Page 40 of A Sea of Secrets
“Dicky boy, you have no idea. Now help a girl to her door, will you?”
He shook his head hopelessly, his sandy blond locks falling into his eyes, before guiding me to the door labelled ‘Fallon Auger’. Then he and the others moved to stand before their own doors. We would all enter at the same time and hopefully leave at the same time too.
“Ready?” Lou called.
“As I’ll ever be,” I said, forcing it to sound cheery. “See you on the other side, super pod.”
Kendra gave me a hard look that warned me of all the things she’d do to me if I died in there. Yeah, it didn’t make sense, but I got the memo all the same. She’d be the cutest little ghostie I ever did see. With that comforting thought in mind, I stepped through the door that would seal my fate.
I’d seen enough wacky and weird in these trials to last me a lifetime, so after the previous room, I’d been expecting more monsters or a bunch of Potentials ready to end me once andfor all. What I wasn’t expecting was to find four platforms, each filled with things of the utmost importance to me. The door closed behind me. No going back now.
On the far left was my brother and sister. My heart swelled with joy as I saw them, safe, sound and, most importantly, smiling. “Ethan! Hadley!” I ran, my body forgetting the meaning of fatigue as pure adrenaline and joy spurred me on.
I neared the dais and skidded to a halt. My siblings hadn’t moved an inch. They didn’t stretch their arms out to me or smile wider, nor did their faces show any recognition of my presence at all. Slowly, I made to grab Ethan’s hand, but it passed right through.
My heart plummeted as I stared longingly at my family… what remained of them. The illusion shimmered, changing to include an image of me alongside them. We were all laughing, our faces red in that full-belly-laugh-can’t-breathe kind of way. And I… I looked so happy. So free.
I didn’t know the girl up there with them, but I wanted to. I wanted to be hersobadly because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been truly happy and free to just be myself. With everything I’d done—everything my father and Victoria had forced me to do—I’m not sure I knew how to be carefree and happy… Not sure if I even could be anything other than a monster anymore.
At its core, this image was everything I was fighting for. Keeping Ethan and Hadley safe—fighting to get them away from my parents—was the one thing I’d never altered course from. It was everything.
A part of me wanted to stay and stare at them forever. I knew it wasn’t real, but damn did it make that cold, dead thing in my chest crack with pain and longing. I missed them so much. I missed Ethan’s stupid jokes, his kindness and the light that my parents hadn’t managed to snuff out yet. I missed Hadley’sinnocence, the pure glee in her giggles and her warmest of snuggles.
I missedus.
After staring at it until I was satisfied the image was well and truly burnt into my retinas for safekeeping, I turned to the next dais.
My mood shifted like the sands of freaking time as I beheld them. My mother and father—beautiful and cruel. It was hard to reconcile, sometimes, how awful my mother truly was. She had never done anything outright to hurt me, but she’d never protected me either. She knew perfectly well all the wicked things Victrus and Victoria had forced me to do, but she turned her back all the same. Let’s not forget she was married to my father. Anyone able to love such a beast was bound to be just as black on the inside.
I recognised some of myself in her though. Her beauty was a double-edged blade hidden by sleek and smooth curves. But where she was blond, graceful, and elegant, I was more like my father.
I cast my eyes upon him. Black hair, tanned skin, tall, and striking in countenance. I studied the hard lines of his jaw and the rigidity in his stance. Yes. I was definitely my father’s daughter in more ways than one. He’d tried so very hard to cast me in his image. He had failed in this task, but only because he’d turned his attention to my older sister. My hands curled into fists at the thought, my nails biting into my skin. He’d failed to turn her, too, so he’d done the unspeakable and wormed his way into her brain.
Fresh rage coursed through me like lightning. This man… this fucking monstrosity. I had never particularly delighted in violence, but this was the one time I’d make an exception. And he would fucking pay. He and the multi-headed beast that was the entirety of House Jupiter and its criminal underbelly.
I forced myself to take a breath and still my mind. The hunger for justice was ever present, but I couldn’t let it rule me. Anger was a tool to be used on occasion—never the main weapon of choice.
I stepped down from the platform and walked away. It was easier to ignore the storm of emotions roiling inside when I spied what awaited next.
My heart did a happy little dance as I spied the four guys standing there. Zane was grinning like a total cheese ball as he slung his arm around Ace, who was rolling his eyes in feigned annoyance. Kayden had one muscled bicep resting on Noah, who had his nose in a book and was clearly protesting the interruption.
I studied them for a long, long while. These four men… they were beginning to change my life. No, that wasn’t quite right. They’dalreadychanged my life. I’d felt things for each of them that I had never felt before—hadn’t allowed myself to feel.
After all the things I’d done, the people I’d hurt…
I shook my head. I wasn’t going down that road. Not today. The old Fallon would have insisted she didn’t deserve to be happy. She would have turned her back on the idea of happiness altogether, knowing she’d never truly have it whilst her parents still lived.
But since coming to the House of Ascension and meeting the guys, as well as Kendra, Lou, and Dick… I was hungry for life. I wanted to savour every moment of joy and love and longing. I wanted a life with these people in it. And maybe, just maybe, that was entirely possible if we all made it out alive.
I’d made it clear to the guys that I was not to be caged, but now I realised that wasn’t true at all. They had all accepted my feelings for each of them, as bizarre and unlikely as that may be, and in doing so we’d somehow forged a stronger bond. I knewthe guys were getting closer. Knew we would protect each other now, no matter what we were up against.
And deep down, I knew they hadn’t ensnared me. They’d set me fucking free. I wanted them—each of them. And I’d damn well fight for them, too.
My stomach flipped and a single tear slipped down my cheek. Who would have thought? Fallon Auger, getting all sentimental over a gym junkie, a bookworm, a merman and a Drake. I laughed, feeling a lightness bubbling inside. And as much as I could stay and giggle at that image forever, it only made me want to get back to the real guys all the sooner.
I turned to face the final platform and felt the air rush from my lungs.
A silver crown with dainty, elegant whorls and encrusted with sapphires sat upon a red velvet cushion atop a white column. It glimmered as I stared, as if to say, “Come get me, I’m all yours!”.
