Page 30 of Lower World
Well, the edge of it since it was behind me. In my curiosity, I didn’t pay attention to the other side of the hall. I was very grateful neither Alice nor Dominic could see it. I’d never hear the end of it. The only reason I was on the third floor of the Council home was because I had a feeling if they wanted to hide anything, that was the place. No one could enter without them knowing about it. No one apart from me, it seemed. Lurking around to avoid everyone paid off sometimes. That was how I knew about the small door on the roof. When I didn’t hear Frederic enter his chambers, my gaze snapped to where I last saw him. He was standing with one hand on the carved doorknob with his eyes narrowed at the bust of the woman hiding me.
My heart jumped to the roof of my mouth and stuck there.
“What’s with all the snapping?” Samir spoke from right behind me before his door was even opened, the soft light from his bedroom falling on me like a spotlight. My eyes squeezed shut, waiting for both of them to jump me.
“Never mind,” Frederic snarled and entered his room, slamming the door shut.
Very slowly, I unplastered myself from where I was hugging the wall and turned to face Samir. Just like Frederic, he was wearing silk sleep pants that hung low on his hips, but no robe. Leaning one meaty shoulder on the doorframe and arms crossed over his bare chest, he watched me, humor twinkling in his chocolate brown eyes. He straightened and gallantly waved his hand, inviting me in.
I gulped.
Why didn’t he tell Frederic that I was right there between them? And what was it with the fucking smiling and polite invitations? The longer I glared the higher the chance he would alert the rest. Just as I would’ve attacked and gone for his throat, Frederic’s door opened. Before my brain registered what was happening, Samir had me pinned on the wall, his face tucked in my neck.
“Take it to your chambers, Samir. We don’t need to hear you slobbering all day.” Frederic sneered and slammed the door again.
“Move with me, he is still there.” Samir’s words were just a breath over my skin. A shout lodged in my throat when he picked me up, and the next second, he was closing his own door. My mouth opened, but he slapped a hand over it, tapping the back of my head on the wood. “Go rest your old bones Frederic, unless you want to join us?”
A soft click punched the air from my lungs.
“You should not have come here.” All humor gone, Samir smoothed a hand over his goatee. “Sit.”
His chamber was not what I expected. Jewel-colored silks were draped over rods on each window. Low side tables with a lantern perched on each were sprinkled around the large space between colorful pillows thrown all over the floor. Round tables sat clustered here and there, filled with crystal glasses and ice buckets with Champaign bottles sticking out of them. Dark shutters were blocking the daylight from the room, and the dancing flames of the lanterns reflected on the glass of the windows. Instead of a king-sized bed, there was a huge pillow fit for a T-Rex on one end of the room, with white gauze like waterfall around it.
Where was I supposed to sit exactly? I might be idiotic at times, but he would never say I was dumb. Opting to stand, I crossed my arms. too.
“So much like your father, child.” Samir cracked a smile, shaking his head. “And what did you think you’d accomplish by coming here, might I ask?” He kept his voice low enough that there was no way anyone could hear us outside of his chamber.
“My mother is alive,” I spat the accusation at him with as much venom as I could. Since he caught me, I had nothing to lose. An arched eyebrow was all I got for the effort. “And you killed my father, too.”
“Ah, well that is not exactly the truth, but I see you are learning things that should’ve been left buried. Technically,Idid not kill your father.” He didn’t even bother denying anything else. My blood was boiling. That was when he delivered the bomb that almost knocked me on my ass. “I should’ve known Dominic would be too lenient with you. That boy is a pushover, and you are too hot-headed,” Samir said with a grimace.
“You are the one helping Dominic?” I hissed after I was done gaping like a fish.
“Quiet.” Samir bared his fangs at me, his eyes locked on the door and his head cocked as if he was listening to something only he could hear.
“You are lying.”
“Yet you still breathe, child.” The disappointed look he gave me set my teeth on edge. After a long moment of silence where we stared at each other, he threw both hands in the air in frustration. “You do not think that boy saved you the night Veronica died without help?”
I racked my brain for what he was saying. That cursed night, along with the nightmare I had on the train, swirled behind my eyes, and then clarity hit me like a punch to the gut.I couldn’t breathe. Someone was screaming. It was a broken and loud sound. A window shattered to the side, the glass falling like rain over the tiles and making chiming noises as if it was music to accompany the mournful cry. A sharp pain in my throat as my vocal cords ripped told me it was me screaming.
Everything seemed surreal.
So, when the sound of fighting echoed above me, I didn’t think anything of it. Nor did I blink an eye when my curled-up form was lifted off the floor and I was wrapped in two strong arms that for some stupid reason made me feel safe instead of afraid for my life. I think I heard Samir’s voice say, “Get her out of here,” but that couldn’t be the truth.My gaze locked on the Council member.
“Why?” I knew at that moment that he did speak the truth. I thought I imagined it that night, but it was him. It was Samir’s voice I heard talking to Dominic.
“I gave my word to protect you.” Samir flinched when I arched an eyebrow that called him a liar. I’d like to know where his protection was while I was in the cages, but I kept my mouth shut. “I had to keep up pretenses, and I might’ve made mistakes, Brooklyn. But I kept my word. As I said earlier, you breathe.”
“Gee, thanks.” My life turned into a giant rabbit hole that was getting wider the deeper I got inside it. Insanity threatened at the edges of my mind. “Do me a favor and try not to protect me. I might have a better stab at life.” Dropping on the nearest pillow, I stretched out, tucking both hands behind my head. “Now what?”
“Now we should get you out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I find something that will tell me where to look for my mother.”
“Brooklyn, you need to leave that be. If you stir up that horrible mess, your father would’ve died for nothing. What you need—”
“Don’t tell me what I need. I know what I need, and that’s answers. Where is she?” No longer calm, I curled my knees up, hugging them to my chest so I didn’t strangle him. Not that I could do it, but I was willing to give it my all.
