Page 53 of Chess

“The White Queen and her brother are getting along well. With any luck, they will unite the kingdoms in no time.” She smiled as if Rav was actually doing something beneficial for Wonderland. Chess knew better—anything his mother’s lover did was for his own benefit. But what was he getting out of reconciling with Ever? She wouldn’t give him Ivory.

Shit.His mind was too muddled to think clearly. Who was telling the truth? He supposed it wouldn’t matter once he freed himself and killed Rav. Then the only truth that mattered would be his own. All he had to do was hold onto enough strength. Not impossible… Not probable, but this was life or death.

“You better get on with it then,” he said with a smirk.

Anna lifted the ice pick and adjusted her grip. “Apologies,” she said and drove it into his chest.

It was the scent of blood that woke Chess next. Fresh, and from the source, based on the richness. His hunger roared to life. It clawed through him like an angry beast, demanding he partake in the feeding.

His limbs jerked against the chains as he lurched upward. A feral snarl ripped from his chest. Rav stood at the foot of the table, fangs deep in a mortal woman’s neck. One of the slaves who stayed in a trance, Chess assumed. Their gazes locked and Rav smirked as he drank. A stream of crimson flowed down the column of her neck when she leaned into Rav’s chest, her head thrown back in pleasure.

Chess pulled harder against his shackles, which, if he wasn’t mistaken, had been drawn tighter. The pain radiating from his shoulder made him think it was dislocated already, but fuck if he cared. The metallic scent wafted through the air, caressing his nostrils, luring him in to the seductive odor. He zeroed in on the blood pulsing beneath the female’s dark flesh. As his cravings increased, he would do anything for a simple taste, even if it meant gnawing off his arm.

“Now, brother. That’s just selfish,” Ever said from the doorway. Her white hair was carefully pinned like a crown around her head and she wore a stark white, formfitting dress that hugged every curve. His cock stirred in anticipation, not only for a meal but for a pleasureful fuck.

A hate-fuck.

Rav dropped his fangs, letting the woman slump to the floor with a dazed expression on her face. “Isn’t it?” He laughed and turned to leer at Chess. “Come, sister.” Ever stepped into the room, keeping her gaze averted, and up to her brother’s side. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and licked the blood from his lips. “Are you ready to dole out a bit of justice?”

Her gaze pierced Chess and his pulse spiked. A deep growl vibrated through the room as his hunger fed his fury.

“I am,” Ever said, her lips curling into a vicious smile.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ever

“Stab him in the heart with this,” Rav said, shoving a lock of hair over his shoulder. He then handed Ever an obsidian dagger encrusted in ruby jewels from his boot. “I think he deserves one more false death before we bring him to Imogen’s gardens. I don’t care how weak he is.”

“Wouldn’t want him to struggle even a little now, would we?” Ever grinned, taking the blade from her brother. She turned to Chess, looking straight into his yellow irises. He didn’t say a bloody word as she drifted closer, rotating the dagger in her grasp while inhaling his pine scent. Lifting the blade in both hands, she plunged it directly into his heart with a sickening squelch, just as she’d always planned to do, right before ripping out his heart.

Only, Ever hadn’t ripped his heart out as she’d dreamt about for almost four years. Not yet. Her pulse pounded feverishly, and the thought of what she’d just done brought her no pleasure, only a sickness swirling in her stomach. Yet she excelled at hiding her true emotions—that was what a royal was always taught to do. She continued to neutralize her expression as she wiped the prince’s blood on the ivory skirt of her silk dress. “Now what, brother?”

Rav took the blade from her and shouted, his deep voice booming off the walls, “Guards!” The door opened to the familiar vampire with red hair, loose curls cascading down to her waist. Four other guards stood behind her. Lifting a long finger, Rav motioned at the female. “Anna, undo the traitorous prince’s bindings.” He stepped beside Ever, tucking the dagger back in his boot. “Now, sister, we need to discuss what will happen after the kingdoms are united.”

Ever folded her arms, a line forming between her brows. “Are you going to continue the unwilling turning?” She knew if she agreed with him on everything, he would see through her. Rav was no fool though—that was why he’d kept her in the dungeon these past few days instead of allowing her to walk around the palace freely. While being held as a prisoner, she wasn’t completely treated as such. She was fed properly, given new attire, and guarded by the red-headed vampire, Anna, who had remained silent, even when braiding Ever’s hair into a crown. Even the blankets in her cell were made of silk while the other prisoners had none at all. Yet her brother had only visited her briefly each day since, she assumed, he was busy torturing Chess or fucking his female vampires.

“No,” Rav finally answered. “I do believe if we are to start fresh, I’m going to have to make a change myself. Instead of turning mortals unwillingly, I will focus more on my sciences and toy with the humans, do more than leave them in a trance. Perhaps I’ll come up with new theories and hypotheses about vampire creation and alteration. Maybe evencreatesomething new altogether.” His eyes grew wild as they did when they’d been children, when he would experiment with dead animals.

Ever took a deep swallow. He was sounding positively mad, like one of the doctors from a mortal’s horror book. This was even worse than turning an unwilling mortal into a vampire.

Before she could speak, Rav snatched her by the wrist and drew her to him, squeezing her flesh roughly. “After Chess is murdered, you’ll retrieve the Hatter and her sister, then bring them to me. The prince helped Mouse escape and that means you know where they are. They’ll be executed next. We shall give them a swift death and then, finally, we’ll hunt down Imogen’s bastard Knave, for betraying her. Since we never found the newly-turned vampire he helped escape, we’ll need to get her location out of him before he dies. Our slates will be wiped clean, and you and I will start anew.” Rav’s eyes beamed, a dysfunctional sort of gleam. He still didn’t know that Ferris was connected to Maddie and Mouse, and he hadn’t discovered that Alice was human again or Noah’s sister either.

“The prince is untied, Your Majesty,” Anna said, bowing her head before standing in line with the four other vampire guards.

Rav released Ever and grabbed Anna by the chin, inspecting her face. “I never noticed before, but you look a lot like Imogen, especially in that black dress. Tonight, you’ll put on one of her gowns and stay in my bed.”

“My pleasure.” Anna bowed again, but Ever could’ve sworn she’d seen the vampire curl her lips in disgust. Ever continued to keep her expression blank as Rav hoisted Chess’s limp and bloody body over his shoulder. Even though his only visible wound was the one she created, she would never forget hearing his growls of pain through the wall beside her cell as Rav tormented the prince. Ever loathed herself for not standing up to her brother sooner, for getting caught at the club before killing him.

The guards led them through the palace hall, two vampires in front of them and three behind. Several of the entranced human servants paced up and down the halls, causing Ever’s chest to tighten. All the décor had been taken off the walls from when she’d been there last, and in its place were anatomical hearts,hundreds, painted across the entire surface. It looked more like an obsession than a decoration. By the fresh smell of paint, they were added not long ago. She was surprised Rav hadn’t covered the walls in Imogen’s portraits that the Queen of Hearts had commissioned to be painted every year. The palace’s attic was full of the finished pieces, where Ever assumed they’d been collecting dust.

Over the past several days, Ever hadn’t slept, not once. It had felt just as it had the last time she fled her castle, like she was powerless. As she mulled things over again and again while walking down hall after hall of anatomical hearts, she wasn’t certain how to get out of this blasted situation, how to save Chess. Even if she were to confess the truth about Maddie murdering Imogen, Rav wouldn’t believe it—he would think she was admitting that only to save Chess. At this point, she needed a damn miracle, and she didn’t know if she would be blessed enough to gain one of those. What she did believe was that Chess would die hating her, thinking she’d betrayed him, and that she’d pleasured him just to get him in this position.

A stocky guard with blue dreadlocks opened the door outside. The warm breeze rumpled Ever’s hair and dress as they trudged through the rose gardens. A whiff of the overwhelming flowery scent tickled her senses. Thick crimson vines, with obsidian thorns, wrapped around the gazebos, and near the one in the center, stood two vampire guards.

They stopped in front of the garden structure, dark red blood staining most of its gray color. By the rich smell mixed with decay, some of the blood was fresh.

“Tie him up,” Rav demanded, handing Chess to two females. They grabbed the chains attached to the poles on the gazebo and cuffed his arms, then stretched out his legs to bind them to the chains at the bottom, his body appearing in the shape of a hollow star.

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