Page 51 of Tarnished Embers

“Many thanks. You have a good day now.”

Checkmate stepdaughter, honey.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

“EMPTY CROWN” BY YAS

EMBER

The guys help me clean the remaining guest rooms as we try to keep everything looking as normal as possible, but they have to leave when Odette calls them for their afternoon training session. Apparently, they can’t miss that, which now makes more sense if she wants to keep them in top condition for…

My stomach churns at the idea of why she needs them looking so gorgeous and buff. How can she do this to them? Why would she do this? Not only is it fucking abhorrent, but she’s also Prince’s mother and should be a mother figure to the rest of them. So what is she trying to achieve? I know money is tight at the moment, but surely she’s never been that hard up that she had to resort to pimping out her son and stepsons or starve? Even if she was, the end doesn’t justify the means, nothing could make what she’s done okay.

“Ember, honey.” I jump, my hands jerking and spilling water from the bucket that I was carrying out of the last guest bathroom as my forehead is beaded with sweat. Who knew cleaning was such hard work?

“Y–yes, Odette?” My voice might tremble, but there’s a note of coldness in it I’ve never had cause to use with her before. I just can’t keep it in, not now that I know what she really is; a fucking monster.

“I need you to help me sort through the attic, see if there’s anything up there that is worth selling or bringing down for the party.” The fake warmth she used to use with me is gone, replaced by a command that she has no right to make.

Act normal, you won’t be here soon.

“Sure,” I hesitantly reply, heading towards the stairs to leave my bucket in the kitchen.

“Oh, you can leave that here for now, I’ll get one of the boys to take it down.” She gestures to the top of the stairs, so I place the bucket on the floor and then follow behind her down the corridor. My back is tight from spending hours cleaning, and I roll my neck to ease the tension from the muscles.

She pauses at a large painting, and I stop a couple of feet away, then she reaches out to the frame. Then a soft click sounds, and the painting swings forward to reveal a dark passage beyond.

“Whoa. I never knew that was there,” I murmur, my surprise making me forget the present company for a moment. She steps back, holding her hand out to indicate that I go first. The hair on my arms rises, but I ignore the feeling of unease—I just need to get through this next crazy request and then we can leave once Odette is asleep—and step through.

“Yes, well, your father told me all about this secret staircase up to the attic. Apparently, lots of old houses here have them,” she tells me, almost conversationally. A pang hits my chest, yet another thing my father trusted this fucking snake with and not me. Sighing, pushing the pain aside, I peer into the gloom. There’s a small noise behind me, and I twist to see Odette grabbing a battery-powered torch, handing it to me before she, too, steps through and shuts the painting behind us. The darkness of the space immediately closes around me, the chill, musty air making me shiver.

“Huh, I guess that’s not surprising, and to be honest, I did not know we even had an attic,” I muse, turning the torch on and sweeping it across the space. A thick layer of dust coats the old wooden stairs that are now visible in the gloom.

“Quite. Up you go then,” she orders, and taking in an inhale of stale air, I straighten my shoulders and place my foot on the first stair. It creaks and groans under my weight, but feeling Odette so close behind me, I carry on, and soon, sweat beads along my spine.

“Gosh, it’s high up,” I wheeze, and she just titters behind me.

“Well, if you were in better shape, honey, it wouldn’t be such a trial now, would it?” Her tone is sickly sweet, the same one people use when they are insulting you but pretending like they’re not being a cunt.

I grit my teeth, my nostrils flaring as anger fuels my last few steps. I pause at the small landing, taking some deep breaths in order to calm my racing heart. Fuck me, that was a lot of stairs.

Before me stands a thick wooden door, which looks really fucking sturdy given that this is the attic, a place to store unwanted things that you can’t be bothered to get rid of. Reaching out, I grasp the doorknob and twist, almost surprised when it opens easily.

I blink at the light-filled space, seeing that there are several dormer windows letting in pools of light. Perhaps it isn’t so bad up here after all. My eyes scan across the room, finding a few ghostly shapes, presumably furniture under white sheets, and a few boxes, trunks, old mirrors, and paintings leaning against the walls. I wonder if the previous owners left some of this stuff here as I don’t recognise a lot of it.

My eyes catch on something, and I have to blink several times to make sense of what I’m seeing. Taking a few steps closer, it fully comes into view and my brows dip low.

What is a bed doing up here?It’s not the beautiful, cream metal frame that has me confused, but the fact that it’s made up with what looks like freshly laundered sheets.

“Odette…?” I turn, seeing her still on the other side of the doorway, a large key in her hand and a hulking shadow behind her. My heart thuds painfully inside my chest as my mind screams at me to run, but there’s nowhere to go. I take a step towards her, and she just smiles her stunning, fake smile at me.

“It’s sweet that you think you could take them away from me. Especially when I was the one to give you to them in the first place,” she tells me, that smile now looking evil as the light from the room casts eerie shadows across her features. “You were always a means to control them, Ember, not a way to set them free.”

And before I can do anything else, the door slams with a thud that echoes around the room, followed by theclickof the lock.

I run to it anyway, trying the knob and pounding my fists on the solid wood.

“Fucking let me out, you bitch! You can’t keep me here!” Adrenaline rushes through me, but it doesn’t give me enough strength to break the door down, it’s just too bloody heavy. My heart thuds dully in my chest, tears pricking behind my eyelids as my hands suddenly go limp at my sides. I’m stuck here, with no way out and no one coming to rescue me.

---