Page 34 of Seduce
“It may not be that bad right now, but it’s as if you’re talking about a destructive relationship that you can’t get out of, Silla,” I implore her.
Dropping her head back, she sighs. “I can’t walk away if there’s a chance that Cinder could hurt you. And when you’re all safe, I won’t have a reason to keep fighting. You’re everything to me, even when I didn’t know how you were, Cinder would taunt me. When you were released was the day that I came out of the dungeon to join castle life,” she explains. “It’s been moderately better than being tortured, but almost worse at times too. I knew what to expect in the dungeons. I don’t know what each day will bring outside of that.”
Taking a breath, I draw my legs underneath me, pulling the blanket over me as I drop my head on the cushion next to hers.
“I think the unpredictability would be worse in a lot of ways,” I admit. “Not being sure when the bottom drops out because of something you said or did, even if it seemed innocent.”
“That’s exactly it. Lana is obsessed with feet,” Silla says, wrinkling her nose. “It’s why I always have to be in heels. They hide my feet, and I think Cinder is secretly hoping to ruin them, making them ugly.”
“You have such cute feet,” I tell her, shrugging. “I find it a little unhinged of her to be this jealous of them. I feel as if she’s a little obsessed with you. It’s not healthy.”
“Nope,” she says, popping the ‘P’. “Her eyes are always on me, I can’t leave the room without her permission, and she enjoys flaunting her sexual escapades in front of me.”
“I doubt it’s to make you jealous,” I scoff, rolling my eyes.
“No, but lately I feel as if she’s trying to entice me into joining, and I’m so not interested,” Silla says with a shudder. “My sister has very special sexual tastes that lean toward the macabre, and her partners don’t always leave her rooms alive. Two weeks ago, one of the guards had a maid thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Cinder isn’t well lately.”
“Why does no one talk about this?” Ayden says. The guys are so quiet, that I didn’t realize they were quietly listening from the doorway.
“The Queen has a stranglehold on the castle and its occupants. The executions of the spies who didn’t complete their missions were a great deterrent from saying anything to the newspapers. Those who work for the castle either live there or in the barracks on property,” Silla explains. “I thought it was a little odd as well when I came out of the dungeon, but Charming has no idea how long I’ve been at the castle. I know he’s been back and forth to see Cinder over the last year because he’s had business to take care of, but he’s very oblivious.”
“Fuck,” Grayson grunts, walking into the room to drop onto the couch across from us. “Did you find anything interesting?”
Grayson gestures to the computer, and Silla nods, clicking a tab she has open on it. There’s a ton of notes written down.
“The west quadrant of the kingdom is currently experiencing a drought, but Cinder hasn’t offered them any help. There’s an uptick in crime that’s weird to me in the north, because she’s had such a strong stance on it. However, the police team that works that area is kind of corrupt according to my notes,” Silla begins, chewing on her lip. I want to pull her tortured lip away from her teeth, but I force myself to take a breath. My control is tenuous at best around her. “The entire kingdom is a fucking mess at the moment, and Cinder is in the middle of discussions with dignitaries over useless fucking laws. What is she doing?”
Silla’s chest heaves with distress as she shakes her head. “The prison system was supposed to deter crime, did it work at all?” she asks.
“I did some research too,” Isaac says gently, sitting on the coffee table in front of us. “The prison system was helping, but people are hungry, so they’re mostly looting. That’s not a good way to handle things, but it’s what’s happening. Cinder has several meetings over the next several weeks. One is with the adjoining kingdoms to discuss what’s working for them, how to build their trading relationships, etc. The other is the surrounding dignitaries that help manage the kingdom so that Cinder can discuss the upcoming laws that she is implementing to ‘help’ with the food shortages.”
“Population control,” Silla snarls as he nods. “There has to be a better solution to this problem.”
“What would you do?” I ask.
“I would figure out how to create more jobs in addition to what we talked about earlier. The kingdom needs an overhaul on its laws as well, so we can find out what’s working and not, and some of these people in charge need to be replaced,” she says, wrinkling her nose as she continues down her list. “Constable Sable is more interested in taking payoffs and being sucked off by his secretary than getting anything done. I was snooping on his computer, and I found some rather disturbing videos of them together.”
“Gross,” I chuckle. “I heard that man is slovenly and obese. I can’t imagine being on my knees for him. No thanks.”
“You do look pretty on your knees,” Sidney chuckles, yawning as he pushes off the wall where he was resting.
Blushing, I shrug. I haven’t had sex since we left the dungeon, and I’m a little nervous about it. Granted, the guys have given me space too, because we’ve all been in a state of mourning. Things may change eventually now that we have Silla with us again.
“I think we’ve done as much as we can today, guys,” Grayson murmurs, stifling his own yawn. “We were up stupid early this morning, and I’m beat. What do you think?”
“I think I’m finally ready for bed,” Silla admits with her own yawn. “It feels wrong to go to sleep with so much up in the air.”
Standing, I pluck the computer away to put it on the table. “Can I shut this, or do you need to log out of anything?” The first thing I learned from Ayden and Isaac is not to shut a laptop without permission.
“I’m logged out and have closed my holes in people’s networks,” Silla says. “You can shut it.”
Closing it firmly, I cross my arms under my breasts. Silla glances at them before forcing herself to look at my eyes. As long as she’s slightly interested, we’ll work toward anything else. I refuse for Cinder to take her away from us anymore than she has.
“You can’t solve the kingdom’s problems in a day when it took years for Cinder to fuck it up,” I remind her. “Come sleep, cuddle, and we’ll tackle this all tomorrow. You can get all of the evidence you need to assuage yourself of any guilt you may be feeling about relieving Cinder and Charming of their throne.”
Scooting up onto her knees, she’s careful not to sit on her feet. I remind myself to have Sidney put more cream on her body so she can sleep easier.
“The issue is that it’s their own fault for fucking things up. They ignore what people need, and place arbitrary restrictions and laws that just bring in more money for their own gains,” Silla says, shrugging. “I never thought about being queen, but if it’ll make things better for the kingdom, why not?”