Betrayals and Sacrifices

Briar

Lucas had been so sure that William would avoid us during the celebration since he had already announced his intent with the ticket. To see Lucas so rattled scared me more than I ever had been for this night.

“Ah. Briar, how lovely to see you again,” William said with a knowing smile from where he sat in his wheelchair.

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I’d never heard him say my name before. It felt like the floor was rising up to meet me, but I hadn’t moved.

“I’m sure you’re wondering what happened,” William continued, and rubbed his right thigh roughly to bring my attention to the limb that ended just above his knee. “Nothing but a hunting accident.”

A woman scoffed, and I pulled my gaze from William’s leg to see Karina glaring at Lucas. Sahira and the rest of the thirteen women wore equal looks of hatred for the man beside me.

I wondered if they would feel the same if they knew what William had attempted before and after Lucas shot him.

“Hunting,” Lucas finally said, and even though I couldn’t tear my eyes from the women or William, I was surprised to hear the cool tenor of his voice, and the humor in that single word. “I guess that’s accurate. How did the surgery go? Sorry I didn’t care to stop by and check on you.”

“And why would you?” William asked as his smile broadened into something that made my blood run cold.

“Exactly.”

I didn’t know how William and Lucas were talking to each other so calmly. I didn’t know how Lucas hadn’t attacked him yet, or why I wasn’t screaming at him for trying to have me taken away or killed.

But then I remembered what Lucas had said, and I knew what William was doing.

He’d made his intentions known, and now he was going to torture us slowly until he decided he was ready to make good on his threat against me.

William was playing a game . . . and Lucas was stalling as he tried to find a way to beat him at it.

“It is quite funny though,” William mused, “the things you want as soon as you can’t have them. I cannot remember the last time I just went for a drive, but that’s all I want to do lately. Sadly, I cannot.” His calculating gaze went from me to Lucas, and he cocked his head to the side. “Do you ever have the urge to go for a cruise, Lucas?”

Lucas was studying William intently, his eyes just as calculating, but his face looked oddly bored. He lifted his shoulders slightly. “Not lately. It’s nice to have someone drive you around. I’m sure you’ll get over your urges soon enough.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.” He shrugged, just as Lucas had. “I have been having these dreams of being back in the UK, cruising over the River Trent.” He trailed off, seeming to get lost in those dreams—but I noticed how still Lucas became. “And then I wake up and realize that I am here, and I won’t be driving again. It’s quite devastating, let me tell you. Almost feels like a betrayal.”

Despite the tension radiating from Lucas, he forced a smirk. “You’re so dramatic lately, William.”

“William. Lucas,” someone called from behind us, but I was only able to glance over my shoulder at the stranger before my gaze snapped back to the man in front of me.

I was too focused on Lucas’s reactions, and the way William was now pinning me with a victorious stare, to do more than that.

Lucas twisted to greet the man who had come but remained facing both William and me as he did. I knew I needed to turn, but I was afraid to have my back to the man in the wheelchair. I took a shaky step away, and shuddered when William’s hand snaked out to grip my wrist.

Lucas’s voice abruptly halted, but William smoothly said, “I’m sorry, Briar dear, I cannot hear you. Can you lean closer?”

I glanced at Lucas, noting the panic he wasn’t able to keep from his eyes even though his face remained impassive.

Men weren’t allowed to touch another’s woman, but a woman also couldn’t be the one to stop the man if he happened to—her man had to. But this wasn’t just any man, this was Lucas’s mentor, and William had just tied our hands in making it seem as though I was in the middle of a conversation with him.

Lucas dipped his head in the slightest of nods, but his arms slowly uncrossed from where they’d been against his chest, and he held them at his sides.

I shakily leaned closer to William, and he said in a low tone, “Look at him, First.”

I didn’t.

“Fine, don’t. I’ve already seen enough in the times that you have.” He laughed darkly, softly and continued on a whisper so neither his women nor Lucas would hear him. “You thought he cared for you, and in turn you fell in love with him—but you only fell for what he wanted you to. Anything he may have told you or promised you were lies to keep you here and happy, to help you progress. And progress you have. To be where you are in six months is remarkable, most take double the time. But let me assure you that it has only been a ruse. Every word and every touch has been to ensure that you would end up here. All of this was one giant lesson, and Lucas taught you well.”

Months ago, I might have believed what William was saying, but not now. I knew Lucas too well to let William try to make me second-guess everything now. It was what he wanted, but it wasn’t going to work.

“Is that why he shot you?” I asked through clenched teeth, forcing myself to hold his cold, blue-eyed stare.

One of his eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t look surprised I knew it had been Lucas, only surprised I would say anything to him at all. “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices in order to better this world.”

“And I’m one of those sacrifices?”

William sent me a look that was so fatherly it shocked me. “Another ruse, my darling. Do you think you would still be alive if it hadn’t been?”

“Do you think you’ll still be alive if you try again?”

That fatherly expression immediately slipped from his face, and something so evil flashed through his eyes before everything went blank. That unnerving calm he and Lucas seemed to have mastered was all that was left when he promised, “You won’t be around to find out.”

“Time to go, Briar,” Lucas murmured. His panic was clear because William grinned wickedly.

“No, Lucas, I think you should stay with me,” William said coldly, and my stomach sank when he waved off his women.

After a few confused glances at each other, they turned and walked away as a group.

“There are some people I need to introduce you to,” William continued.

“I’ve done fine without you so far, and I’ll continue to. Briar, let’s go.”

I stood and tore my hand from William’s grasp and tried to force the chill from my body when he said, “I told you to stay.”

I turned toward Lucas, taking a step in his direction, but froze when I took in what was happening. “Lucas . . .” I breathed, horrified.

The calm and panic were both gone, but had been replaced by a silent rage that was terrifying to be in the presence of. But those eyes—those dark eyes I loved so much—were saying so many things he couldn’t in that moment.

He loved me.

He was going to protect me.

He was sorry.

I dropped my gaze to where the gun was aimed at Lucas, then followed it up to the man holding it. The same man who had just greeted William and Lucas like long-lost friends.

“As I said . . . stay.” William laughed softly then clapped his hands twice.

I didn’t understand why people weren’t reacting. I didn’t understand why people weren’t trying to figure out why this man had a gun aimed at my devil. But then I realized that what seemed so big to me was nothing more than a tight circle of people talking to everyone else at this crowded, crowded celebration.

I felt the presence behind me before I felt the actual man. He had to have been as tall as Lucas and just as wide.

“Briar,” Lucas began softly, but whatever else he’d been about to say died in his throat.

I stiffened when something sharp pressed against my inner arm, and Lucas started, like he was about to lunge across the small space toward me.

“William,” he snarled, but William only laughed.

“I suggest you both stay quite still.”

Without moving my head, I looked down at the needle pressed to the crook of my elbow, and the clear liquid that filled it. I had a feeling it wouldn’t just knock me out for a few hours. When I looked back up at Lucas and saw the soul-deep pain in his eyes, I knew I was right.

“I had planned to do this differently,” William said cheerfully. “Poetically even. Something that people spoke of for years to come. That way you would never forget her, and this celebration would haunt you every year, Lucas. But then I received disturbing news a few days ago, and well, those plans no longer mattered to me.” William’s head tilted to the side as he studied Lucas. “Tell me, Lucas, what is your name?”

Fear gripped me, squeezing me tighter and tighter until it felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore.

David had said they would find out the truth about my devil, and we’d been naïve to think they couldn’t in the time we had left.

Lucas’s chest was rising and falling roughly, unevenly, and his hands were clenching into fists. But he didn’t move, and his eyes didn’t leave me even as he spoke to William. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answers to.”

“But it’s so fun,” William said with another clap. “Really, boy, tell us. Humor me. You owe me that, at least. I just want to hear it come from you before I force you to watch as I tear your heart from your chest.” His words were even more sinister in that lighthearted tone.

“Briar . . .” Lucas whispered, and William sighed heavily.

“Sometime tonight.”

Lucas swallowed roughly, his head shaking slowly as he searched my face—like he was trying to memorize it. His gaze dropped to my stomach for a few seconds, longing and anguish flashing through his eyes before they met mine again. “Forever,” he breathed, and I nodded, because I couldn’t make my voice work.

My throat was tightening and tears were blurring my vision.

With one last ragged breath in, he held it for a moment, and then released it with a name. “Trent Cruz.”

I only had one second to let that name wash over me.

I only had one second to realize what William had been saying earlier—how he’d been taunting my devil with his real name.

I only had one second, and then the hall erupted into chaos.