She nodded against me. “I can train for that. I’ll start tomorrow. Do we know anything else?”
We. The word was so small, but nothing had ever held more meaning for me. “Red told me at Cal’s party that the competition is to be held at Fort LaRoux.”
“Hmm, that’s familiar.” She quirked her lips as she thought. “I think I know which one you mean. I thought it was abandoned to the state as some sort of historical site.”
I laughed, the sound hollow. “The governor has no problem allowing use of government lands for this little game. He’ll likely be standing at Cal’s right hand.”
“Does it mean anything? I mean, the location—what does it tell us?”
“Yes, it means something. The terrain isn’t made for any sort of obstacle course. It’s more suited as an arena, the battlements serving as seating for the open center area.”
“You think they’ll have us fight each other?” She lay back down and snuggled in closer to my side.
“Maybe. Or it could be some series of tests or feats the audience could watch. I don’t have enough information.” And wasn’t that always the fucking problem? Cal had obscured this year’s trials more so than any in the past.
“And why would Red tell you any of this?”
“He thinks I’m the frontrunner.” I shook my head. “He thinks if he helps me, I’ll save his sister when I become Sovereign.”
“Will you?” Her voice quieted even more.
“No. Not if it means I put my family in danger. The rules are quite clear on the penalty for losing, and I won’t risk any challengers to my reign. I’ll take her life to spare mine, Teddy’s, or yours.”
“How old is she?”
Eighteen years, six months, and seventeen days. I knew the length of her life as well as that of Eagleton’s younger brother, Carl. Counting down the days to their deaths was the only way I knew to accept the inevitable—I would see them dead by their siblings’ hands or my own. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Please, how old?” She rested her hand on my chest, her delicate fingers pulling the information from me bit by bit.
“Eighteen.”
“Jesus.” She buried her face in my neck, and I pulled her to me. “You can’t kill her. She’ so young—”
“I will. For Teddy. For you. I will. I’d kill her ten times over.”
She pressed her fingers to my lips and looked at me with troubled eyes. “Don’t say that. Please don’t say that. You can’t. We’ll think of something, some way out.”
Her fingers stilled my lips but not my thoughts. There is no way out.
She lay back against me and dropped her hand to my chest. “Now the rules. I need them all.”
She already knew the worst. The rest just completed the depraved puzzle. “First rule.” I swallowed hard. “Is Teddy. Second rule, you know as well—the Acquisition can choose between first and second born. Third, an Acquirer may not harm an opposing Acquisition except during trials.”
She nodded. “That’s why Renee told me I would be safe the night we went to the party at Cal’s.”
“Yes. Fourth is that maiming an Acquisition or permanent loss of limb is not allowed.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Fifth, we can’t kill you.”
“Even better.”
“Sixth, the current Sovereign is the sole vote on who becomes the next Sovereign.”
“Renee mentioned that. Cal wields all the power.”
“And now that he’s brought in your stepmother’s family, he’s solidified his stranglehold on the power structure. He’ll only choose someone he trusts to keep him at the top.”
“Makes sense.” A shadow fell across her eyes. “He’s our target, the one we’re trying to convince.”
“Yes, but a large part of that is putting on a show for the rest of them. We have to make it look good. Keep them entertained.”
She sighed. “So what’s the seventh?”
I glanced to the ceiling, as if I could see through it to my mother’s suite. I hadn’t known the seventh rule until after I’d been chosen. That particular cut of the knife was a master stroke by my mother. As chaotic as her mind was, there were still plenty of sharp edges.
“Sin?” Stella asked again.
“The seventh is that the previous Sovereign, not the current Sovereign, chooses the competitors.”
She jolted, as if she’d touched a live wire. “You mean your mother chose you to compete?”
The weight of my mother’s legacy crushed both of us, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. “She did.”
CHAPTER FIVE
STELLA
“WHO IS WOMAN?” DMITRI sank onto my bed, the antique wood groaning under his weight.
“Sophia.”
“Why so rude? I go to party. She say I don’t belong.”
I reached over and patted him on the back. “Same here.”
“Pizda.” He shook his head. “And why she with Sinclair?”
I tried to brush away my feelings, like crumbs off the bedspread. “I assume they are together. Like a couple.” The crumbs were still there, grinding into my skin no matter which way I turned.