched Father fight before capturing me.”
Dominik shrugged lazily, his lips curled up into a smirk. “Talon and I thought it might be fun for you to watch your father in the games.” He moved to Father’s cell next and the two men stared at each other, years of hatred and anger brewing between them.