then, in order for me to not head to the island tonight to kill one of your children, prove that you’ve stopped loving Langston.”
“How?” I ask, even though I know I’m going to regret asking.
A sly grin forms on his vile face as he looks from Corbin to Maxwell. “Have your pick.”
“Fuck one of them, you mean.”
“Yes, fuck them, want them. Show me you’ve forgotten all about that stupid boy. Show me you’re strong enough to do what it takes to be a leader.”
I take a deep breath. Fucking another man doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped loving Langston. He would understand and forgive me for cheating. He has before.
I look at Corbin and Maxwell out of the corner of each eye. They are frozen in place, trying to figure out how to kill this devil. Maybe this is our chance. He hasn’t let us out of these cells in a year. This might be our first opportunity.
“I assume if I do this, you’ll at least allow me a proper bed. I’m not fucking either of them in this dark cell.”
“That can be arranged.”
“So what? I fuck one of them, and you don’t kill any of my children? Then you throw us back in these cells?”
“Afterwards, I’ll decide if you still love Langston or not. If you do, you’ll go back in this cell to think about it for another year. If you don’t, then we can start your transition to power and go after him together.”
This is my chance. He’ll take us upstairs. We will be out of these cells. We could find a way to kill him tonight. Or, at least, I could convince him I don’t love Langston anymore and be free of this cell, giving me plenty of more time to kill him. Worst case, we end up back in these cells without succeeding.
We have to succeed. I won’t survive another year.
“I’ll arrange for you to be brought out of your cell in an hour. You can choose which of your cellmates you’d prefer to seduce then.”
“What if I want to fuck them both?”
“If that’s what you choose, then fine.”
His eyes warn me, knowing why I asked. They’re both on my side, and I want to improve our odds of defeating my father.
“You have one hour.” He closes my door and looks from me to Corbin, then to Maxwell. “Plan well. You’re only going to get this one chance to kill me. You don’t want to know what’s going to happen when you fail.”
His words are a warning. If we make an attempt on his life and fail, he’ll kill one of us.
He’ll kill Corbin or Maxwell.
We can’t fail.
After my father leaves, the three of us stare at each other. None of us know what to do. We can’t discuss a plan together—my father would listen in on the security cameras.
Instead, we sit quietly by ourselves, contemplating our plans. I try to go through all the possibilities. I try to come up with anything I can use as a weapon. All the tricks Langston taught me about how to get out of bindings, how to protect myself, I think of it all.
I don’t know how fast or slow time moves. Since we’ve been locked up, time has been a strange element. We never know when it’s day or night. It’s hard to even keep track of the days when you have no sun to count, nor work or activity to mark the difference between days.
This hour passes in much the same—both slowly and all at once.
Corbin, Maxwell, and I exchange reassuring glances as we hear the approach of footsteps nearing the door that leads to our cells. We don’t have to talk to know that we have a plan. We are going to succeed. We are going to kill my father. We might not all survive, but that isn’t the goal. The goal is to put an end to this. Any sacrifice any of us make will be worth it.
We all stand and face the doors of our cells, ready to fight no matter what comes.
Suddenly, my world goes dark.
I open my eyes, and the room is bright—so fucking bright that I immediately close them again, but not before I get a glimpse of Corbin standing over me.
“Where are we? The surface of the sun?” I ask.
He chuckles.
“No, we’re in a room above deck with windows. That’s the first ray of sunshine you’ve seen in a year.”
I flutter my eyes, trying to open them, but honestly, I