24. hide & seek

24

hide drinking from the weak stuff won't bode well for me later. “My kingdom,” I remind him.

"I do have obligations in other places," he says, leaning against the bookshelf with his hands in his pockets, his eyes looking everywhere but me.

"Oh, Trav," Troian chimes in. "Please don't tell me you're cheating on Trinity." Troy sounds surprisingly disappointed that her twin might be sneaking around at night to be unfaithful to his betrothed. The idea that I have two vampires roaming around at night for secret trysts strikes me as odd, really. But I have a feeling that Trav is not doing what our sister is accusing him of.

"That would also be none of your business if I were." He tilts his head at her with a devilish smirk painted proudly.

"How did I get so lucky as to end up with two idiots for brothers?!" Troian speaks under her breath yet seemingly loud enough to insult us. But I could care less about her thoughts of my love life.

“Oh, trust me, sis. We’re the lucky ones.” Tavois’ tone is lace with so much arrogance and sarcasm, it almost makes Troy look like an amateur.

"So then, where do you spend your business?" I take over, watching the twins carry annoyance in their eyes.

"Again, not of your concern, brother."

His shortness of explanation irritates me to my core. This is why we don't get along. Because he's always so brooding and childish, never wanting to have a decent conversation with anyone. He believes himself to be superior.

For as long as I can remember having siblings, he's been this way. He always disassociated himself from the rest of the family, though I did too but mine was mandatory more than by choice. Travois chose not to be a part of this. He always wanted to be alone.

I'd say he took it out on me mainly because his mom was in and out of our lives and part of him blames me. Funny, considering I blame his mom.

"Half," I speak up, wanting to set something straight. "Half-brother." Troy pins me with a hateful look, as if I didn’t just make the nearly same remark to her a few days ago, knowing how it made her feel.

But if he's not going to act like he's a part of this family, he might as well not be. We don't have to like each other, but his respect of me isn't a fucking option.

Part of me does start to wonder if he could be responsible for the murders. Maybe he's trying to find his mom, just like I am. Maybe he's a few steps ahead of me and knows more than I do, taking things into his own hands.

"Oh, right. You don't dare accept the fact that our family is not whole due to the insipid fact that we do not share the same mother ." The low and rough timbre of his voice is facetious.

"That's enough, Travois," Troian tells him, warning him not to pick this fight.

"Where is your mother now, Riv? Have you seen her lately?" His words are like daggers. I don't feel the effects of sticks and stones. I don't let baseless threats drive fear into my mind. But when my mother is the topic of conversation, vexation floods me, burns my heart and claws at my skin and I refuse to let him get by without consequence.

"Riv." Troian steps closer in my direction, her hand coming out in front of me as if to stop me from moving toward our insolent brother.

"Is she happier with her new family?" Travois' tone becomes unbearable, his smirk is causing me to see red.

"Travois, that's enough." Troian tries to talk him down from the suicide mission he's eager to embark on.

I take a step in his direction, a maddening look likely swirling in my eyes. I can feel the heat of my anger spread across my face, my heart pounding in its confines.

"She doesn't even remember you. Maybe you should forget about-"

A blink of an eye. That's all it fucking takes. A half of a shallow breath.

I have the bastard up against the bookcase, books plummeting to the floor as the shelves rattle behind him; my hand threatening his heart.

"Rivian!" Troy shouts from behind us, fear painting her tone as she watches her brother’s attempt at a fight for control.

"You want to say that again, little brother. This time to my face." I threaten him. But I am no fool to consider that he might actually yield to my threat. Travois and I were raised in the same home, despite our disconnection to each other. We both don't like to back down. Carved in darkness and breed from evil.

But he knows I'm stronger.

"Rivian, stop!" Troian begs, but her cries for us to stop won't faze either of us.

Travois pushes back at me, shoving me to another wall in a flash. I notice his strength has gotten more vigorous as he grips my throat and also tempts fate with my heart, wondering what he's really been doing with all his spare time. But he's still not stronger than me.

"I don't need to say it again, Rivian. You already know that you're inadequate and defective for what you've been given. How was the basement, brother? I heard you were begging for water for days on end."

I don't let him continue his asinine attempt at an insult before shoving him off me and swinging for his precious face.

“Travois, that’s enough!” Troian tries with her might to get us to stop. But there’s no point.

I land my fist across my brother’s jaw line, which only makes him laugh cynically as blood spurts from his mouth.

"Do it again. I fucking dare you." His smirk is taunting. He thinks that I care about his thoughts; that I am not worthy because my mother was not made queen. But the truth of the matter is, I am to be a king. His king.

"Please, you two." Pain haunts Troy's voice. Something that doesn't happen often. She holds herself at an annoyingly high standard of not letting anything faze her. But for some reason, when her brothers fight, she becomes fragile.

I wipe my brother's blood against my white button up, my hand covered in it from tempting to rip his heart clear out of his chest.

"Nothing is ever good enough for you, is it Rivian? You've got a fucking tether in front of you and can't even treat her right. For what reason?" Trav dusts himself off while smearing blood across his jacket, touching his finger to his mouth to assess the damage.

His sudden change of verbal battery from my mother to my fiancé doesn't truly shift my anger, only intensifies it. I don't realize that I react the same to the mention of her that I do my mother. Something visceral charges me; the need to defend her and protect her settles deep inside me.

"Don't fucking speak about Lucynda or it'll be your tongue I pull from your body." I lower my voice when I speak to him, the need to rattle his bones with fear is heavy. And it works, because the fucker doesn't dare open his mouth again.

"And what about you, huh, Trav? Like you're doing any better with Trin?" Troian decides to find her voice again and points the accusation back at her other brother.

"Fuck you. Both of you," he spits as he walks over to my desk. He grabs the bottle I was drinking out of and downs the rest of its contents.

Despite all the fighting and all the disagreements between the three of us, there's a more pressing matter at hand that we both need to be on the same page for. And I need to get to the bottom of what Travois has been up to, if only to clear his name.

"Viktrum is going to call for war." I come straight out with the news that I'm sure none of them knew about. "They found his brother's body, Dominek, sometime in the dark of morning."

"And you're just now telling us this?" Travois' attention seems to stand at full attention now, irritation scratching his voice.

"Where do you go when you're not with Trinity, Travois?" I unbutton my soiled shirt and yanks it from my body, realizing that it smells like Cyn and blood—my senses flood with greed.

Trav hesitates, obvious confliction swimming in his multi-colored eyes.

"Answer him!" Troian demands of him.

He sighs, knowing he's not going to get out of this.

"I go to Valor," his admission doesn't really surprise me. But the need to know why still begs.

"For what reason?"

He seems to think over if he is actually going to feed me that information. Troy grows visibly impatient with him as he makes us wait a beat. I could pull it from him. Entering a Royals mind is not off limits if it’s one Royal to another. But I know he’ll have forced the truth down just like I do my own.

"You better fucking answer me.”

Troy looks at me with slight trepidation or maybe satisfaction. I can’t tell with his sinister reserve holding in his emotions like a caged animal.

"I visit someone there." Is all he says.

"Who?"

Again. More silence.

The tension in the room is like a thick layer of fog. It's almost unbreathable.

"Travois, this is serious. Who are you visiting?" Troian shouts at him.

"I visit our mother."

Troy’s gasp is audible. Her whole body language changes from controlled to having an addled brain, causing her to need to hold herself up by palming the surface closest to her.

"She's alive?" Her breathing is scarce as she looks between her seemingly oppugnant brother, the floor, and me.

"How long?" I ask, nothing giving my feelings away. I express no concern, or shock, or anger, or anything of the sort.

"I found her a few years ago," he admits, which causes Troy to fall completely to her knees.

I rush over to her, needing to make sure she's okay. I know the news is a lot for her to handle.

"How could you keep this from me?" Tears threaten to break free, her voice cracked with pain.

"I didn't want to risk her safety. Father was still alive and-"

"So you kept her all to yourself?"

I help Troian back to her feet; I can feel the heartbreak radiating from her. Almost like I could with Lucynda the day I first met her.

"She asked me not to tell." Travois is now sitting at my desk, visibly upset with himself for disappointing his twin. He doesn't show emotion often either, but this is not something anyone can take lightly.

I however . . . I'm fucking ecstatic.

"Did you-" Troian turns to look up at me. "Did you know?"

Fuck. I can't lie to her, but I don't want her to know just yet how I might have known that her mother had been alive this entire time.

"I had a feeling," I tell her. Not really telling her the truth but not lying to her either.

"How has she gone untraced all this time?" Her curiosity is also my own.

"No. I'm not telling you anything else," he says as he puts his hands up in defense.

"How!" I demand, standing up straighter and this time, not giving a fuck if my apparent anger shows through.

Trav flinches.

"She had Dominek drain her of her Hollows blood."

His confession infuriates me.

"Dominek?" Troy asks.

"That's why Viktrum thinks the rogue comes from us. That bastard knew she was alive.” The realization that she might have something to do with all of this wracks me. If she was in some kind of relationship with Dominek and he ended up dead, that would explain why Viktrum pointed the finger at me.

But what does that mean if any of it does hold true.

"So, she's just a Nocturne now?" Troian directs her question to me.

If Ameliana drained her Hollows blood, technically eliminating her trace as a Royal, it would make her human again. The thought of her suffering through that torture brings frissons of joy to my soul.

"Technically, she's a Valor Nocturne now," Travois says as he stands from the desk.

His admission means that Ameliana married a Royal, likely Dominek, and they performed the blood bind. But why?

"I'm so disappointed in you, Trav." Troy walks away from me while giving her brother a daggered look.

"What's new," he whispers sarcastically.

"Invite her," I say stalely, command lingering in my tone.

"What?" Troy snaps her head back over to the two of us.

"I want her at the wedding," I state.

Travois gives me a look that says he can tell I'm up to something.

"You hated our mother. Why the fuck would I bring her here for your wedding?" he asks.

My reason is none of their business. So the reason I give them is also one of some truth.

"The king is dead. If I am to form any order of peace between Valor and Hollows, we need her here. And Viktrum too. I don't expect him to come but you need to get your mother here. She is likely the reason Viktrum thinks us to be the suspect of what's happening in his kingdom. We need to clear our names."

"She won't go for it. She'll be pissed that I even told you about her."

"What if I go with you?" Troian steps forward and offers herself as bait, her tone is vulnerable and sincere.

I often wonder why Ameliana would have willingly left her kids behind. Why she never came back to check on them. Why, after my father's death, she didn't come back. She would have been free of his torment if that’s what she was worried about. Her reason for running was quite unclear to begin with.

"Troy…" Travois fades off.

"No." She crosses her arms across her chest. "You don't get to keep me from her anymore. She's my mother too. The next time you go, you will take me with you."

She turns on her heel, leaving no time for him to argue or deny her of her wants. She proceeds to walk toward the door before I stop her.

"Troian." She turns to look at me over her shoulder. "I need you to send Natasha up to Lucynda. She needs the pill. Three day's worth," I tell her.

"I can take her," she says.

"Oh, and don't forget about the party tomorrow night. I want you there," I warn her, reminding her of her absence last time.

" Wouldn't miss it for the world. " Her sarcasm bleeds into the air.

Travois sits back down at the desk, obviously entertained by the whole situation while also being frustrated with himself.

I watch as Troian attempts to leave before something startles her at the door.

"Zharus," she gasps before stepping aside as my Factotum presents himself. She doesn't wait around though as he walks into my office, stopping short at the frame.

"Sorry, to interrupt, sir. I just wanted to see if-"

I hold up my hand to him.

"Not now, Zharus. This is a family matter," I say.

"Right." He lowers his head to look at the floor. " Family . Very well. I'll go over the final wedding details with you in the morning." Disappointment drips from his tone but I don't have time to analyze it further as I turn my attention back to my loathsome brother, waiting for Zhar to fully exit before pushing my demands at Trav.

"Travois. You will get your mother to come to the wedding, understand?"

"And what if she doesn't agree?"

"That's not an option," I state.

Trav gets back up from the chair and walks toward the door. So many things mix in my head. All satisfactory and maddening at the same time.

Trav turns to me before fully exiting and allows himself the luxury of the last laugh, causticity on his tongue as he indulges in another insult regarding my mother.

“Valaria would be so proud of you, brother."