Unveil a dark ballet ret.., p.6
Unveil: A Dark Ballet Retelling, page 6
Sorry, Dad.
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you too,” I admit. His brow quirks up. “Do you, um, wanna dance and talk?”
Movement helps me sort my thoughts, especially when they’re all over the place like now.
Apparently, that’s not Zy’s style.
He scratches the back of his head and points toward a corner with his thumb. “Let’s just go to the back. Somewhere quieter.”
He takes my hand again, and I sigh, wishing he’d… I don’t know, grab my arm? Throw me over his shoulder? Anything to show he can’t wait to ravish me right here and now. But, of course, he’d have to want to do that in the first place.
Instead, he sits us at a table near the back. The twinkling, starry lights flicker over his furrowed brow.
I swallow. “Ozias, I—”
“No, me first, please,” he interrupts.
My “Okay” deflates out of me on a sigh.
This better not be like the movies where I one hundred percent wish I’d gone first.
“I know you want to leave New Orleans, but my cousins are starting their own business down here and asked me to join. My family… they need the money. And there are people I care about that rely on me to work with my cousins. So, I figured after our honeymoon you’ll have the travel bug outta you, and we can set up roots here? My grandmomma would love that…”
Yup. I one thousand percent wish I’d gone first.
I zone out. I can’t help it when I’m now the star in the movie I dreaded watching.
But the worst clichés are the storylines where the girl just suffers in silence.
So… I don’t.
“Icantdothis!” I blurt.
“What?” he asks.
I swallow. “I can’t do this.”
His shoulders sag.
Oh God, did I hurt his feelings?
“I mean, I just… Zy, before tonight, I didn’t even know you liked me this much. Let alone loved me.”
His face clouds. I follow the thick gulp down his throat. When he speaks, his voice is rough.
“You said yes, Luna.”
Okay, weird response.
I shift in my seat. “I did. But I couldn’t exactly say no in front of a whole auditorium, could I? And what’s with this proposal at all?”
Silence stretches between us until he slouches in his seat.
“Shit.” He tries to swipe a hand over his face, stopping at the white mask and snatching it off to tuck back into his jacket pocket with the black one. “I’ve fucked this up, haven’t I?”
I grimace, but don’t disagree.
He trills his lips in defeat and pulls out a pack of cigarettes from his inside jacket pocket. “Look, I need… I need some air.”
My nose wrinkles at the thought of him smelling like an ashtray when he gets back, but I keep my mouth shut. I must really have hurt his feelings. He only smokes when he’s stressed.
A glance at his phone makes him curse. “Fuck. Thirty minutes until your birthday.” He squeezes my crossed knee and stands. “I’ll be back before then. I just need to think. We’ll talk when I come back.”
I nod, because what else can I do? As platonically, boringly chivalrous as Zy’s been the past six months, it’s still been six months. I can give him twenty-nine minutes.
“Don’t worry.” He chuckles as he rounds my chair. “I’ll take my jacket off, so I won’t smell as much.”
He pats my shoulder in a way that screams brotherly. Then he’s gone.
My trapped breaths rush out of me so quickly I get lightheaded, like I’m no longer treading water but sinking to the bottom of a lake.
He wants to talk? What else is there to talk about? Unless Zy comes back a completely different person, I’m done.
I have to be, or I’ll never get out of this town.
“What the fuck did you say to my wife?”
My shout bounces off brick as I burst through Masque’s hidden passage door and bow up on the three guys hanging out in the alley.
Rage has been riding me since I saw Luna curl in on herself when they were talking to her. The only reason I didn’t charge out from the shadows was because my girl gathered her anger like a shield and stood up for herself. That, and starting a fight inside neutral ground would be a surefire way to get my ass killed before I could save her. Even then, I almost couldn’t handle sitting idly by, but King’s text kept me in check.
King
Don’t fuck this up. The family needs you.
Now, with a crossbow on my back, these Wildes grinning at me, and fake-ass save-the-date flyers littering the dead-end back alley, all bets are off.
“Your wife?” Ozias chuckles dryly as he stubs his cigarette on the brick wall. He pushes off it while his cousins uncross their arms, fight glinting in their eyes. “You mean my fiancée?”
“Oh, fuck off, Thrasher. Or should I say Wilde? Considering who your real dad is and all.”
They scowl, and triumph pulses through me. Our intel was right.
But the win only proves what I’ve feared. Sol’s slipping.
Ozias’s mother had every reason to hide the truth, cheating on her husband, for one. I doubt even he knew. But the Wildes did and helped her cover it up, while Sol trusted his friends and believed he’d done his due diligence.
Which means the Wildes have gained enough influence to trick one of the most dangerous men in the country. It also means Sol’s territory has grown too fast for him to keep up.
He never would’ve missed this if he’d let us watch his back. Instead, I had to sit on the info, banking that the rumors about Ozias were true and Luna would be relatively safe until I could make my move. Exposing the truth too soon would’ve blown everything wide open before we were ready.
“Wondering how I know?” I ask. “Family trees are kinda our thing in this feud. No matter how deep you bury those roots, we’ll dig them up. Your mom giving you your stepdad’s last name doesn’t make you any less a Wilde.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he sneers.
“Oh? That shit proposal was only because your Wilde blood thought you could screw over the Troisgarde-Fury pact. Well, I’m here claiming what’s mine. Something I understand you haven’t done yet?”
I raise my brow, doubt drumming in my chest—until his twisted expression confirms my suspicions, setting me at ease.
Obviously, Luna would still be mine no matter who she chose to give herself to. But the thought of this lying son of a bitch taking her virginity under false pretenses makes me murderous. My brothers can’t afford me escalating the feud to that level. Not yet.
“Christ, Ozias. That was the easy part,” Rufus mutters.
Ozias’s glare cuts from me to Rufus and back. My hands lift in mock surrender.
“Hey, no judgment. If I were in love with someone I couldn’t have, I’d be stuck pining too.”
“Keep her out of this,” he growls.
“Happily.” My smile drops. “Call it off with Luna, Ozias.”
His fists tighten. “We’ll never allow Fury filth to secure a Troisgarde alliance.”
“Face it,” Bartholomew, the wisecracking motherfucker who pissed off my bride, chuckles. “We beat you this time. And if Ozias can’t get it done, in more ways than one, Rufus and I ain’t got no problem falling on that sword.”
Mother. Fuckers.
I’m vibrating with rage, but I nod and let this pent-up hatred flow through my limbs.
“Alright. Just remember, it didn’t have to get bloody.” I sigh dramatically. “But if you insist…”
I set my crossbow against the building, tucking it behind a trash can, and slide my knife from the sheath strapped to my ribs.
Bart cracks his knuckles. “Three against one doesn’t seem fair, but if you insist—”
Two sets of heavy footfalls sound behind me. I can feel Hatch’s maniacal grin and Dash’s cold gaze as they come to back me up. Their blue and gold masks clatter to the ground.
“If you think I came alone,” I shake my head, “you Wildes are dumber than I thought.”
“Nah, we figured you’d be too much of a coward to face us yourself. The King Fury kin ain’t got no spine. Y’all should just run off to the coast like the rest of you,” Bart muses, tapping his scruffy chin. “Speaking of, how’s your cousins? Heard the boy’s gonna be going to that school of y’all’s. And the girl…” He grins. “Well, I heard she’s growing up nice and pretty.”
“Shut up, you sick fuck,” I snap.
He shrugs. “Think she’ll take after her older sister? You know the one, Zy.”
“Barty,” he warns, hands clenched. “I swear to God—”
“Just like Wilde trash to have infighting. Not surprising, though. You’ve already got inbree—” Hatch cackles. “Well, you know.”
“Speak for yourselves,” Rufus spits. “Don’t act like that guy who got offed for raping and murdering one of ours had all his teeth. It’s a wonder y’all ain’t killed yourselves off yet.”
It’s a wonder we haven’t all killed ourselves off.
Enemies are closing in from all sides, especially with tensions flaring again. A spark from up North reignited it all, leaving a Wilde mother murdered, her Fury attacker dead, and her son sentenced to life. I don’t blame the kid, but now every family is pointing fingers, and the fallout keeps yanking us into the fray too.
Bart’s smile widens. “You know what, Rufus? I don’t think they know how much we got in common. Sounds like they have no idea what’s going on up in their family tree.”
In my periphery, I check my brothers’ expressions to see if they know what he’s talking about, but they’re as unreadable as I am.
Rufus snickers. “Too bad your momma fucked up sacrificing herself for you three. Or at least, that’s how Daddy tells it. He says he sleeps like a baby dreaming about her screams and the crackling of that fire.”
“The fuck did you say?” Hatch bursts forward, only caught by Dash with an arm across his chest.
“You heard him.” Bart juts his chin at me. “He said your crossbow did fuck all that day. You even let two Wildes get away.”
“And took one out,” I snarl.
“Enough,” Dash snaps. “With our histories, we’ll run our mouths to death.” He and Hatch flank me, mirroring the Wilde cousins beside Ozias. “This is between Orion and Ozias. If we’re doing this, we go by Devil’s Mountain rules. One-on-one fights only.”
The words grate out of him like he regrets having to say them. He wants blood too. None of us are safe until the Wildes are put in their place, and he and Hatch have as much riding on this as I do.
Rufus pops his neck and all three draw blades that gleam in the alley’s dim streetlamp.
Bart smirks. “Only problem there is we didn’t go to that fancy-ass school.”
“Yeah?” Hatch chuckles, nodding at me. “Neither did we.”
A crack echoes against the brick as Hatch sucker punches Rufus, snapping his head back.
The storm breaks.
Dash and I collide with Bart and Ozias, fists and knives swinging. My blade slices a shallow line down Ozias’s chest. He nicks my arm, but I barely feel it past the rush.
It’s a brutal dance, Hatch and Dash in tandem against the Wilde cousins, me with Ozias. We’re evenly matched, but Bart still somehow manages to run his mouth.
“Once we’re done here, we’re taking her with us. She won’t even put up a fight.”
“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?” I growl over my shoulder.
“Let’s just say I know how to loosen her up.”
Ozias and I both hesitate before he turns on his cousin. “And what the hell does that mean?”
“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t know what was in that last drink—” He’s cut off by Dash, lost in the fight as he kicks the guy’s ribs, cracking bone.
“Stay away from the Troisgarde daughters,” Dash grunts, fending off a right hook and slashing Bart’s thigh.
Hatch seizes the opening and drives an elbow into Bart’s chin. Dash spins to cover our brother, facing Rufus. My brothers and I are a well-oiled machine, and it’s never clearer than when we fight.
Rage and urgency war inside of me. I need to get to Luna, stop her from drinking whatever’s in that cup—
A fiery slash burns up my side, and a fist slams my jaw, clacking my teeth into my cheek.
Stars flash. Iron floods my mouth as I meet Ozias’s eyes. His grim expression and bloody teeth mirror mine.
“You’ll only get her killed, Orion,” he seethes. “That’s what happens to the women in your family. Your aunt, your cousin… You couldn’t even protect your own mother. Why do you think you can protect your wife?”
A roar tears out of me as I drive a kick into his chest, sending him crashing to the ground.
Then I’m on him, punching hard enough to whip his head sideways with every blow, making him groan, “You son of a—”
An engagement flyer flutters through the chaos, and I snatch it midair. Before I can stop myself, I rip Zy’s own knife from his hand, slap the invitation against his cheek and drive the blade through both.
His face seizes, stunned by the pain, but his body still thrashes, reaching for the weapon, until I pin him under my knees.
I lean over him as he fights me. “It’s sad it had to come to this, Zy. You should’ve left my girl alone.”
Rage enters his eyes, and I smirk, twisting the knife.
“So, consider this my and my wife’s ‘regrets.’”
Warm blood seeps through the paper like ink, soaking my fist around the hilt. His limbs go slack under me. His eyes roll back. Then he’s out cold.
I leave his knife in and wipe my hand on his dress shirt before climbing to my feet. My arm wraps around my torso as I suck in sips of air, but I still pivot to help my brothers.
Rufus is shit-talking now, both Wildes’ backs turned on their cousin.
“We either get the Troisgarde daughters or remove them as Furys. I’m partial to that feisty one. What’s her name? Brylie?” He laughs. “God, have you seen that ass? All I want to do is fuck it raw until she cries—”
Dash snaps. I don’t see what happens with Bart in the way, but I hear it. The sickening slice. The thud onto brick. The death rattle as air leaves the lungs for the last time.
Everyone freezes.
“Goddammit,” Dash breathes. Bart shifts, revealing my brother as he jumps off Rufus, knife dripping blood.
Rufus’s eyes are wide and empty.
Lifeless.
“Well, shit,” Hatch mutters.
“What the fuck did you do?!” Bart screams, swinging wildly at Dash, but Hatch and I grab his arms.
Dash staggers back, tearing at his hair. “Fuck!”
“You killed my brother…” Bart scans for his backup, finding Ozias unconscious on the ground. “And my cousin? You’re dead. You hear me? Life…” His voice falters. “Life for life.”
“This already was life for life,” I counter harshly.
“No! No. You did this!” He wrenches free, crazed desperation in his eyes, his knife swinging frantically between us. “The Troisgarde daughters have been in danger from the moment we heard about the pact.” His eyes blaze. “Dead or alive, we don’t care. But we’ll never let you have this alliance.”
“And you still think this wasn’t already about life for life?” I snap, taking one stride to yank a bolt I designed from my crossbow’s custom quiver and point it at him. “You Wildes think this is a goddamn game, but you’re killing our people, threatening our wives. This feud isn’t a game.” I grab my bow from against the wall and use the stirrup to load it, but when I finish, I keep the weapon hanging at my side. “Why the fuck do you think we’d let that slide?”
“And you killed two Wildes,” he counters. “You just started a fucking war.”
“This was already a war!”
“Zy will live,” Dash interrupts in his detached, clinical tone. He’s kneeling beside Ozias, hands bloody from taking the guy’s pulse at his crimson-streaked neck. “The wound isn’t life threatening. He’s passed out. Get him to a surgeon, and he’ll recover. Just with a gnarly scar.”
Even in this loud city, silence sits heavily between us, leaving only the sound of Ozias’s steady, ragged breaths.
A crow caws farther down the alley, breaking the moment, and sound rushes back in, including Bart’s shout.
“All y’all are still dead—”
Before he can react, I fire a bolt into his leg. He yelps, grabbing his thigh.
“You…” the rest of whatever he was going to say gets lost in a garbled cry as he lurches forward, hitting cobblestone with a thump, face first.
“Please tell me that was a tranq dart,” Dash groans, his bloody hands driving into his own hair.
“It was,” I answer. “He’ll wake in the morning. But Ozias is a hiccup. We need to get him to the hospital. We can’t have him dying on us too.”
Dash stands, eyes dragging to Rufus. The weight of what we’ve done settles in.
One of us was bound to fuck up, but I’d planned for it to be me. I’m already throwing down the gauntlet by taking Luna, but with one dead, the Wildes will want vengeance. This feud’s never over, and while the Wildes sprinkled gas on an ember, the King Fury kin just blew shit wide open.
I have to get Luna out now.
Hatch looks to Dash, then straightens. “I’ll drop them off at an ER and take care of the body. Dash, work on the diversion. We’ll deal with the rest later. What matters is the alley’s clear like you needed, Orion. Go get your girl. We’ve got this.”
“Wait,” Dash says, fishing out a plastic baggie from Rufus’s coat pocket. He holds it up to a distant streetlamp, and the light gleams against a makeshift blister pack.
My heart stutters. “Bart said he knew how to ‘loosen her up.’”
“He mentioned something about her last drink…” Hatch curses, “Fuck, I swear I kept an eye on things the entire time, even when I was with Lucy, but I didn’t catch that.”
“Same with me and Brylie.” Dash shakes his head. “Zy only bought them both one, and he downed his before he came out here.”
