House of Deception: The Unrivaled Series

by Brandi Elledge

  “Hi, Daisy, it’s Thorn here, reporting for duty. Where would you like me to start?”

  She pulled back like I had slapped her. “Young lady, where I would like for you to start is with a bath. Why is it you come to me every day for work looking as if you had just rolled in the mud?”

  Putting my head down like I was ashamed, I said, “I didn’t have time to bathe in the creek, Daisy. I’m sorry.”

  She huffed. “Well, from here on out, I’d appreciate it if you would come looking at least a little bit representable.”

  The cook behind her gave me a wink like he knew why I came strolling into the House of Ash looking like a pig that had rolled in the mud. I gave him a sassy wink back as I followed Daisy through the kitchens.

  “Well,” she said, “I can’t have you making beds and doing laundry today, not with how dirty you are, so we will have you cleaning bathrooms and fireplaces.”

  I nodded. That sounded great to me. Usually, there wasn’t a bunch of unrivaled sticking around to watch a woman clean their bathroom.

  “And Daisy, my friend won’t be able to report for work today.”

  She clamped down her big buck teeth. “Why is that?”

  I sighed. “Unfortunately, she stayed up too late last night and couldn’t get up for work this morning.”

  “I don’t believe this,” she said. “These jobs don’t come around every day, you know. There are twenty women lined up at the door, just waiting for one of you to mess up so they can take your position. You should be honored to work in this house.” I could tell Daisy was about to lose her patience with me.

  “You’re right; I’ll tell my friend that she blew her chance here.” When she narrowed her eyes at me, I said, “But I really thank you for the opportunity. I promise to never just not show up.”

  I would always be on time, too, but that didn’t mean I would do a great job.

  “Which room would you like me to start in?”

  There was a loud commotion coming from the kitchen, and thankfully, Daisy’s attention was divided. She showed me off toward the great hall. “Go clean the fireplaces, and after you finish there, start in the west wing bathrooms and work your way around.”

  Ugh. There had to be at least fifty bathrooms in this place.

  I would take my time, work extremely slow, and not clean anything to perfection in hopes that Daisy would get enough complaints that, in three weeks’ time, she would be done with me.

  I grabbed all the items that I would need from a hall closet then headed toward the great hall.

  As I entered the room, I noticed at least fifteen unrivaled lounging about on sofas and chairs. I felt like a calf trapped in a lion’s cage. With my eyes cast down, I prayed that none of them would notice me.

  I set my supplies down in front of the fireplace and immediately went to work. While I scrubbed, I listened to the older teenage girl’s giggle while the guys demonstrated their powers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one guy rotating his hand, and with every flip of the wrist, fire came from his fingertips. A beautiful young woman with dark brown hair sat on the couch, complaining about how boring her life was. I rolled my eyes as I scrubbed the sides of the fireplace.

  “We need some excitement in our lives,” she said.

  The voluptuous redhead next to her purred, “I don’t know about you, but I do have excitement in my life.” Then she squealed as one of the younger men flopped down beside her on the couch and started kissing her neck.

  “Yeah, Catarina,” he said, “just because you’re bored doesn’t mean that Elena here has a lack of excitement in her life.”

  I scrubbed harder as kissing noises floated my way.

  One of the guys behind me hollered, “Hey, orphan, you missed a spot.”

  Pretending I was deaf, I continued on as the young women laughed and made jokes about my attire and looks.

  One of the guys said, “Would you sleep with that for more power?”

  Another guy chuckled. “I would rather be human.”

  Hardy har har, they were so funny. Little did they know I didn’t want to catch any of their attention in a positive way.

  The conversation moved away from my homely looks and lack of parents back to the beautiful brunette who suffered from extreme boredom because the conversation wasn’t about her for thirty seconds. Poor dear.

  The redhead said, “So, Catarina, there has got to be someone you’re interested in.”

  From the corner of my eye, I could see the woman lounge back into the cushions. “Who knows?” she said flippantly.

  A man came strolling in, and I recognized him as Halton himself. He was six-foot-two and the kind of muscular that was stocky. He had soft brown hair and big brown eyes that gave him the appearance of being sweet. I could see why Raven was infatuated with him. She still did something really dumb, and if we got out of this unscathed, I was going to hold this over her head forever.

  Halton picked up Catarina’s feet and slid underneath them. “Are you guys really questioning who Catarina likes? We all know that she’s had the biggest crush on me since we were all five.” He leaned back in the couch and smiled. “I am the best she’ll ever have, so that makes sense.”

  The redhead giggled, making Catarina glare at her.

  “What?” she snarled as she turned her anger on Halton. “Maybe you are the hottest guy in the House of Ash, but you aren’t the hottest unrivaled.”

  Halton narrowed his eyes a bit. “Is that so?”

  The redhead threw up her hands defensively. “Come on, guys; you two are always doing this weird cat and mouse game. You’re both hot, you’re both obviously into each other; can we quit baiting each other now?”

  Halton rubbed Catarina’s legs. “Who else do you know who would put up with all of your crap?”

  I didn’t have to look over at the group to know things were going to get really bad soon.

  “You know who is freaking hot?” Catarina said.

  Everyone grew quiet, and I silently begged for the woman to not finish that sentence. I had a strong suspicion that it wasn’t going to be the guy who was holding her legs.

  “The Puppeteer.”

  I couldn’t help it. I looked over at the group.

  The other young men were wincing, the redhead was nodding, and Halton was deathly still.

  “Yeah, but he is scary as hell, too,” the redhead said.

  Catarina smiled. “The hottest and most powerful, yum.”

  Halton shoved Catarina’s legs off him. “This is why I sleep with humans. They’re not as cold as some of these unrivaled.”

  “Halton, are you slumming with a human?” one of the guys asked.

  My stomach turned as laughter erupted from the group.

  Halton threw something at one of the guys. “Please,” he scoffed. “I’ll get the good out of her then turn her over to my guards for disciplinary action. If I can remember her name.”

  There were a few chuckles.

  The redhead sighed. “I don’t know why those silly humans keep sleeping with you guys. I mean, they know what the consequences are.”

  “That’s because you’ve never slept with me,” Halton bragged.

  The man who had his arm around the redhead punched Halton in the arm. “Cut it out, man.”

  Catarina, commandeering the conversation again, said, “Everything has been dull since Alice left.”

  Halton scoffed. “She didn’t leave, Cat. She was dragged out of here.”

  Her voice rose. “By your orders.”

  He sighed as if this was a conversation they had had many times before. “You know that it’s not up to me who stays and who goes. Once an unrivaled doesn’t fit in with their house any longer, they are to be handled. You should be thankful that I just escorted her out and didn’t kill her, which is usually the protocol for this house.”

  There was an eerie silence after his final words, causing the sounds of my brush over the fireplace to sound even louder. I needed to get out of her
e before they turned their attention back to me.

  Making sure that I only cleaned seventy percent of the fireplace, I grabbed my tools and headed out of the great hall with my head down. I needed to find Halton’s room first and grab that apron. He didn’t even remember Raven’s name, so if I destroyed the evidence, then maybe he would just move on to the next. The problem was figuring out which room was his.

  Head down, I picked up the pace. Not paying attention to anything other than a quick escape, I plowed right into someone. Sturdy hands held me steady as I gasped from having the wind knocked out of me.

  Not bothering to raise my eyes, I mumbled an, “Excuse me.”

  Before I could step around the wall that I had run into, Catarina jumped up from the couch and exclaimed, “Oh, wow, the mighty Puppeteer is here. And what do we owe the pleasure?”

  Did she just say Puppeteer? The man who was the strongest unrivaled in history? The one who there were stories about because he was a legend amongst the royals? The one who could kill a man with just a thought? An army of men with just a blink of an eye?

  I refused to look up as my legs began to shake, and I felt vomit rising in my esophagus. I had just gotten the Puppeteer dirty. If I threw up on him, too, that wouldn’t be good. They might gouge my eyes out.

  The Puppeteer ignored her. I could feel his gaze on me.

  “Excuse me, sir,” I said.

  “Are you okay?” Catarina asked the Puppeteer.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” he rumbled in a deep voice.

  Catarina came up beside him and started dusting him off. “These humans are so gross. I’m sure you can smell this one.” She shuddered, and I smirked.

  This was the closest I had ever been to any unrivaled, and I had to admit that I wasn’t a fan.

  Taking another step to the side, I went around Catarina, who was fawning all over the newcomer.

  “We didn’t know you would be visiting us today. What an awesome surprise.”

  As I began to walk toward the exit, my ankles became very warm. I looked down in panic and shock to see that the hem of my dress had caught fire.

  There were barks of laughter and giggles coming from behind me as I tried to slap at the fire. My hands immediately blistered from the flames. The pain in them was immeasurable but nothing compared to my legs.

  With blistered hands, I continued to try to put out the flames that were flickering up my legs when water suddenly came crashing around me. From the hips down, I was drenched.

  There were several protests. One of the women even started whining now that the flames were no longer licking at my limbs.

  The newcomer barked, “Enough!”

  Halton laughed. “Come on, man; we were just having a little fun with the human.”

  There was a loud sound from behind me, and then several people gasped out loud, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the welts forming on my legs. Farther up my legs, around the calf muscles, the pain was excruciating, but around my ankles, where the fire had been the worst, I felt nothing. Maybe I was in shock?

  Biting my lip so I didn’t scream out in pain, I started hobbling toward the door when someone grabbed me by the elbow. From the corner of my eye, I saw it was the man they called the Puppeteer.

  He started pulling me along, and when I tried to grab my supplies, he roughly said, “Leave them be.”

  As soon as we exited the great hall, he dropped my arm. “Follow me.”

  With no other option, I did as he said.

  He ushered me into a bathroom that I would soon have to clean. And when he shut the door, confining us both in the small space, I began to panic.

  “Easy,” he said. “I wouldn’t touch you if you begged me to.”

  I couldn’t stop the roll of my eyes, which he must have caught because laughter escaped him.

  “Here you are, burnt, and you still find the courage to roll your eyes at me? Well done, little dove.”

  Against my better judgment, I lifted my eyes. I did a fantastic job of not showing any emotion as I looked at the man they called the Puppeteer. No wonder Catarina had been salivating over him. He was definitely drool-worthy.

  He stood around six-foot-three, with black hair that was just the right length to frame his piercing blue eyes. He had full lips set in a masculine jaw, and perfect cheekbones that were trying to hide under stubble. He would have been perfect if it weren’t for that tiny scar that ran from the corner of his left eye and disappeared somewhere into his hairline. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen, and he was looking at me with disdain.

  “What is it that you are trying to hide so hard under all that mud?”

  At his question, I immediately dropped my eyes back to my feet.

  He chuckled. “No one can possibly get this much dirt on them unless they were trying. Anyone with half a brain would realize that you are purposely trying to disguise yourself. But, lucky for you, you haven’t been surrounded by the most intelligent people.”

  Was he making fun of the other unrivaled?

  I didn’t dare speak.

  He grabbed my hands, and I flinched half from the pain and half because I was terrified that an unrivaled had me in their clutches.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. Then his hands began to heat, and the pain in my fingers and palms started to recede. He was healing me? An orphan?

  I jerked my eyes to his again. He must be a hybrid. They were the most powerful of the five houses because they weren’t limited to just one element.

  “Too bad you didn’t figure out a way to cover up those eyes,” he remarked.

  My eyes were a weird shade; a mixture somewhere between brown and yellow.

  He knelt down and began to heal my ankles next. “I’m assuming you can’t feel your ankles?” When I didn’t answer him, he grunted. “The burns removed your nerve endings, eliminating all sense of pain. I’m surprised you were able to walk. Another mark in your favor, little dove.” He moved his hands up to my claves. The pain started to fade, and it was all I could do to stand still and not hyperventilate.

  “Let me guess your name, orphan. With eyes like that, I’m going to have to say Tigress.”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, what is it then?”

  My words came out throaty. “Thorn.”

  He smiled up at me, and there, for one brief moment, I could see why Raven had gone completely insane and had a fling with an unrivaled. This man, who was kneeling before me, was absolutely gorgeous. Of course, I was no fool. Nor would I ever risk my life for a one-night stand.

  “You want to know something funny, Thorn?”

  Not really, but I had a feeling he would tell me anyway.

  “There was an infant who my mother found floating down the river. This baby would not stop wailing. I was four at the time and completely over this tiny thing screeching. My mother fished its basket out of the river, but before she handed it over to one of the villagers, she asked, ‘And what do you think we should name her?’

  “I said, ‘Thorn because her crying hurts my ears just like a thorn in my foot.’ She laughed, and, of course, I never thought of it again, yet here you are, Little Thorn.”

  I glared. So this was the asshole who had given me that sorry name.

  I should keep my mouth shut, but I just didn’t have it in me.

  “The name sucks, so forgive me if I don’t congratulate you on your witty analogy as a child.”

  He tilted his head back with laughter. “I don’t know. I think Thorn suits you perfectly.”

  My ankles and hands were no longer burnt, so there was no reason for me to stay in the bathroom with the freaking Puppeteer and carry on a conversation. “I have a ton of bathrooms to clean, so if you’ll excuse me.”

  “Wait,” he said. “I noticed you cleaned parts of the fireplace to almost perfection, yet other parts, it looks like you made an effort to leave them dirty.”

  “Would you like for me to go back and clean it more, Your Highness?”
r />   “You don’t want to be here, do you?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Interesting.” He gave me a slow nod. “As a hybrid, I’m made up of a few different elements. Some of them combined have side effects. For example, when someone has strong emotions, I can easily pick up on them.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Hate, anger, disgust.” He took two steps toward me, but I held my ground as he bent his head toward mine, his nose almost touching my neck. Then I heard him breathe in deeply before hot air hit the side of my neck. “Fear.”

  I swallowed nervously and almost fainted with relief when he took a few steps back from me.

  “I could have you freed of your obligation and duties here at the House of Ash.”

  But what price would I have to pay for his help? I had a feeling that it would be more than I was willing to give. After all, the unrivaled never did anything out of the goodness of their hearts.

  He crossed his muscular arms over his chest as he gave me a calculating look. “Or you could stay and finish the bathrooms. Fair warning, though, this house has a high employee turnover for a reason. If humans don’t get fired, they get burned.”

  I tilted my chin up. Fear, along with several other emotions, rolled through me. I needed Raven’s apron. Once I had that, I would just flat-out do or say something inappropriate to the head maid, and then she would fire me. But whatever I did didn’t include jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. If the unrivaled could burn me, this man could incinerate me.

  “Thank you, sir, for your concern, but I like my job here.”

  He tilted his head to the side as he studied me. “Your blood smells different.”

  I took a step backward toward the door. Should I run? One look at his predatory gaze and I realized that, in fleeing, it would only entice him more and I wouldn’t get very far.

  “Interesting. Very interesting. You may go, Little Thorn.”

  I reached for the doorknob.

  “Try not to dance in the flames.”

  In a flash, I was out the door and moving toward the stairs that would take me to the bedrooms. I didn’t start breathing again until I had gone up to the highest floor. Then, grabbing items that I would need out of the supply closet, I headed toward my first bathroom.