Page 14 of Insurrection
My heart clenched as I was hit by the wave of emotions in that single word—emotions I certainly hadn’t expected. His eyes ran over my face as his gaze flashed with a vibrant green flare. “Ama…”
“Do you really hate me that much?” I whispered, my voice cracking and tears pricking my eyes. “I mean shit, Drayven. I was sixteen when I kissed you. I had no idea what I was doing with my magic. You were my first kiss. How was I supposed to know it could hurt you? It's been over two years! I don’t understand this overwhelming need you seem to have to make sure I’m miserable every day of my life.”
His jaw clenched as he looked down and ran a hand through his gleaming silver hair, “It’s not like that, Ama.”
“What’s it like then?” I arched my brow, challenging him to explain to me how I was wrong. Secretly, I ached for him to tell me just how off-base I was, because a not-so-small part of me had never let go of the stupid crush I had on him, despite everything. Kinda pathetic, right?
He shook his head, and I deflated further, completely done with this nonsense. I kept my voice low and even, “Just leave me alone, okay? I deal with enough shit every single day. So if you supposedly don’t hate me, just stop. Stop being such an ass and leave me alone.”
“I can’t leave you alone,” he gritted out between his clenched teeth, and my blood began to boil.
Rolling my shoulders back, I raised my chin and strode past him. He didn’t try to stop me as I exited my bedroom and headed towards the comfortable living suite, where I figured my tutor was already waiting. I could feel Drayven’s broody ass following behind me, and I tried to ignore the ache in my chest at the freshly renewed idea of Drayven harboring true hatred for me.
Why did I care so much?
Chapter Six
Ama
Ishouldn’t have been surprised— by this point it really should have been a natural assumption—but I had come to the realization that my tutor really didn’t like me. Which was, of course, inconvenient and frustrating, since it was all too clear that hedidlove Drayven. Because of course he did—everyone fucking did.
As I leaned back in the comfortable armchair I sat cross-legged in, Drayven briefly offered me a frustrated look because I had refused to sit next to him on the couch before going back to listening attentively to our tutor.
Who knew why he wanted me to sit next to him? Maybe he was attempting to kill me before the Summit so I wouldn’t embarrass the house. That seemed like a likely option. Otto probably would have let him get away with it as well.
For the past three and a half years, the skeletal man had droned on and on, nearly every day of the week, about topics that frankly didn’t interest me. Mind you, sometimes he covered interesting stuff—like how the devil had gone willingly into an eternal slumber, leaving us with our life as we knew it—but usually, it was about the House of Death’s history and our ‘proud’ and ‘pure’ heritage as Reapers. Most of the time, I ended up drawing in my notebook when he started on one of his tangents about how much he disliked the other houses, especially the House of Sin.
Shocking, right?
I missed Maria. She had been my tutor before Otto, from the time I’d been very small. She was the one who’d taught me everything from writing to math, so we’d had a fairly close bond. Honestly, despite her being fairly young in comparison to Otto, she had been the closest thing I’d had to a maternal figure.
Then the council had voted her out of her position and removed her from the castle. They’d said it was because she was unqualified to teach me as I grew older, but I think it was really because she’d defended me in front of other Reapers. It had only been once or twice, but it had been a kindness I’d never forgotten.
When I had tried to search for Maria in town, I hadn’t been able to find her. The entire situation left a bad taste in my mouth, and I wondered what had happened to her.
“Amare!” Otto snapped, “Did you hear what I said?”
I felt my jaw tighten and exhaled slowly, trying to keep calm so I wouldn’t kill the jerk, “You were talking about the House of Hellfire.”
One of the more interesting houses, I would give them that.
“Exactly.” He nodded sharply, and Drayven examined my expression before going back to looking over the large text Otto had dragged from his crypt, the pages opened to a series of stunning crests representing the six houses.
Wanting a closer look, I moved forward onto the floor, kneeling and leaning over the coffee table. My head tilted slightly as I examined the black and burnt orange crest of the House of Hellfire.
All of the crests were gorgeous, but theirs just really appealed to me. Maybe it was because the ferocious Hellhounds on either side of the crest were representative of the badass creatures that the house’s members could shift into. Or maybe it was because I wishedthathad been the other half of me instead of my succubus side. The thought of shifting and running away sounded wonderfully freeing.
"Unsurprisingly, each of the houses will want their representative to be voted into the Supreme position, but the House of Death has held the position for several cycles now—something that we do not want to change, as we are protected with your father holding that power." Otto offered me a serious look, as if he somehow thought I wanted to get rid of that security for the Reapers.
My father had held the position for so long, so I didn't understand why he’d suddenly decided to send me when the vote would have pretty much been in the bag. In fact, he probably had more of a chance of winning if he sent no one at all, rather than send me. Unless...he knew I would fail and was sending me to make sure hedidn'tget selected because he was tired of it.No. No, he would never do that.I shook myself from the insecure thoughts and asked a different question.
"So, if they all want the position, why do we keep getting it?"
"Because we have more allies than most of the other houses. Our territory is known for being rather unbiased when it comes to making decisions," he explained. "Because of that, there are some houses you can count on as almost certain votes. Others, you may need to work on—and then there are some that aren't even worth trying to convince."
"The Hellhounds from the House of Hellfire are almost a sure vote; they have yet to vote against us with your father in charge. Now that he is sending you two, though, that may change. So if there is anyone you need to focus on, it's them. You need to prove to them that you have the level of dominance they require from a leader," Otto explained. He shifted his gaze towards me, "That is why Drayven and you need to work together: they will probably respect him more than you, Amare."
I narrowed my eyes, knowingly, "Why is that?"
