28. Elara

Chapter 28

Elara

" T ell me again what happened."

Kaspian sits in a corner chair of the bedroom we'd been sleeping in, moonlight streaming through the windows, catching the fine strands of his hair, and turning it into a nebulous aura.

I stand in front of him like a shamed schoolgirl, my fingers tangled together and trying not to curl into desperate claws.

"The amulet was in my hoodie's pocket," I say. "I've kept it on me at all times ever since you … gave it to me."

T o ssed it at me, more like, but I don't want to get into semantics when surrounded by four just-woken-up, and therefore half-feral, men.

Sasha's at my side, blanket wrapped around her shoulders and blinking blearily at all of us.

"Tell me again why you gave that necklace to Elara, Kas," Cav says to Kaspian, arms folded while he leans against the headboard and parrots Kaspian's exact warning tone he unleashed on me. "When I entrusted it to you to keep safe."

Cav doesn't mention that he must've seen me wearing it when they all claimed me at the same time. Maybe he assumed I'd give it back to Kaspian after our fun. It's not as if Kaspian issues ignored orders.

Kaspian sighs, resting two contemplative fingers on his chin. "The Sovereigns circle closer, as much as we keep them at bay by being their good little assassins."

Assassins.

Even my internal thoughts gasp at the word. I knew these guys were dangerous and highly skilled at their nighttime activities, but to label themselves exactly how Sarah titled her nighttime pursuits … the parallels are all too vivid in my head.

Kaspian continues, "If, at any point, they decided I was no longer of use to them, I didn't want the necklace anywhere near me in case they managed to break my defenses."

I give Kaspian a long stare, peeling back the layers of his sentence and understanding how the Sovereigns might break through his mental walls. Torture. Carvings. Scars and punishment.

"And so you hand it over to the one person they'd look to next?" Wilder asks, eyebrow cocked at Kaspian. "I always thought you were the smartest one of the bunch."

Cav glowers at Wilder. Wilder ignores him, being the reckless one of the bunch.

"Elara's family has kept the Heart safe for centuries. Why assume they can't do it now?" Kaspian says.

I raise my chin in surprise at his unexpected defense.

"Can we get back to the point?" Wilder interjects. "The necklace is missing, and so is Axe. Anyone heard from him?"

Together, they form a triangle of simmering anger around me, Kaspian at one end of the room, Wilder at the other, Cav at the peak.

And me, dead center.

Sasha shuffles closer into my side, lending me her strength.

"I tried to contact Axe as soon as I couldn't find him or the necklace," I answer. "He's not answering my texts or calls."

I shift my gaze towards the empty space next to Cav. The realization hits me like a gut-punch. The bed sheets are cold, the imprint of Axe's body still visible but quickly fading.

"I've tried as well," Kaspian says. "His phone goes straight to voicemail."

"Maybe he just needed some air. He tends to wander," Wilder suggests, but I can tell he doesn't believe his words. Wilder's mad honey eyes...they're different. Serious and somber.

Cav is quiet. The one who plans and can predict the future with scathing accuracy is uncharacteristically silent, and I don't know if that should scare me more than Axe's sudden exit.

If anything, it sends a cold dose of fear over my head.

The missing necklace. Axe's disappearance. His confession that the Sovereigns had been using him…

"I don't like this," I say, leaning into Sasha's warm side, my heart ricocheting with anxiety. "Something's wrong."

"Undeniably," Cav finally intones. "Axe is acting off, even for him."

Wilder grunts in agreement, his fingers drumming on his thigh.

"He's been distant recently," Wilder adds. "More caught up in his own thoughts than usual. He barely looked me in the eye when we last spoke."

The revelatory insights drop like stones in my stomach. My mind races back to every interaction I've had with Axe, searching for a sign, anything that can offer a hint of our present predicament.

And all I can find is the guilt shining in his eyes.

I swallow down the knot forming in my throat and force out the words that have been chewing on the edge of my thoughts. "Do you think Axe took the necklace?"

The air seems to deaden.

"To what end?" Kaspian muses in his smooth baritone.

"No idea," Wilder responds tersely, rubbing the stubble on his chin, "But it's sure as hell suspicious that both disappeared at the same time."

The tension is thick in the room, a palpable entity that lunges for my voice and steals my breath. Our cohesiveness as a group threatens to unravel with each passing second, frayed edges catching on the sharp blades of unspoken accusations.

"Just because he's acting strange, doesn't mean we should accuse him of betrayal," Sasha defends, her light, feminine voice almost out of place in this gloom. "Plus, I like him. He's my favorite out of all of you. He wouldn't do something so heinous."

Cav releases an agitated sigh and runs his hand through his dark hair, causing it to stand in appealing disarray.

"It's not about accusing him of anything," he tries to explain. "It's about figuring out why he's gone."

Wilder huffs and crosses his arms over his chest, his muscles flexing with the motion.

"Could be he's just fed up with all this shit," he says. "A man can only take so much before he cracks."

I shake my head, unwilling to accept that as an explanation. "That doesn't sound like Axe," I argue. "He wouldn't have run without telling us ... unless..."

"Unless?" Sasha echoes, looking at me.

…he figured out I'm the Sovereigns' last sacrifice, and he's trying to save me.

Could it be I'm misreading the weight in his stare as guilt instead of sacrifice? Would he do that?

The answer comes immediately: to save his brothers, to stop me from getting killed, yes. He would.

I grind my molars as I come to terms with the idea that while I debated how much I should trust him, all of them, he was figuring out a way to help me.

"Do you have something to add, beastie?"

Kaspian's soft voice is anything but light.

I draw in a breath, my heart scrambling against the captivity of my ribcage, when my phone buzzes abruptly in my pocket, its vibration a startling sound.

All eyes swivel toward me as I raise my phone. On the screen, Axe's name accompanies the message notification.

"It's from?—"

"Read it out loud," Cav demands before I can finish.

I suppose my face is a lot more transparent than theirs ever are. He knows who it is.

"It's a message from Axe," I say anyway, clearing my throat to shake off the unease. But as I read the actual words, a cold void opens within me, swallowing my confidence.

" They have me. They have the restored Heart. To keep me alive, meet at the altar room underneath Thornhaven Estate ."

The first to recover is Kaspian, his mind always quicker than ours.

"It's a trap," he states flatly.

"They found the other half and know about the altar room," Cav adds in a similar tone. "We're out of time."

Tears build up in my eyes and I clench my fists to my stomach, pressing hard. If I linger too long on the implication that everything Maverick did, the life he sacrificed, was for nothing if the Sovereigns put the Heart together anyway, I will collapse on the spot and never get up.

Wilder barks a harsh laugh and throws his hands in the air in frustration. "Trap or no trap, Heart or no fucking Heart, we're not leaving him to the Sovereigns."

"Not anymore, you mean."

Cav's voice is so low, I barely catch it. Yet everyone inclines their heads to him.

"Wilder's right," he continues, rubbing a small circle on his scarred torso, his gaze unfocused like he doesn't even realize he's doing it. "Axe has taken our punishments over and over again. Not by our choice, but through our conditioning. They made us believe he deserved it, that through him, we would feel a type of pain we'd never experience if they'd carved onto our bodies, instead. Witnessing someone's torture is…" Cav's throat moves and he shakes his head. "We always think we can escape the Sovereigns or at least avoid them, and then they do something to lure us in the same way they've guided Axe right back to them tonight."

"We can't just barge into the estate," Kaspian begins, leaning forward in his seat and resting his elbows on his knees. "The first floor is swarming with initiates."

His words jolt me back to reality. Kaspian's gaze meets mine across the room, unwavering.

As much as this is about rescuing Axe and seizing the Heart, it's also about defying the Sovereigns once and for all.

I wonder if the Sovereigns are betting on that fact.

"I could go and act as a diversion," Sasha offers, haltingly at first, but then her voice firms. "I'm not a threat to them. I've been to their parties before."

I whip my gaze to hers. "Sasha, no ."

It suddenly occurs to me how easily I can deny someone I care about from willingly entering into danger … in the same way the guys constantly deny me.

My lips flatline as I strike a line through the hypocrisy and double down. "You're not going in there."

"And you are?" she asks me, quirking a brow. "I don't think so. We're in this together, El. Where you go, I go."

"Great, so both of you can go upstairs and into the closet I plan on locking you in," Wilder cuts in.

"Nice try," I snap at Wilder, "but I'm as involved in this as you are."

"You're planning on strolling in there like it's a damned tea party," he counters.

"Either you take us with you, or we figure out a way to break out of that closet and save Axe ourselves," Sasha says primly.

Wilder curses, digging his fingers into the top of his head. "You are not disposable distractions."

"I don't see any other way," I say evenly. "If we want to rescue Axe, retrieve the Heart, and have any chance at confronting the Sovereigns, we need a plan that involves more than just brute force."

Kaspian's malachite gaze flicks between me and Sasha. There's contemplation there and I know I almost have him.

Sasha swallows, her brown eyes widening slightly as his attention shifts to her.

She gulps down her hesitation and her chin lifts. "The initiates love having girls over. Isn't that a perk of your Court? Girls and parties every night?

Wilder reluctantly concedes, "To make us weak, malleable and easier to break."

"We infiltrate Thornhaven as guests," Sasha continues. "The Sovereigns have no reason to distrust me. Elara and I can attend their party as normal attendees while you guys … uh, do what you do … from the back."

My heart lurches at Sasha's words. But Sasha speaks true. As much as I want her safe, I've brought her into this and now we're in this together. It's time for me to take responsibility for that.

Besides, the men in this room aren't the only ones who care about Axe.

He was in so much pain, inside me, holding on to me like he was desperate not to let me go…

I'm coming, Axe.

"What do you propose, Cav?" Kaspian asks without breaking his focus on me, though his question reverberates around the room.

Cav's deep-set eyes briefly go to my face, lingering a second more, before he addresses Sasha.

"You've been to plenty of Court parties, right? You know the layout?" he asks her.

Sasha confirms with a nod, angling her head as if putting me in her blindspot so she doesn't have to witness my reaction to her next words. "Several times. I even know where certain rooms are, like the Sovereigns chambers where they keep their documents."

I note the sharp interest growing in Cav's gaze. He leans forward, away from the headboard. "How? Non-members aren't allowed on the higher floors."

"Guys talk when they're horny and want to impress me." She shrugs.

"That would be our best shot at finding intel on who the Sovereigns are," Kaspian says, his mouth curved as if he were … impressed with her.

I'd high-five Sasha and hug her senseless if we were talking about any other plan. My smart, capable, amazing best friend.

Cav slides off the bed.

"We create a breach," he says simply and with an uncanny calmness that I suppose means he likes Sasha's plan. "While Elara and Sasha mingle as guests, we penetrate the perimeter from the east."

"The east?" Wilder says while grinning wickedly. "That's Sovereigns' territory. It's heavily guarded."

Cav flashes a smile sharp enough to draw blood. "Precisely."

The anxiety I've been battling since Axe's disappearance tightens its grip, whispering words of caution that feel so heavy in my chest. Or is it anticipation? A chance to chip away at the leviathan that is the Sovereigns?

We're actually doing this.

"So long as you girls stay on the first floor and don't fucking go anywhere," Kaspian adds. "Sasha, tell us where the chambers are."

And as the guys gear up, one fact snaps into focus: We may be losing to the Sovereigns' right now, but tonight, we'll rewrite the rules, or burn down their kingdom trying.