Broken Trust(Devastation Duet #2) - Winter Paige Page 0,36
the prince came to a chamber of gold where he saw upon a bed the fairest sight one ever beheld—a princess of about seventeen years who looked as if she had just fallen asleep. Trembling, the prince knelt beside her and awakened her with a kiss. And now the enchantment was broken. The princess looked at him with wondering eyes and said: “Is it you, my prince? I have waited for you long.’”
I drift off to sleep, listening to him read, remembering our before as he runs his fingers through my hair. In this moment, the weight on my heart seems lighter. I’m feeling a little less scared, a little less hopeless, and a little less alone. I take a deep breath, relaxing and thinking about everything that Jaxx has become for me over the years: family, protector, confidante, best friend, fiancée, and guiding light. He has saved me many times before, but tonight he saved me from myself in a way that no one else even took the time to notice. Tomorrow, we’ll have to talk, but tonight I sleep soundly, wrapped in his arms.
Andrew
“What do you mean you lost them?!” I yell when Costin flops down on the couch beside me a few hours later. I had the room cleared after Poppet’s little scene. Another moment I am really in awe of, but damn if she doesn’t pick the most fucked up moments.
“I mean everything else slipped my mind when I heard E screaming. Can you blame me? With everything happening, we were afraid someone was… touching her,” Costin says, pulling at his hair.
“You’re sure they are the same couple? What did he call them?”
“Lilabelle and Kendrick. They were… close. Andrew, something is seriously wrong. We need to get them back here.”
“I already have tons of requests for them. The dance left an impression. Douglass will bring them back. He will love the attention, especially if he has groomed them himself.” I slam my tumbler on the table, feeling sick. There are monsters like me, and there are monsters like him. Neither of us deserves to breathe, but he deserves a special kind of death. A slow death. A painful death. I am the perfect kind of monster to give it to him, too.
“That’s all you know? You said the boy called her Lilabelle Fayre Maxfield. That is oddly close to-” I start but notice Abel standing inside the doorway.
“It can’t be. Costin, what did you see? What did you hear?!” Abel storms over to us, lifting Costin from the couch by the front of his shirt.
“Abel, I don’t know. I don’t know who she was. That’s what I heard. Calm the fuck down!” Costin shouts, pulling away roughly.
“Fayre? Andrew, where did she go? You said she left! Where. Did. She. Go?!” Abel shakes with rage, and I stand. If this man snaps, I don’t know if I can shoot him fast enough. He could kill me, I know it. He’s loyal, but if he knows that I asked Richard to relocate his girl, he will kill me.
“Away, Abel. When she left here, she was very much alive. I told you that. She wanted out of this life, and I let her walk.” I shrug… I mean, I did, kinda. Fuck if I knew where she went or-
“Was she pregnant, Andrew? Was that girl my…?” He doubles over like he’s been physically struck.
“I don’t know, Abel,” I reply honestly. Back then, I didn’t care. Not until it happened to me. Fuck.
“Wait, what’s happening?” Costin stands beside us.
“The picture-” Abel pulls it from his pocket. “She looks just like Fayre, my ex-fiancée.”
“Lilabelle Fayre Maxfield. Abel Maxfield. Holy shit. She’s your daughter.” Costin goes white. “No wonder he didn’t come to the other parties. You were here. But tonight, you worked below. He knows.”
“We have to find her.” Abel shakes me.
“We will find her. We’ll find them both, and I want Douglass. He has some questions to answer.”
“He’s mine, Andrew,” Abel hisses. “I am leaving. I’ll find them.”
“No, you can’t, Abel. If he knows you are looking, we don’t know what he could do,” I tell him, and he snarls. If he finds Douglass first, he might find out I set this in motion. Unknowingly, but still. “Let me send a team. Jaxx can oversee it. There is a reason that Joshua wanted him on this. Let him do his fucking job. Let it sit until after the wedding. It’s two days. He will relax, and that is when we