Page 135 of House of Crimson Kisses
She shrugs. “I don’t pretend to understand her motives. But I request you fight in Octavia’s place...”
She leaves her hands hanging as if there’s more to that sentence.
“And?” I ask. “Because that’s not the end of the sentence.”
“No, it’s not,” she shakes her head, her eyes dropping away from mine, and that’s when I understand whatever she’s about to ask is going to be the price that will hurt.
Finally, she glances up again and holds my gaze. “I need you to let Dahlia win.”
I snort out a laugh. “You’re kidding?”
But her face remains expressionless as she holds my gaze.
“Fuck me, Sadie, youarekidding, right?”
But she continues to stare at me. The dull ache in my head roars back to a pulsing throb. “Mother of Blood. You’re asking me to sacrifice our chance of winning the trials. That would kill Octavia emotionally and risk our shot at winning. And you forget, I want that cure as much as she does.”
“Just because you win the trials, does not mean you’ll win the race to the boundary,” she signs.
“That’s true. But it’s beside the point. It would kill Octavia. It’s a total betrayal of everything she wants.”
“And she took your memories. Many more, I fear, than you’re aware of… don’t you want those memories? Don’t you want to see what she took from you?” she signs and folds her arms.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Why do you want Dahlia to win?”
“Does the reason matter? If you’re getting your memories, then you’re getting what you want,” she signs.
“Of course it matters. You’re asking me to betray my teammate.”
“If you want to keep your memories private, and me out of your head, then you’ll let me keep my secrets about Dahlia…”
Interesting. Her expression is dark, seething heat billowing under her eyes.
“You hate her as much as Octavia does,” I say, less of a question and more of a statement.
“She could have let me out. Of the cage, I mean.”
“Couldn’t any of them? Octavia and Gabriel too? Xavier?”
She shakes her head at me. “None of them had any idea where I was. But Dahlia sought me out. She wanted to know what her mother was doing, wanted to watch on as I drove myself insane trying to escape. Night after night she would come and dangle keys, blood, anything that she thought would torture me in front of the cage. And night after night, she would leave. So yes… If Gabriel and Xavier are out of the running and if I don’t win, then there’s no choice between Dahlia or Octavia. I choose Octavia every single time. Her heart is in the right place, at least.”
That takes me a moment to process too, but I get there eventually. My heart is heavy.
“You hate her, and yet you want her to win,” I say.
She tuts at me. “Don’t be shortsighted. Lose a battle to win the war, Red. That’s how the game is played.”
I sigh. “Octavia won’t forgive me if I jeopardise our potential to win,” I say.
“Would you rather she lived and hated you? Or died fighting Dahlia because you loved her too much to let her go?”
I grit my teeth. What choice do I have? I stare at her, those dark eyes such a stark contrast to her white hair. I wonder what her birth parents were like.
“Fine. I agree.”
“And you swear that you’ll prevent her from competing?”
I take a deep breath. The human man’s blood is still coursing through my veins, and as much as that thought makes me sick, I cannot change the fact that it brought me back from the brink of death and has strengthened me in a way I’m struggling to define.
