Cruel Crown: A Dark Romance (Sekten Book 2)

by C. Lymari

  The fact that none of them stepped in while she was being whipped angered me. “Where were they when you needed them?”

  “They are forbidden from talking to me here. Just passing by is okay but nothing that would seem as if we know each other. If Damian doesn’t know they are my allies, he won’t go after them. And what Damian doesn’t know, he cannot fear.”

  “Have I told you how horny you make me when you strategize?”

  She glared at me. “You’re not coming anywhere near me anytime soon.”

  I chuckled and followed after her as she opened a door. We were across the castle in the highest tower. I could feel the elevation. There was a hallway that ran on top of the tunnel but curved in a different direction. In front of us was a door.

  Daphne pushed it open, and it went with ease. Right away, there were alarms blazing in my head.

  “Whose room is this?” I asked, grabbing her by the hips before she took a step inside.

  “Alexis,” she replied.

  “I thought that was your grandfather’s name?”

  “No, his name is Erik.”

  “Are you supposed to be here?”

  “Damian has access to this tower blocked off.”

  “Yeah, fuck that, Petal. That was too easy. I’m not letting you go in there.”

  Daphne started to buck, trying to get away from me.

  “Petal,” I warned. “The door wasn’t fucking locked. I don’t want to walk in and watch you get your brains blown off.”

  I was getting irritated.

  Did he think just because he’d started to fuck me, I suddenly forgot how to kill a man more than one hundred ways? That I was fucking helpless?

  “Look, handsome,” I said as I turned and pierced him with a look. “We may be fucking, and trust me, you fuck terrific, but no amount of good dick is going to dickmatize me into forgetting how to be a killer.”

  Gideon busted out laughing. I stared at him as his smile grew wide, and his eyes were warm. Warm enough to melt the cold that surrounded this place. He hid his face in the crook of my neck, and I felt my body tingling by his hysteria.

  I tried pulling away, but he only held me tighter. I was starting to understand why women killed their partners.

  “I fuck terrific, huh?” he goaded against my skin.

  “Not. Any. More,” I bit back.

  His smile spread wider. It was safe to say I was about to kill member number two of the Sekt.

  Gideon, however, did not understand the precarious line he was walking on.

  “Petal, I don’t give a fuck if you’re a Wonder Woman. As long as I’m around, nothing will harm you,” he said in a much more serious tone. He rested his chin on my shoulder, and a feeling I had never felt before simmered in my lower belly, but instead of spreading down and turning into arousal, I felt it slithering to my heart.

  “There are guards at the bottom of the tower. They don’t know about the tunnels, and the reason it’s open is because there was a small glitch and the door deactivated, and now I have to be twice as fast because you just held me back.”

  “No, baby, by not trusting anyone, you held yourself back. And don’t try and pretend like I am not the best you’ve ever had.”

  I opened my mouth to say something to irritate him, and he growled.

  “Don’t you dare bring anyone else into this.”

  Having had enough of his nonsense and wasting time, I brought my elbow up and jammed it back into his rib.

  He groaned softly as I walked into Alexis’s room.

  “You’re going to pay for that, Petal.”

  Going inside, I walked up to the two-way mirror. “You’re not fucking me anytime soon.”

  Gideon came behind me.

  “I’ve been dying to fuck that tight little arse, so don’t say what I can or cannot do…”

  His voice trailed off as he came to a stop next to me and saw what I was staring at.

  The two-way mirror spanned half the wall with a heavy metal door blocking access to the room. Light shone over the whole room, pouring in from the floor-to-ceiling window. You could see the beauty of this place through this room. The snowy landscape went on for miles. The only reason Alexis was allowed to have it was because the glass was too thick for her to break.

  Right, now it was peaceful. The place was padded, and a mix between a toddler and artist lived here. Inside was a woman who was a little older than I was, but where I had matured and I was just a bit damaged, she had been torn apart beyond repair.

  Her room was always the warmest. Especially when Alexis was present—even Damian wasn’t that cruel. She wore a long dress with sunflowers all over. She looked like summer in the winter. Her light blonde hair fell to her shoulders.

  She sat on the table as she smiled at the guests that were around her.

  There hadn’t been a day when I had come to this tower and I didn’t feel like I was coming out of my skin.

  “She’s—” Gideon started to say, but I cut him off.

  “She’s beautiful.”

  Even I heard how weak my voice sounded. I felt his worried gaze on my skin, but I ignored it. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door.

  “Wait here,” I said, and he looked like he was going to protest. “You’ll scare her.”

  He looked at Alexis once again, and then he nodded.

  As soon as I opened the door, Alexis turned to me, beaming, and it pierced my heart.

  “Your Highness.” She stood up and curtsied at me, then ran and hugged me.

  She was taller than me, but that didn’t resonate with her. In her broken mind, she knew who I was, but she thought she was still twelve.

  “May I crash your party?” I asked her in a soft voice as I gestured to the tea party she was having.

  Alexis started jumping up and down. “I would be honored.”

  She ran to get a bear from a chair and held it on her lap, waiting excitedly for me to sit down.

  Ignoring the fact that Gideon was watching our interaction, I kept going like this was normal. Alexis poured me some “tea,” and I played for five minutes with her.

  “When are you taking me out again?” she asked me.

  “Soon,” I said, hoping I could make it a promise. I tried to sneak her outside at least once a month. It was risky but worth it to see her smiling like this.

  “Have you heard from Alexandria?” I went with the easier of the two choices.

  I felt like the biggest asshole when she stiffened, and her lip quivered. She hugged the bear tighter.

  Leaning into the table, I reached for her hand. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”

  She went back to beaming at me again.

  I knew I was limited on time, but I willing to suffer the consequences.

  “Remember that time you, me, and Damian snuck off into the Amber Room, and then we got locked inside, and it took a day and a half for our parents to find us?”

  That day was twenty years ago. I had been five, and she had been almost seven and Damian eight. We were lucky it was in the summertime, or we would have died. Ivan had been so proud of the Sekten’s small soldiers. How we endured the night and we didn’t complain. I think that was when it all went to shit.

  “You kept me warm,” I told her.

  “Of course. I would die for you.” She said the words and meant them.

  “Together in hell,” I whispered so low I didn’t think she heard me, but she did.

  “Forever in heaven.”

  I blinked back furiously so I didn’t cry in front of her. My skin was burning up again. I heard the door handle start to turn, and I turned to the two-way mirror and shook my head slowly.

  “Alexandria was here a few days ago…” Alexis said as she poured more tea into our cups. “She left some writings in a journal…” When she hesitated, I inched closer to the edge of my seat.

  “I think Dove was with her…” She whispered the words as if she were talking about a monster.

  “Why do you say that
?”

  “Because she’s always drawing scary pictures.”

  Bingo.

  I stood up slowly and made my way to her. “Close your eyes, Alexis. I’m going to take the pictures away, and you can have this…” I stopped while I pulled out a chocolate bar from my pocket.

  “You’re the best!” she exclaimed as she threw her arms around me. I played with her hair for a moment, then bent and kissed the top of her head. A tear landed on her scalp, but she was too ecstatic to notice.

  Going to the drawer, I moved it so I could get to the back and looked at the images that had been dumped back there. I tried not to flinch as I rolled them up and brought them with me.

  “I’ll be back,” I swore.

  “Be safe, Your Grace.” She waved me off as she returned to her tea party.

  As soon as I got out of the room, I closed the door behind me and leaned against it, feeling like I had run a marathon.

  “What the fuck was that?” Gideon asked.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t do it here, and it wasn’t safe. We walked out of the tower, then ran back to the tunnels, Gideon on my heels. As soon as we were in the darkness, I broke down. I held on to the wall for support because seeing Alexis always made me feel so raw and exposed. I didn’t even get to fall because Gideon was there holding on to me.

  “This is your fault,” I said because it was easier to blame him.

  He didn’t get offended; he just hugged me tight until the smell of nicotine with Chanel Allure lulled me.

  “You make me feel…” I hissed. “I don’t want to feel.”

  “I’m tired of being numb” was his reply. No apologies, no “let’s talk about this.” He wasn’t letting me go.

  “That could have been me,” I said, and I felt him go still. “As the Sekt started to get corrupt, a lot of the original families vanished. When Ivan took over, he killed a few.”

  “That’s why only you and Damian are from founding families,” Gideon finished for me.

  “And Alexis.”

  The tunnel was silent, with the occasional vibration that came from other parts of the castle. It was dark, but I thought it was better this way. Baring your soul was easier in the dark than in the light. At least with no light on, you couldn’t see how awful it really was.

  “Ivan was a sick, sadistic fuck,” I spat. He might have sired me, but he had never been a father. “When he realized that I bounced back from my abuse, unlike other kids my age, he was fascinated. He saw it as an opportunity.” Gideon’s breathing came in pants, and I knew he was enraged on my behalf.

  “Growing up in the castle was lonely. We rarely left because not only was it safest here, and Ivan had many enemies, but it made him feel like a king. For him to slowly command a society that was ancient, cold, and deadly, it became like a drug.”

  Gideon guided my head to his chest. The beating of his heart helped calmed me.

  “Why did you need to talk to her?”

  “Because she knows where Ivan hid an item I am looking for… when we were in London, I recovered a necklace.”

  “One of the imperial lost jewelry.” He said it like it was nothing. “Baby, I pay attention to everything you do.”

  “Whoever gets all four lost artifacts back gets the power. It is believed the old families would come out of hiding and try to reclaim the Sekt.”

  Gideon brought his hand up to caress my check. “Don’t get offended, but baby, you sound kinda crazy.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” I said sadly. He wasn’t born inside this place, he wasn’t taught our traditions. I knew it might sound crazy, but for me, it was normal.

  “Then make me…” he said with such sincerity that it lodged inside my heart.

  “I was Ivan’s first test subject. When he saw that he didn’t destroy me, he went after Alexandria.”

  “The other girl you talked about,” he guessed.

  I shook my head.

  “Alexandria is Alexis—it’s her given name, but when we were little, we called her Alexis. She was always running everywhere and loved heights. She was fun and full of life. They started calling her Dove, and it became her alias.”

  “Fuck,” Gideon said as he kissed the side of my head. “He broke her.”

  “I thought I had it bad…it was nothing compared to what she got. Ivan was a monster. I guess being his daughter saved me from him and the worst of his contacts. They broke her so badly that one day she just wasn’t there. Her mind became so fragile that she split herself into three personalities. Alexis is the innocent part of her, the one that thinks and acts like a child. Then there’s Alexandria, who remembers everything, all the pain, and just wants to kill herself.”

  I stopped to gather my breath.

  “And Dove?”

  “And Dove is all rage. She can’t be controlled. There are no emotions, no empathy; there’s nothing but hate. It’s why the room is locked and padded. Dove is a weapon that wouldn’t think twice to pull my heart out of my chest… Dove also draws, and through those drawings, I have been trying to piece what was Ivan up to and from there, trying to find out what Damian is doing. Alexandria was Ivan’s favorite girl. He took her everywhere with him—it drove my mother crazy and to an early grave.” The words were bile in my mouth.

  “Damian connected with her in a way he never did with me. A part of me was at least happy he protected her as much as he could.”

  “Is that why he has her in that room?”

  “He was fascinated with her. He knew what Ivan was doing to me, but he didn’t care.” I sounded bitter, and I thought I was over it, but my voice said otherwise.

  Gideon held me tighter. His hand started to rub up and down my arm, trying to soothe me.

  “But when Dove broke, it drove him mad. Then secrets came to light, and Ivan had uses for Damian too.”

  “Fuck,” Gideon cursed. “Bas had a feeling he used him too.”

  “It was only once, but that one night was more than enough,” I said. “You don’t have to worry about me dueling Damian. I’m not stupid. When I saw him step into the hall that day, I knew what was done to him. It’s so easy to recognize the dead look in his eyes; it mirrors the dead one I had been carrying for years.”

  He didn’t pressure me for answers, and I was grateful.

  “Damian was twenty already; he wasn’t a little boy. It took a hit on his pride. I assume Ivan kept him lucid enough for him to know what was going on but restrained enough so he couldn’t move.”

  “Ivan, he…?” Gideon asked.

  I shook my head.

  “No, he sold him for a favor. The Sekt is supposed to be a family, but Ivan wanted a submissive kingdom under his dominion. Damian came in and asked for a duel. He taunted Ivan. Ivan was too prideful to say no to such a challenge. He chose twin scythe blades. We all gathered at the pit, and right away, you could smell death in the air. Someone always ends up dead in a duel. They fight went on for a long time. Blood was pouring from all over their bodies. Every time Ivan got a hook on Damian, he pulled back, ripping the skin so he wouldn’t hook it to any organ. His body is covered in scars. Ivan didn’t count on Damian’s agility and endurance mixed with the loathing and revenge he felt toward him. He hooked the scythe to his lower quadrant, and blood poured as he brought out organs. And when Ivan went down holding on to his gut, screaming in agony, Damian went behind him and carved both blades and pulled out his spine.”

  “Bloody hell,” Gideon mumbled.

  “Damian was crowned our new king, and things seemed like they were going to be a little better until they weren’t.”

  I pulled away from Gideon’s embrace, knowing we had wasted enough time, and we had to get going.

  “I’m so tired.” My voice was close to sounding like it was laced with defeat.

  One second I was on the ground, the next Gideon had me in his arms, and he started to walk back to where we came from.

  “It’s okay, Petal. You can take all my strength. I would offer to take away
your pain, but I’m so fucking selfish that I would never do that because if I did, you’d stop being you, and I think you’re fucking spectacular.”

  I was glad for the darkness because it allowed me to crack without him seeing it.

  Strategizing wasn’t something I usually did. I was more of a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-fucking-may kinda guy. Plans always fell apart, and since I was always on my own, it didn’t matter who I had to kill or fuck over to make it out alive.

  That wasn’t the case anymore.

  Every move had to be calculated, and if I fucked up, the woman who was in my arms might get ripped out of them, and I was not about to let any of that happen.

  I watched her as she talked to Alexis, and it took everything in me not to barge in. The pain was plainly etched on her face. I’d heard about dissociative identity disorder, but I had never seen a case.

  That girl had not one but three personalities. As much as I was fascinated, waiting to see all of them, I couldn’t imagine my petal being like that, stuck in a fragile mind.

  When we made it to the bottom of the tunnel, I put her down. She took a deep breath, jutted her chin, and walked out without a backward glance at me. I waited a few minutes before I went out.

  After a few minutes, I went out the door and back to my room. As soon as I got there, I went to my bag where I had hidden the brooch I’d stolen. I was going to give it to Daphne today with one condition.

  I grinned to myself because I was a fucking asshole. I grabbed it and put it with my stuff so I could bring it tonight to Daphne’s room. I knew Damian would be getting here soon, and I needed to talk to him.

  I had a plan that would allow me to kill two birds with one stone. Maybe Daphne and I had entered another game. There still wasn’t full disclosure, but for now, I think we needed that.

  You couldn’t put two monsters together and expect them to play nice right away; it wasn’t in our nature. We ultimately had secrets to try and protect each other.

  The office was big in a tower. A huge luxurious desk that looked like it was ancient adorned the room along with tokens of Damian’s various kills. Stuffed bears, mountain lions, wolves.