Page 45 of The Broken Queen
Kingston lowered his chin to his chest, almost like he was afraidto speak directly to me. Gio responded. “We’re trying to figure out where to take you. Do you want to go back to your famil?—”
“No,” I interjected immediately. I refused to go back to my family wing. Not while Scotty was there and had access to me.
“We don’t think you should be alone in Carter’s,” Kingston added softly.
I hated how careful he was being with me, as if I would just shatter into a thousand pieces if he handled me wrong. He’d never been like that with me. My whole life he’d delivered harsh truths; he’d been the patch of shade for me in all of Gio’s sun. I never realized how badly I needed that.
“I’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t,” Gio argued.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to be anywhere in the manor. My mother would come and check on me, or my dad…they were already worried about me after what they learned, what I did to my grand—a tight ball of emotions suddenly swelled in my throat, making fresh tears want to fall. It was possible that some of my grief for Adrian was also for a man that I was never given the chance to know, but was forced to murder.
Solitude sounded good, along with distance from everyone. My eighteenth birthday flashed in my mind, how up in the loft I had found that solitude, and how I was completely alone until I had called Adrian. He filled the space left void by the twins.
“I want to stay in the barn. I don’t want to be here, and I want Adrian’s body brought there, put on ice. He needs a proper burial.”
Gio brushed a few strands of hair off my face. “Done. Will you let Kingston carry you there?”
I saw his eyes move swiftly over my head, but I didn’t catch his twin’s reaction. I felt it, though. Kingston moved away from me and made some sound of disagreement.
“I’ll handle the body if you get her there, Gio.”
Rejection sharp as a needle, pierced some unhealed wound in my heart, directly connected to him. While Gio seemed desperate to getinto my good graces, his brother wanted nothing to do with me. Which was fine, he didn’t need to want me. My roots were made of unrequited love and pining for a life that would never be. His derision was nothing new for me.
“I don’t need either of you to take me there. I can walk. I think the fresh air would be good for me.” I slowly moved to get up by placing my palms under me against the cool cement, but Kingston lurched forward to stop me.
“Can you just let Gio take you, please?”
My eyes snapped up, seeing his already searching mine. The familiar amber hue felt like a gut punch, making me immediately drop my gaze.
“Why do you care, Kingston?” I shoved his hands away and got to my feet. I was shaky from not eating anything all day. I swayed enough that I had to catch my balance on a pillar.
I heard Gio curse, and then I was being swept up into his arms and tucked against his chest. “Come on, Elvis. I have a surprise for you.”
Without glancing back at the twin who had no love left for me, or the man who’d died because he had too much, I was carried away. Past the front entrance and around the side of the manor, toward the only place that ever truly brought me peace.
Gio walked long enough that I’d closed my eyes and breathed in the crisp winter air. I knew exactly where he stepped by the way his body shifted in elevation or dipped from the messy terrain. However, when I expected him to veer off toward the barn, he changed direction toward the house. That had my eyes flying open, and my head lifting. The last time I had seen the farmhouse, it was still rotted out, full of disarray and moldy pieces I needed to gut.
The house before me wasn’t what I had left behind at all.
“Gio,” I inhaled as he stopped in front of the renovated home. Fresh, white paint covered brand new siding, while dark green shutters enclosed new glass windows. I could see gauzy white curtainscovering them from the inside, which had my mouth lifting into a feeble smile.
My heart twisted in my chest with elation and hope.
Gio set me down, and even on shaky legs, I found a fresh strength hold me up as I stepped over a manicured patch of grass leading to a freshly built porch. I climbed wide steps while holding tightly to the railing. Gio was behind me but gave me enough space that I didn’t feel smothered.
A green door that matched the shutters had a black knob and a wreath hanging that looked like it was full of white baby’s breath. It was such a delicate touch and one that tugged at a gently folded away memory of playing knights and dragons. I was the queen, and Kingston agreed to be the knight who protected the realm. He had decided his job would be to bring the queen a crown of baby’s breath every morning, so she knew he was still alive and hadn’t been eaten by a dragon.
I tried the door, and it opened easily as if it were just here waiting for me. The floors were a light oak color, covered in warm rugs. New archways had been designed in places that I couldn’t even recognize as rooms before. The walls were a soft eggshell color, but there were a few accent walls with green wallpaper that had little highland cows printed all over them.
Reaching out, I traced a finger over the wall and spun around as curiosity tugged out a memory I had of a time when Kingston had shared a piece of himself with me.
I dream of marigolds too…ones that sit on a kitchen table, plucked from the garden I grew. Wallpaper that has little prints of Highland cows and a pantry full of organic Cheetos. Sunlight soaking into plants in a home that smells like coconut and oranges.
The dining table was circular with five chairs around it, and there on the table was a vase full of marigolds. My breath hitched as I walked into the farmhouse-style kitchen. An older designed fridge was set up between two long counters made of butcher block. A deep, porcelain sink lay under a large window that revealed the barnout front and the fields beyond. I moved to the pantry and tugged the door open.
A variety of food was inside, but I zeroed in on my favorite snack: organic Cheetos.
