Page 95 of Reign
Ahmar lifts his head, but his eyes are so hollow, his warm brown skin so gray, that my stomach sinks before he utters a word.
“My beloved niece needs help,” he croaks out. “She hasn’t been right since Mer—my friend’s death, and her recent escape from the hospital proves it.” Ahmar turns in my direction but keeps his focus on the floor. “These people only wanted to help, honey. You’re ruining lives. You’ve already destroyed so many. Don’t bring anyone else down with you.”
Tears brim at the edges of my vision. “You don’t mean that.”
“Emma?” Sabine croons. “How about you, dear?”
“My brother wanted nothing but the best for you.” Emma’s dulled voice carries across the attentive room. “And you stabbed him for it.”
“Eden?” Sabine asks. “Anything to add?”
Eden’s quiet voice comes through her curtain of hair. “You sent naked pictures of me to the entire school after I confided in you how much pictures like that destroyed me in ninth grade.”
“I don’t—Eden, I would never,” I say. “Whatever Sabine’s done to you, it can’t account for Ivy’s death. Sabine killed her.” My voice breaks. “Please remember that. And she put Chase in critical condition.”
“No, dear, you did all that.”
“No.” But it comes out hoarse. “I didn’t.”
“Oh, but you did. I’ve called this emergency meeting precisely because you are a danger to our societies, our school, and yourself. Your uncle has kindly offered to put you into psychiatric care as soon as you recover from your … failed attempt at suicide, which, since you’re here, I assume you have.”
I find Ahmar through the haze, and he lifts his head without hesitation. The skin around his eyes tightens, as if in a desperate effort to drill his thoughts into mine. I can practically hear them through his closed, tense mouth. Do as she says, kiddo. Let’s escape in one piece, all right? We’ll deal with them when we’re long gone.
Or, is that even what he’s saying? I can’t tell anymore. What he said aloud doesn’t match these internal thoughts. He stated I was ruining lives. That I’d already hurt my dad. Sylvie.
Did I hurt Ivy and Chase, too?
My hands go to my head, my knuckles digging into my temples.
“Ahmar,” I cry, scrunching my eyes shut.
“He can’t help you anymore, child.” Sabine’s heels click against the marble. “In my opinion, he’s helped you too much. Falyn? Come down here, please.”
Falyn appears after taking the hidden stairs, her golden cloak floating around her ankles as she walks. She smiles when she spies me, then digs into a side pocket of her cloak and pulls out a sheaf of papers she then gives to Sabine.
“No!” Ahmar cries out. Then, his brows draw in. His back goes up. “Lady, I’ve done everything you’ve asked. That was the deal. You promised you wouldn’t show her.”
“What, this old report?” Sabine calls, deigning a look over her shoulder. “I’ll keep my promise. I won’t show her. But I will tell her.”
Ahmar roars, stampeding forward, but is held back by a taller, broader Cloak—the type of stature I didn’t think existed above Ahmar, gifted with height and breadth.
But, I don’t tell the Cloak to release my uncle. I’m too fixated on what Sabine holds in her hands. “What is that?”
“It’s a police report, darling, on your mother’s death. Oh—I stand corrected,” she adds when Ahmar lets loose a string of threats. “A forged police report. One your uncle worked very hard to legitimize. And it would’ve worked, too, had I not done the digging necessary to unveil the true document he buried.”
My stomach pitches. “That’s not—Ahmar?”
He trembles beneath the Cloak’s solid grip, muscles bulging from his neck, his cheeks, and a bulbous vein trailing along his forehead. “Baby girl, don’t listen to what comes next.”
“Why shouldn’t she?” Sabine asks, gesturing to the balcony above. “Everyone else gets to.”
Cloaks, a black and gold chessboard of iniquity, lean over the railings, their hoods dangling eagerly.
“Damn it, lady, no—”
Sabine turns to me and smiles, her teeth gleaming. She doesn’t need fangs. She harbors so much dark energy, her grin might as well contain venom dripping from her canines. “Calla Lily, I regret to inform you that it was you who held the knife. Your killing spree didn’t begin with Ivara Alling. It began with your mother. You murdered her.”
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