Queen (The Blackcoat Rebellion #3)(54)

“Nothing’s impossible. You’re proof of that.” Benjy paused, drumming his fingers on his elbow. “What if I can get a gun?”

I stared at him. “No. Whatever you’d planning—absolutely not.”

“It’s worth a shot.”

“I—” I blinked. “That’s a terrible pun, and no. We’re going to do this the right way. No taking chances that might not pan out.”

He watched me for a long moment. “So you’re in?”

I gritted my teeth. That was the plan anyway, wasn’t it? Wait for Daxton to die. But Benjy wasn’t supposed to get involved. And even though we might not be together in that way anymore, the instinct to protect him still roaredinside me. “One condition. You let me do it. No stupid risks. No wasting your second chance on this. Greyson has to live to take over the title, and you have to live to help him. I’m the one who’s expendable. Is that clear?”

His expression darkened. “You’re not expendable.”

“Is that clear, Benjamin?”

He worried his lower lip. “All right. But we come up with a plan. A good one. Solid, foolproof—”

“Nothing’s ever foolproof.”

“As close as we can get, then.”

I nodded. “I have no intention of getting caught. Or dying.”

“You’d better not.” He gave me a look and glanced over his shoulder. “I need to go. For real this time. We’ll come up with a plan, and we’ll find a way. Even if we’re the only two Blackcoats left, we will make sure it wasn’t all in vain.”

My mouth went dry, and all I could do was nod. “We’ll only get one chance. You know that, right?”

“One chance is all we need.” He flashed me another grin, and with that, I was alone again. But for the first time since I’d watched Elsewhere disappear, I didn’t feel like I was on my own. Somehow, someway, we would find a wayto kill Daxton, and we would end this once and for all.





XIII

Bugged

Though we had moved halfway across the country, that night at dinner it seemed as if we were right back where we started. Greyson and I walked into the Creeds’ dining room, which was large enough to seat all the former Ministersand their families with ease, and once again the servants escorted us to the foot of the table, beyond where we could be any real threat. Some part of me had held out hope that being back in D.C. would change things—that hewouldn’t keep us on such an obvious leash. But of course Daxton had no reason to care about appearances anymore, not when the truth of his identity was out there, and no one had any power to do anything about it. So what if the servants returned to their families and gossiped about how the Prime Minister clearly didn’t trust his own son and niece? He was untouchable.

It was exactly that arrogance I was counting on, though. Eventually he would give. Eventually he would make a mistake. And when he did, I would be ready.

I hadn’t seen Benjy since his promise to procure a gun, but soon enough, he and the former Minister Bradley entered together. Neither of them spoke as Benjy joined us, but Daxton clapped gleefully.

“Bradley! Yes, do come sit here with me. We have much to discuss, and we wouldn’t want to bore the children with the details, now, would we?”

Minister Bradley raised his chin, his handlebar mustache gleaming in the light, and with a pompous sniff, he passed us and made his way to Daxton. Good. They deserved each other.

“How is everyone enjoying our new home?” said Daxton as the servants hurried to set Minister Bradley a place nearby. “Greyson, Lila, you’ve had the pleasure of touring the property before, have you not?”

“We have,” said Greyson in a painfully neutral voice. As much as I would have enjoyed watching him lash out at Daxton, it was safer this way. “Quite a few things have changed.”

“Have they? I can’t say I’ve noticed. Lila,” he added in a faintly sinister tone, and I snapped my head up to glare at him. “Have things changed much from your memory of it?”

A test, whether he knew it was one or not. He had been acting as Daxton Hart long enough that he had undoubtedly visited Creed Manor several times. I had no idea if things had changed, or if Greyson was merely imagining it. But as long as Daxton seemed determined to pretend everything was perfectly all right between us, I would be determined to prove they weren’t.

“It’s soulless,” I snapped, not bothering with any form of neutrality. “I’m not surprised you can’t see it, considering you have no soul.”

For a split second, everyone in the room seemed to tense. Bradley blinked and focused on Daxton, Greyson’s fork stopped halfway to his salad, and Benjy stilled, staring at me as if he couldn’t believe I’d said that to Daxton’sface. But of course he hadn’t been with us for the past month, so he had no idea that this was our version of normal.

I half expected Daxton to dismiss me from the room and find some twisted way to punish me later for embarrassing him in front of his guest, but instead, he merely chuckled. “Oh, I know exactly what soulless means, darling. We saw it earlier today, didn’t we? In the ash of Elsewhere.”

I clutched my fork so hard that it began to bend. If I’d had the skill to do so, I would have flung it across the dining room straight into Daxton’s eye. Something to practice in my spare time, I mused.