The Camp (Chateau 2)

Melanie looked at Raven.

Raven looked back.

But neither spoke.

I kept my eyes on Fender. “Is Napoleon here?”

He raised his champagne to his lips and took a drink. “Somewhere.” His arm stayed around Melanie’s waist, his fingers curling around to the front and coming closer to her bare flesh down the middle. She was decorated with jewels, sparkling like she herself was a diamond. It’d been months since they’d met, and Fender hadn’t lost interest…which was saying something.

Melanie looked at her sister. “You look really nice, Raven.”

Raven didn’t speak and just gave a nod.

Fender still didn’t look at Raven.

“I’m going to put the girls in the parlor so we can speak in private,” I said, knowing Raven would only be able to stare at her sister if the situation didn’t change.

“No.” Fender pulled her closer. “She stays here.”

There was nothing I could do. There was no argument I could make to entice him to let Melanie leave his side. She was the treasure no one else could have—and he wanted everyone to know it.

But Melanie stepped up. “Amoureux, please…” She turned into him, bringing her face closer to his, her free hand moving against his chest and resting on the black fabric of his tuxedo.

He wouldn’t look at her. “You’re lucky that I permit her in our home at all.”

She turned his face toward hers and forced him to look at her, to see the desperation in her eyes, and then she leaned in and kissed him. “For me…”

He abandoned his prejudice instantly, his eyes softening when she kissed him like that. “Alright.” He pulled his hand from her waist so she could walk away. “Just a couple minutes. Nothing more.”

“Thank you, amoureux.” She squeezed his hand before she stepped away and moved to Raven.

Fender turned his gaze on me, his affection falling once he looked at me instead of her. “Take them.” He brought his glass to his lips and took a drink before he stepped away to talk to another guest.

I escorted them away from the main room and into the hallway where there was an open room with couches. I nodded inside. There was no door because it was just an extension of the grand entryway, but there was no one nearby, so they wouldn’t be overheard. And even if they were, no one would care.

The first thing they did was embrace.

Melanie hugged her sister tightly, her face moving into Raven’s shoulder, like a child holding her mother.

Raven held her, being the crutch as usual.

They stayed that way for a long time.

I lingered just on the outside, watching them.

Raven pulled away and rubbed her sister’s arms. “That dress is so gorgeous on you.”

“It’s mostly the dress, not me.”

Raven smiled. “No, it’s not.”

“You’re the one who steals the show tonight, Raven. That dress was made for you.”

“Well, black is my color.” She smiled before she sat on the couch beside Melanie.

They were both oblivious to me because they were absorbed in each other. They just stared, like they didn’t know where to start.

Raven held Melanie’s hand on her thigh. “How are you?”

“No complaints. He’s good to me. What about you?”

She paused as she looked at her sister, as if contemplating whether she should tell her all the shit that happened at the camp before we left. She made her decision and didn’t reveal it. “Good. I really love being in Paris. Magnus has an apartment near my old place, so I get coffee in the morning and go shopping… It’s nice.”

“He lets you go alone?”

She nodded.

“Wow, he trusts you.”

“He does.” She looked at their joined hands. “It’s not that I’ve given up. It’s just…if I run, it’ll put Magnus in jeopardy, and I can’t do that. Does Fender let you go where you want?”

“Yes. But it rarely happens.”

“Why?”

“Because he wants to come with me every time I want to go somewhere.”

“To watch you?”

“I think he just wants to be with me, actually. But he’s given me one of his cars and has let me drive away before.”

Raven was quiet, just watching her sister.

“I’m trying to convince him to let you go, but he won’t budge.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he ever will.”

“I don’t know… Give me more time. I think he’ll do it for me.”

Raven dropped her gaze, like she didn’t believe that would ever happen. “You know, if you were to kill him…it might fix all our problems.”

Melanie’s eyes widened, like the suggestion was unexpected.

“In his sleep or something.”

Melanie slowly pulled her hand away from her sister’s. “I…I can’t do that.”

“If you do, the camp will belong to Magnus. He’ll let everyone go—”

“I said I can’t.” She dropped her gaze and stared at her hands in her lap.

Raven looked disappointed, but after a few seconds, she hid that expression. “Why?”

“Because…I can’t do that to him.”

When Raven started to understand the truth about their relationship, she couldn’t hide the revulsion that spread across her face. “Melanie, this is the man who raped you—”