Page 100 of Twisted Kings

“Fuck you,” she whispers, her throat ragged and rough. “You’re busy scolding and shaming me, when you should be focused on the real problem.” Her lower lip trembles. “The fact that this entire house is filled with people who hate each other so much they’d destroy themselves to hurt everyone else. Maybe if each of you spent less time chasing the help around this stupid castle, you’d realize how lucky you are to even have a family.”

Her eyes are wet, rimmed with tears, and she’s blinking rapidly. And I want her, somehow, even more now, that she’s berating me and speaking to me in a tone no woman, let alone a servant, has ever addressed me.

“You all say you love Maddie, that she’s the diamond of your eyes, or whatever, but I see three stupid men who are determined to ruin the rest of her life because they won’t stop fighting each other long enough to help her. Is it the same with Ruby?”

“What?” I snap, taken aback by her mention of my sister.

“Is she quietly crying for help while you focus on your machinations… for what exactly, for more money, more power? It’s pathetic.” She looks at me with such judgment that I go cold,

“You deserve each other,” she says, and that’s when a small hiccup of a sob erupts from her mouth. “And fuck you for touching me without asking. I’d ask you if it’s okay for me to go,but you don’t deserve to order me around. Ever.”

She steps back, knowing she’s gone too far, but not able to stop herself.

I can’t even stop her. Her words have been too powerful. They’re like a spell, rooting me to the floor. All I can do is watch her go, running out of the room as her tears start to fall, and know that it isn’t her who’s crossed a line.

It’s me.

And I have badly broken something that I should never have attempted to touch, let alone look at.

39

Eva

There are times when the King men surprise me. The fact none of them showed up at my door the night of the ball was one of them. With every step I took toward my bedroom that night, I looked over my shoulder, expecting Noah to come out of the shadows again and grab me. I worried that Benedict might be in my room, but it was empty. And Mason? I thought at least a message… a single message wishing me goodnight. Something, anything. The tears that stained my pillow that night were gone by the morning, and I rose, like the sun on a winter’s day, feeling worn out and weak,

Only Ruby is at breakfast, but it isn’t my place to ask where his grace is. Instead I help Maddie get seated, and Ruby greets me with a conspiratorial smile.

“Wasn’t last night illuminating?” She asks.

“I wish I could go to a ball,” Maddie sighs, looking at her stack of pancakes as if it’s the most disappointing thing in the world.

“When you’re grown, you will. I’ll take you to all the excellent ones, and we’ll laugh at the men who think they are good enoughto dance with you.” Ruby gives her an affectionate pat on the head, and Maddie sighs. It’ll have to do, for now.

And last night was illuminating, Ruby, I want to tell her. But not in the way you think it. Maybe I should be grateful the men aren’t here at breakfast. In fact, I am.

It means I don’t need to see them. Mason, for what he shared that he seems determined to hide from everyone because he’s ashamed of me.

Benedict, for the way he plays at being a monster and plan Mason’s downfall when secretly he just wants to be loved.

Noah, for being crude and an actual monster.

I’m lost in my thoughts, so I don’t hear them the first time.

“Eva!” Mrs. Harris is calling me from the door, her face ashen white. Ruby glances up from breakfast, looking concerned.

“What is it?” She asks as Maddie sits forward, plainly excited to ignore her pancakes for whatever interesting thing has just happened.

“There’s a visitor come calling for Evangeline,” Mr.s Harris says hurriedly, “he is waiting with his grace.”

A visitor… For me?

I start forward without thinking and then look at Ruby. She nods, and puts an arm around Madeline’s shoulders.

“We’ll be fine, just the two of us, right?” She asks Maddie, who nods. I follow Mrs. Harris out of the room after a brief nod and curtsey to the ladies.

“Who—“

“You’ll not be asking any questions,” she says, her voice sharp. “You’re in for a world of trouble; after this is sorted out, mark me.”