House of Pawns Read online

  The hazel eyes. The dark, long hair. The flaws in my skin.

  All I see is someone who is utterly alone.

  But what other way is there for this to happen?

  Don’t think.

  The pill is between my lips, and I wash it down with a swig from the faucet. Wiping the back of my hand across my mouth, I stare at myself in the mirror again.

  Goodbye, human Alivia. Goodbye to turning twenty-four. Goodbye to being old.

  A small creaking sound pulls my attention from myself to my bedroom.

  I know the sounds of my door. And that wasn’t the right sound.

  My feet pad over the cold marble, and I peak around the corner, back into my bedroom.

  Ian climbs through my window, letting in a flood of gray light, and lands on the floor without a sound.

  Shock and horror fill my expression.

  Him. Here. With everything that’s happened. With the King in the next bedroom over.

  “Liv,” he whispers. And there’s everything in his expression. All the fear, the lust, the anger, the desire. It threatens to break his face. He crosses the room to me in a blur of a movement. Instantly, his hands are on my hips, his eyes just a breath away. “I know what I’ve said before and I just…I just can’t let you stay here and die. Leave with me. Today. Tonight. Let’s just go, right now.”

  “Ian,” I whisper. My heart is racing. Thundering. I’m sweating. From fear. Because Raheem gave me a warning to how the King would take to another man being involved when I might be his wife. But also, this sweating. The way my brain feels slightly hazy around the edges. I know the pill is taking hold quickly. “You cannot be here. If he finds you. If he hears you…”

  “I don’t care,” Ian breathes. One of his hands comes up to cup my cheek and his nose brushes mine. “We can stop this. We can have a few good years. Let’s go be together. Away. From all of this.”

  Tears bite at the back of my eyes. I want that.

  So badly.

  I bring my hands to either side of his face. And I am not in control of myself when I lean forward and my lips are on his. This feels like home. This is always where I was supposed to be.

  With Ian Ward.

  But pain fills my chest. “I would have left with you. All I wanted was for you to take me. We could have gone, and had forever.”

  Ian’s eyes find mine, and I see it all there. Nothing has really changed. “I could never wish this on you. You must live because you can, Liv. Don’t waste this life.”

  I take half a step back from him, my hands falling from him. “And you could never see that I cannot run from something I was born into.”

  “It doesn’t have to be like this, Liv,” he says, sounding desperate. He clings to me, trying to pull me closer, but I don’t allow him to. “Your father didn’t accept it. He stayed away from this twisted and demented world. You don’t have to do this.”

  My eyelids droop. My heart, which hammered and raced just a minute ago, slows. It calms. The beats come slower and slower.

  And Ian hears it. Because suddenly his eyes grow wide and they stare at my chest.

  “What did you do?” he suddenly asks. Horror fills his face. His grip on me slips momentarily and I stumble before he grips me tighter.

  A single tear slips out onto my cheek. “I wanted you to do it. I wanted you to be able to accept me. As I am. As I was Born. Please,” I beg. My hands reach up to cling to his shirt. “Please do it, Ian. Before it’s too late.”

  He shakes his head, his eyes still big and wide. “I…”

  My legs give out and I drop, Ian catching me just before I hit the floor.

  “Liv!” he lets out a terrified gasp.

  And suddenly, I’m the one who is terrified. Because it was so loud, him saying my name so desperately.

  My vision goes blurry and I can make out little more than shapes.

  “Please,” I say. Just as I hear the door to my bedroom burst open. I see two shapes and hear shouts and things breaking. The support holding me up is gone and I feel as if I shatter on the floor.

  My hearing has gone all muffled and my eyes fight to stay open, even though I can’t see more than blurry orbs.

  More noise. So angry. So much that’s instantly gone wrong.

  This was supposed to be quiet. And alone.

  Suddenly, it’s a crowd and a brawl. Someone will die.

  I just know it.

  And not just me.

  Run, I silently beg Ian. Please run.

  My eyelids slide closed, but I can feel it, my heart will still beat for a few minutes.

  I feel myself yanked from the floor, harsh and painful. But not as painful as the fangs that suddenly sink into my neck. I’m already numb, so I don’t feel myself freeze. I just feel the sucking, the pulling. I feel my blood leaving my body. Quickly.

  I feel the cold that comes over me.

  Feel one beat.

  Two.

  Slower and slower.

  Please run.

  Two beats.

  One.

  None.

  House of Royals

  House of Pawns

  Branded

  Forsaken

  Vindicated

  Afterlife: the Novelette Companion to Vindicated

  The Bane

  The Human

  The Eve

  The Raid: an Eden Short Story

  The Ashes: an Eden Prequel

  Ever After Drake

  Moments of Julian

  Depths of Lake

  Playing it Kale

  Keary Taylor grew up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now splits her time between a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest and Utah, dragging along her husband and their two young children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night.

  To learn more about Keary and her writing process, please visit www.KearyTaylor.com.