by Stella Hart
I waved a hand. “No, don’t do that. I’ll talk to her. She’s mine now, and she needs to know I won’t tolerate any more hysterical lies. She can fight me all she wants, be as insubordinate as she wants… that’s fine. As you said, I somewhat like that. But I don’t like lies.”
“Fair enough.” My father nodded. “I suppose she’s spewed enough bullshit in the past, hasn’t she?”
“No shit.”
My face felt hot with humiliation. I couldn’t believe I let fucking Tatum Marris trick me. Despite what she’d done in the past, I still fell hook, line and sinker for her black lies. All because of those pretty blue eyes staring up at me, weakening me, suddenly making me feel things I’d never felt before. Compassion. Tenderness. Pity.
My hands curled into fists by my side.
I wouldn’t let it happen again.
13
Tatum
My eyes snapped open. There was something in my cell making a soft scuffing sound on the floor. The sound had woken me.
I wasn’t sure what time it was. After Elias left last night, I cried myself to sleep, and I woke earlier this morning to find myself still alone. When the time came to head to the gym and shower, I barely put in any effort, still mentally caught up on yesterday’s conversation with my supposed master. Then I went back to my cell and laid on the bed, still waiting and wondering while I drifted off for a nap.
Would he believe me? Would he return to help me? Was it possible he was actually unaware of the fact that I was here against my will? He seemed surprised when I told him, but he hadn’t returned or said a word to me since then.
Until now. Someone was in the cell with me. Please be him, I prayed. Please get me out of here.
“Elias?” I said, rubbing my eyes as I waited for the heavy tiredness in my limbs to fade. There was no response.
I sat up and looked around. With a start, I realized there was another girl in here with me, sitting against the far wall with her eyes closed and her head lolling forward. Her hair was dark and straight, and she was clad in a short black dress. One foot was twitching, making that scuffing sound on the concrete.
My mouth fell open and one hand flew to my chest as I realized who it was.
I practically flew off the bed to crouch next to her. “Mellie!” I said, my eyes wide and tearful as I shook her awake. “Oh my god, they got you too… I’m so sorry!”
She opened her eyes and yawned. “Oh, you’re finally awake. I couldn’t get you up earlier, so I was just waiting. Must’ve drifted off myself.”
Her voice sounded preternaturally calm. She was obviously in shock.
“This is my fault,” I said hurriedly, my voice shaking as I tried to fight back tears of remorse. “I got you into this.”
She stood up and stretched her slim limbs like a lazy cat. “Not really,” she said breezily. “I’m fine. I was just napping.”
As she stretched her arms over her head, my eyes fell on a small tattoo on her wrist. My body immediately went rigid. I’d never seen it on her before; never seen her in anything but a long-sleeved top or jacket. “What’s that?” I asked, although I didn’t need to. I recognized it: a crown with a dagger through it. The same symbol was branded on my back.
She smiled thinly. “You know what it is.”
I shook my head with wild confusion. “I don’t understand… you’re one of them?”
“Ding, ding, ding!” she replied. “Finally figured it out. Well, I guess you had it spoon-fed to you, really, but whatever.”
“No….” I slowly sank to the floor in shock, pulling my knees up tightly to my chest. “How can you be one of them? And why?” I said, my voice thick with emotion.
She sighed as if I were nothing more than a petulant toddler. “I had a feeling you’d react badly.”
“What did you expect?” I said, raising my chin indignantly. I looked into her eyes, but my friend wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t recognize this girl in front of me. Didn’t recognize that malevolent glimmer in her eyes or the twisted slant to her pursed lips.
All these days, I’d worried about her, thinking I might’ve gotten her into trouble with Crown and Dagger for helping me sneak into one of their ceremonies. I thought her father and the rest of them had set her up by making it easy for her to access his computer on my behalf… but the whole time, she’d been working with them to set me up. Only me.
And I thought Tobias King was an asshole…
Mellie was far worse. At least Tobias never pretended to be my friend.
“God, you should see your face. It’s so funny,” she said, sitting cross-legged before me.
I swallowed hard, choking back the tears. “How is this possible? How can you work for the society?”
She smiled at me. “Let’s just say you aren’t the only one who likes sneaking into places you don’t belong.”
I shook my head. “What do you mean?”
“When I was a kid, I used to love spying on people. One time I sneaked into this old dumbwaiter in our vacation house and sat curled up in the dark the whole day, just so I could spy on my dad when he and his friends went into the room to talk. I ended up overhearing a lot of stuff. Top-secret Crown and Dagger stuff. He’s one of the very highest council members, after all. Only Tobias King is above him. Anyway, I kept it all to myself for years, but when I was about seventeen, I went and told my dad what I heard that day. I told him I knew everything.”
“What happened then?” I asked warily. I loathed Mellie with a cold fury now that I knew what she was like deep down, but I was still curious to hear her story. I needed to in order to make sense of it all.
She looked over my shoulder, as if she were looking into the past. “He just stared at me, totally shocked and horrified. I could see it in his eyes; he was wondering if he’d have to have me killed now that I’d discovered it all, even some of the secrets of the third level. I was his baby, his little daddy’s girl, and now he might have to arrange for me to take a bullet in the head or ‘accidentally’ overdose on coke. But I told him he didn’t have to do that. I wouldn’t say a word to anyone. I would keep it to myself just like I’d done for the last several years if he promised to let me in on it. If all of them did. I wanted to be one of them, you see. It took a hell of a lot of convincing, and a lot of good old-fashioned nepotism, I suppose, given how high-up Daddy is in the society, but they saw reason after a while.”
“You wanted to join them even after you heard about all the sick things they do to women?” I said incredulously.
She smiled smugly. “You wouldn’t understand my reasons, Tatum. Or are you Doll now?” she said with a malicious gleam in her eyes, her eyes falling on the notebook Elias left in here the night before.
God, she was such a bitch.
She went on. “Anyway, I told them I could be useful to them. I could talk with the girls here, woman to woman, and help them accept their new places. I could make them see reason in ways that men just can’t manage. Stuff like that. They were uncertain, but they saw another way in which I might be useful, and so they gave me an opportunity to prove my worth to them.”
“What was it?” I asked, although I already had an inkling as to what it was.
“They wanted me to befriend a girl during her Roden campus tour and maintain the friendship with her until they were ready to take her. That way, there would always be someone close to her, watching her every move and making sure she didn’t randomly decide to leave the country for any reason, which would make it harder to track her. She was very important to them, because the society president wanted her for his son.”
“You’re talking about me,” I said softly.
She smiled again. “Yes. It had to be someone you’d never suspect. They figured I would be perfect for the job because I’m a girl and I’m also the same age as you.” She waved a hand. “It all went to plan, and the society was very happy with how I performed.”
There was a deep pit in my stomach. “Performed,” I repeated in a low m
urmur. “It was all a joke to you. An act.”
“Not exactly.” She cocked her head to the side. “To be honest, I actually enjoyed being friends with you. You’re smart and nice, albeit incredibly naïve. And you were also my golden ticket into the society. I’ll always love you for that.”
“Great,” I said miserably. “That makes me feel so much better.”
Mellie sat down next to me. “Don’t you want to hear the rest? It’s pretty entertaining, if I say so myself. I’m kinda proud of it.”
I waved a hand. “Whatever.”
“I planted the Crown and Dagger sociology paper thing in your head on purpose,” she said, her lips turning up in a triumphant grin. “When I heard you bring up your urban legend assignment that morning, I saw an opportunity to let the society play with you. So I mentioned them in our conversation, and then I let you, Greer, and Willa get all excited about it. It worked perfectly. I could see how much you wanted to write about them.”
“So even that was a setup….”
She nodded proudly. “Uh-huh. When Greer suggested sneaking into the Tap Week party, I quickly called my dad and made sure it would be easy for you to get in. That way you’d start to feel invincible, like you could actually get in and out of Crown and Dagger events unscathed, all for your stupid exposé. Then when they finally got you, you’d be terrified and shocked out of your mind. Great entertainment value. My dad and the rest of the society loved my idea, so they went with it. That’s why they took you specifically at that ceremony, when really, they could’ve taken you any time around then.”
I shook my head slowly. “But you were so against it! You avoided me for ages, and when I confronted you, you said it was because you were concerned.”
She laughed. “Of course I said that. It would’ve been too obvious I was in on the whole thing if I didn’t,” she said. “Instead I acted like I was so worried and against the plan, because I knew it would only make you more curious and also make me seem more trustworthy. You fell for it.”
I could almost see the evilness emanating from her, spreading through the room like a cloud of black dust, blotting out all the light.
“You’re so fucked up,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “How could you do something like that to another person?”
“Like I said, I wanted to prove my loyalty and worth to the society. I wanted to be one of them.”
“Tell me why,” I said impatiently. “Tell me how you could possibly think it was okay, woman to woman, to help these men kidnap and torture young women.”
She rolled her eyes. “I already told you before, you wouldn’t get it.”
I glared at her. “Try me.”
“Fine. Look, it’s just the way of the world. As much as people don’t like to admit it, some people are just better than others. Richer, smarter, more attractive. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, some people are obviously born to serve. Look at you, for instance. Your family has always struggled, and you’ve grown up to struggle as well, just like them. Class reproduction at its finest. It’s literally in your blood to be a loser. But at Crown and Dagger, there’s an opportunity for girls like you to cease the constant struggle and follow your true subservient natures. So by helping the society, I’m also helping the girls find their true purpose in the world. That’s what I want to do. That’s my purpose.”
I stared at her, my forehead lined with incredulity. She sounded deranged. “You’re serious? You really think you’re naturally better than me just because you’re rich? That someone like me should be nothing but a slave?”
I thought back to all the times she’d comforted me over my insecurities about coming from nothing and feeling like I didn’t belong. She was always so kind, so caring, so sympathetic. She told me people like her were no better than me and that they were just lucky to be born into wealth, so it was simply astonishing to see her displaying her true colors and saying the opposite now.
She sneered. “There’s a reason my family has everything and yours doesn’t, Tatum. You’re below us. Simple as that. Sorry if I ever led you to believe otherwise. I had to make you like me somehow, right?”
I didn’t bother arguing with her. There was no point trying to reason with someone so obviously unstable and irrational. Someone so utterly sociopathic.
As my mind whirled back through our entire history, something suddenly occurred to me. “Not everyone in your family agrees with your worldview, do they?” I said, glancing up at her. “Your brother Henry. He isn’t like you, is he?”
Mellie rolled her eyes. “No. He left Crown and Dagger after he made it to the third level about a year ago. They thought he could be trusted, but they got it wrong. Happens sometimes, I guess. They’re only human. Anyway, the only way out of the third level is death, but he’s a Davenport, and like I said, my father is one of the highest council members. He didn’t want his son dead, so he reached an agreement with the others to let Henry be exiled instead. Nepotism all the way. It exists everywhere.” She laughed.
“What do you mean, exiled?”
“Cut off from everything. Always followed and monitored to make sure he never tells anyone about what the society really does. If he ever so much as tries to breathe a word to anyone in any way, he’ll be killed immediately. That was the best compromise they could reach.”
“So he lives his life in constant fear.”
She shrugged. “I guess. But that’s his fault. I’ve tried reasoning with him, telling him to come back into the fold, but he won’t listen.”
My mind drifted back to that strange morning outside Mellie’s suite. I thought her brother was just a horrible person, and I thought he was telling me to stay away from his sister because he hated me for some unknown reason. Now I saw the truth. He was trying to warn me away from her, because he knew what the society had planned for me, and he knew Mellie was in on it.
Because he was constantly being followed and he knew anything and everything could be bugged, he couldn’t tell me the whole story, or else he would’ve been killed for finally opening his mouth and revealing the truth to someone. He couldn’t even say my name in case it aroused suspicion in those listening in on his conversations. All he could do was tell me to stay away from Mellie and hope I somehow got the underlying message. Those tailing him would’ve simply assumed he was yelling at someone to stay away from his sister for some other reason. Just being a protective brother.
“They’re only using you, Mellie,” I said softly. “As soon as you don’t have anything to give them anymore, the society will get rid of you. They’ll never let a woman into their ranks.”
She showed me her tattooed wrist. “Wrong. They know something valuable when they see it, and I’ve proved my loyalty again and again. I let them mark me, I let them take over my life, I let them control everything. I belong to them way more than my brother ever could, even though he’s a man. They’ve already let me suggest ideas to them, like I told you, and one day they’re bound to let me have some power too. They might even start kidnapping a few men here and there, so I can have my own sex slaves.” She giggled at that.
“Wow, way to score one for feminism,” I said sarcastically.
“Oh, shut up. It’s not like I’m the only woman helping them, anyway. The nurse who saw you on your first day here is female, and she has no problem doing the job in return for a fat paycheck. Money trumps loyalty to your gender any day.”
My shoulders slumped. She had a point. Just as Tobias once said to me, almost everyone on the planet had a price. Loyalty could be bought.
“Anyway, you need to come with me,” Mellie said, rising to her feet again.
“Why?”
“Well, I didn’t just come here to chat. I need to take you upstairs and get you ready for the ball tonight.”
My brows furrowed. “The ball?”
“When the new girls’ brands are finally healed, they throw a big fancy party here at the Finishing School. Second and third-level members are allowed to attend and bid on
the girls in a sort of silent auction.”
I gulped. “For what?”
“To score the chance to take their virginity before training begins. Whoever wins the bidding on a particular girl will also become her master and be given the opportunity to determine exactly how she should be trained. When she gets to the Lodge, she’ll be shared amongst other men, but she’ll always be that particular member’s slave in the end. She’ll always serve him above any other man.”
I felt like I would vomit at the slightest provocation. “I’ve already been given a master, and I’m pretty sure my training has begun,” I said gloomily, thinking back to yesterday with the cattle prod and the notebook. “So why do I have to go?”
“I know you’ve been given to Elias,” she began with an injured sniff, as if that somehow personally offended her. “But you still need to attend the ball. The other members need to get to know you and see that you exist for when you’re sent to the Lodge. Besides, we can’t just have you wasting away in here forever,” she went on, waving one hand around the cell. “You’ll lose your mind.”
“I think I already have,” I muttered.
“Get over it and come with me. Don’t make me slap you,” she said in a warning tone.
With a miserable sigh, I followed her out of my cell and into the elevator. A few minutes later, she led me into an unfamiliar room on the first floor and motioned toward a rack laden with beautiful evening gowns. “I’m not a complete monster,” she said with a smile. “I’ll let you pick a dress.”
I walked down the line of gowns, trailing one finger along the soft, luxurious fabrics. After a few moments of indecision, I pulled out a long dark purple column dress. The silky material sparkled under the chandelier light, and the bodice fell from points at each shoulder before diving into a plunging neckline. The skirt spread out in a flurry of delicate pleats that fell to the floor in breathtaking lines.
“I guess I’ll wear this one,” I mumbled. Purple had always looked nice on me.
