Page 14 of Seduce

“The Underground is attempting to overthrow Cinder and the King. Charming is rarely home, and happily fucking his mistresses, while pretending to keep the kindgom prosperous in the southern end of Forbach. However, he has his own personal guards, and most of the power lies with the Queen,” Silla begins, staring at her hands. “This is why she’s been auditing and pushing for more assets. Cinder is pushing the majority of them to infiltrate the Underground as members.”

“Fuck,” I mutter. “They’re not trained to do that. We’re putting our efforts into using our intelligence and hackers in place behind the scenes. Most of them don’t have the people skills to infiltrate an organization like that.”

“The Queen is seeing this, and yet she has been slow to pull out her assets. The Underground doesn’t want bloodshed outside of Cinder’s head on a pike, so they deliver the disgraced spies bound and gagged in the middle of the night at the castle gates,” Silla says.

Her mouth twists as she thinks about what she’s going to say, her fingers clenching together. This isn’t going to be good. “I don’t know if they expect her to offer mercy, but spies that can’t do their jobs have no worth to her. Therefore, the women are given to the guards so they can play with them. Once they’re tired of these women, they slit their throats in the bowels of the dungeon as they fuck them. These are sadistic people, but we all know this.”

My heart clenches as I look between Andrya and Silla. They more than know what it’s like to be at their mercy, and I hate that we couldn’t protect them. Andrya covers Silla‘s hands, and I watch her close her eyes. There’s so much shame in how she carries her body, when there’s no reason for it.

We all do things to survive, and we have all had to endure horrors. They don’t define us.

“The men are torn apart in gruesome ways for the Queen’s pleasure with her new torture machines, and Cinder likes to make me sit next to her and watch. The woman’s favorite new device is one that mimics drawing and quartering. It’s messy, and…” Silla shudders, and I can see that she’s pushing back the memories.

Fuck, we left her unknowingly to a monster.

Her sea-green eyes meet mine, and I refuse to flinch from the pain in them. I’ll gladly be her focal point, pushing strength her way.

“Cinder is realizing this isn’t working, and has begun to move her remaining assets into different positions. However, there’s been so much loss of life. So much…”

“Such a fucking Godsdamned waste,” Grayson growls, rubbing his face angrily. This is why Cinder took all of our people from the facility. Fuck, so many deaths.

“So now what does she want?” Ayden asks curiously. It’s not that he’s not affected by the deaths, we all are. He wants to know why Silla is here now.

“My step-sister has decided you’re the cure to all of her problems,” Silla says. “She wants the five of you to go undercover to figure out who the leader of the Underground is, and kill them. After all of this time, not one of the assets has been able to figure it out. Cinder tortured each of them extensively before they died.”

Silla winces at the memories, and Andrya squeezes her hands.

“She’s holding your life as the carrot to make us do her bidding?” Sidney asks, folding his arms. We would do anything for her, but she’s still not safe if she’s at the castle while we’re on this mission for the Queen.

If we do this, I want Silla where we can see her, feel her, protect her. No one is completely safe in a world with this monarchy within it, but to want to overthrow them is treason. My thoughts are beginning to spiral to a place that I try not to go, so I force it all away. Forbach would be a better place without Queen Cinder in it.

“Yes. However, she’s made it known that if I didn’t at least propose this, then your lives would also be forfeit. I’m not sure what would happen to you all if you denied her,” Silla says, looking pale. Removing one of her hands from Andrya’s she places it on the armrest as her body weaves. Our girl looks so damn fragile.

I want to bundle her up and steal her away. There’s a thought.

“I want to counter the offer,” I tell her before I realize I’m speaking. “I want you to be on our team for this. You’re one of the best damn hackers that any of us have ever seen. You’re laser focused, too. Is there any reason why you couldn’t be?”

I don’t know if her face is well known due to the tabloids picking up everything that they can about her.

Silla blinks at my words, and I worry that I’ve broken her as she thinks. “I… the tabloids have never posted my face, they just like to talk a lot of shit,” she says, following my train of thought. “They actually think I’m still here at FRC, believe it or not. But Cinder likes to have me close by, it’s actually starting to get a little creepy,” she mutters.

Starting to?There’s so much that is wrong with her words, but I force myself to stay on topic.

“Cinder is creepy in general,” Ayden says. “She wanted me to masturbate to her and Lana and another girl fucking while we were on a video chat.”

Silla looks stricken for a moment before groaning. “I wish I could ask if you were kidding, but I know you’re serious. She’s out of control lately. Cinder sends me off to perform dumb tasks for her while she’s on video chats.”

“Does she make you watch that shit?” Ayden asks, and I glare at him. We’re running out of time. I want to know as much as he does, but I want to secure a bit of her freedom.

“Yeah, all the time,” she whispers. “The other girl you probably saw is Zachary’s sister. As for Zachary, he’s dead. May no one have mercy on his soul.”

“So may it be,” Andrya says softly. “Will you ask Cinder if we can have you with us for this? Would she punish you for asking?”

Rising, Silla walks to Grayson. Placing his hands on her waist, he looks up at her from where he’s sitting. “Can I use your computer to video chat with her? She said that I could if there was a concern, or you wished to speak to her.”

“Yeah,” he grunts, standing. They’re so close, Silla stumbles back, but Grayson keeps her steady. “Why are you in these damn heels, Dangerous Girl?”

“It’s part of Cinder’s image for me,” she explains, waving the words away as if they’re unimportant. However, they are. The Queen is attempting to mold Silla into someone she isn’t. I hate that. She’s perfect just the way she is.

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