Page 41 of House of Pawns
I study Ian’s face and watch for emotions. But his eyes are just sharp. “What did you do, Alivia?”
And the coldness in his voice snakes down my spine. It laces into my heart, eats into my brain.
I tell him. About the crowns. The blood. About the headstone. The fight.
Ian’s hands clench tighter and together. I feel it build inside of him with every syllable I speak.
When I’m finished, I keep looking at him. Waiting.
But he doesn’t say a word. He simply stares outside, packed tight as a waiting cannon.
“Say something,” I finally insist. My own jaw is clenched tight, I feel ready to spring, snap.
Ian shakes his head. He lets out two hard breaths. “What…what has happened to you, Liv?” And finally, finally, he does turn and look at me. And his eyes are hard. There’s no hint of red in them, they look flat black. “Who have you become?”
I take a small step back from him, feeling as if he’s punched me in the face. “I’m still me, Ian.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know how. Not when in just afew short weeks, you’ve gone from wantingnothingto do with the House, to creating a full blown one for yourself.”
Acid flashes through my veins. My temperature rises. “Circumstances change people, Ian. Jasminekilled you. And that…” My voice falters, cracks and crumbles. I look away from Ian as a tear breaks out onto my eyelashes. “And that destroyed me. It…it changed things—me.”
I look back up at Ian to see his eyes soften. Not fully. Not in forgiveness. But in pity. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Liv.”
I take a sniff, clearing away the tears that betray the kind of person I need to be right now. “I think it does. And I guess you’re right. Something has happened to me.”
The door to my bedroom opens and there I see Nial’s face. “Are you alright, Alivia?”
There’s genuine concern in his voice. He looks from me to Ian and back again, his eyes communicating with me that if I need him, he will do anything.
“I’m okay,” I say with a nod. My heart swells with appreciation. He holds my eyes for another long moment, and finally, reluctantly, shuts it again.
“You’ve already got them well trained,” Ian mutters under his breath.
“Don’t,” I hiss, the heat instantly back in my blood. “Don’t you go and do that. I am not Jasmine.”
“What is the difference, Liv?” Ian shouts. His voice keeps rising in volume. “Jasmine used them as her monkeys and now they’re yours. What does it matter, who is feeding them the bananas?”
I close the distance between us in three steps, shoving against Ian’s chest. Hard. His eyes flash red but I don’t back down. “I am not Jasmine!” I scream. “I will earn their loyaltybecause they will have mine. These people…” I pant. “These people have been here for me! And you…you haven’t.”
“You are such a bitch,” Ian says in a breathy low voice. He shakes his head. “You’re going to use my family against me? Are you really that selfish that you will demand that I abandon my sister, my dying grandmother, to be at your side? You have no idea what they’re going through. Most of the town knows I’m a vampire now. Do you have any idea what Lula and Elle are going through?”
It gives me pause. I hadn’t thought of that until now. Most of the town would know, after hearing he’d died, and then seeing him at my birthday party.
I didn’t consider that.
Ian’s eyes turn cold, and he can read the truth on my face. “I will not be your House prince and rule my enemies with you, Liv.”
His words, the brutal truth, knocks me back. My mouth hangs open and the breath has left my chest.
Well there it is.
There it has finally been said.
“You’ve changed, Alivia,” Ian says. His voice is quiet and he backs away from me one step. The heat dies in his eyes and I can already feel him growing colder. “The Alivia I fell in love with was a fighter. But she never would have sunk as low as you have with Jasmine. She would have recognized that what she’s doing is no different from what her father begged her to stay away from.”
Ice creeps along in my veins. It snakes its way around my heart, creating little fractures as it speed freezes.
“What are you saying, Ian?” I ask quietly.
