Beginning of Chapter 40

God fucking damn it.

Only sheer willpower allowed her to stay quiet, painfully silent as they continued their pretty little party. The seven danced with their nobles, laughed with their ministers, and fluttered like butterflies over a bed of roses. Quinn felt like she was dying, utterly swallowed by the voracious appetite of her misery, dripping upon the soup of despair. Her tongue was still stained with a Lonely's blood, her body sagging into a hunch; she was on her knees with her head bowed.

Gods.

They'd always wanted to feast on the hearts of Alphas who had let down their guard. Her mind swirled, pulsed with the memories—Euodia on stone, sword to her chest, her beating heart lifted from her body, eaten from the crevice of her living flesh. The oppressed, her mind reminded her as she stared at the Omegas who were once victims of a cruel world. Perhaps they had never stopped being victims, trapped in hatred of their own making.

But what right did they have to call themselves victims now that they were stepping into the shoes of murderers?

A massacre was afoot and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Loneliness drenched her, hope dwindling like a dancing flame. There was no one on her side.

"Stop," Elysian approached her quietly, he stood before her, hands crossed behind his back, facing the crowd. In the eyes of the crowd, he couldn't even speak to her face. At least, he felt her turmoil twisting between them and that had a cruel ugly smile rising upon her lips. "You worry too much." His voice was cool, stated out mercilessly like a dagger to her heart.

Worry? He must jest. Worry was not the word he should fucking use. Worry was not what she felt. Betrayal perhaps. Rage? More likely. Pure fucking disappointment? Of course. Her sneer was awful in the shadows, and suddenly her heart was hammering in her chest. Her anger burnt so hot it felt as if it disintegrated all her fear. "I'm the one on my knees on the ground," she hissed out. "And there's a whole sea of bloodthirsty cannibals before me."

"None of them have killed their Alphas."

"Oh, but it's only a matter of time, isn't it?"

"With our rule, more time will be given to the Alphas. They will be cared for."

He spoke of time as if it were a luxury he had the right to give. "Cattle, primed fat and comfortable. Not knowing when they'll be served for dinner. Not knowing when their captors will kill them."

"You are safe," Elysian murmured.

"Oh," she rolled her eyes, "am I?"

Her smile stretched, face tilted away from the darkness and into the light. He looked at her then, blue eyes catching hers, darkness twisting. His silence told her everything. The way he stared at her, testing the words on his tongue as if she were a fuse ready to blow.

It told her that he was a fucking liar. Quinn wanted to cry, and her heart ached, ached like it had already been carved out and served. And it fluttered into a roaring in her head, full-blown nausea, anxiety burrowing through her soul at the ghastly future before her.

How many times were they going to disappoint her?

Why did she allow herself to have hope?

Why the fuck was she here?

Why the fuck did she have to be Euodia?

"Stop," he whispered, hand now to his chest. "You are fine."

"I'm glad you feel my 'worry'," Quinn snarled, but her voice was cracking.

It seemed that he knew of her turmoil, for he turned then, hand whipped out to force her to her feet. She was pushed back into the shadows, brought away like a wild animal at the end of the rope. And Quinn had to curse at him, skin itching and boiling from the brush of his fingers even if it did bring a flush of warmth up her spine.

"Don't touch me," she snapped. Float hissed at the back of her head, at least they had not collared her. But perhaps that had all been a mirage, the leash was already burnt deep into her soul.

"I'm not your enemy," Elysian hissed. A door slammed to an open hallway with a ghost of candlelight; the sounds of the crowd were muffled by solid wood and tall pillars of stone. In privacy, they could now speak freely, and she turned, fists clenched, stepped close to search his eyes for the truth.

"Was this your plan all along?" Her words were harsh, twisting from her lips into a snarl. "To kill the Alphas?" In the darkness, he was godly, a gorgeous shadowed prince of crystals and ice, his expression as cold and as cruel as death itself.

"People do anything to live."

"Cannibalism without proof. That is murder," she snapped. She hated that she did not see the kindness in his eyes that she knew of, the softness that should grant her the sweetest of desires. "You will destroy the minds of your people."

"There is proof, there are people that survive. And our brightest, our smartest, our scientists, our doctors, they are the ones that discovered this antidote." Elysian's voice was low, twisted, and ragged with desperation that she did not want to think of. "I'm sorry, it has to be this way," his voice dropped into a croon that one would give to a babe. His perfume wafted into the air; scent effused with the gentle, elegant sweetness of his spice. "I'm sorry that it is true."

"Impossible," her words were harsh, spat out from her tongue. She pulled away from his coaxing. "A disease that wants you to feast on the female species of your kind? No. That promises extinction. That goes against everything we should stand for. What are you going to do when your children are born Alpha? What are you going to do when the baby that slips out from your flesh is the one you're destined to kill, to eat?"

Quinn pushed, pushed with despair, begging for his humanity. And yet it did not come in his silence, his jaw pulsing with tension.

"I need you to be honest with me," she said.

"We would control that with science. But if one or two were born, then they would be new," Elysian answered cooly. "No longer burned with their crimes, they would be innocent and so they will be treated fairly."

"And what if your children need them?" Her mind jumped to that possibility. "What if those Omegas need more girls to live?"

His answer was so pathetic that it burned. "We will face all trials together as a kingdom, if it comes we will do what we must do." Do what we must do? Her rage was a molten inferno, and it snapped at him, he who was the ruler of this land. He held all the responsibility. The seven were all fucking responsible for this goddamn mess. And they were not facing their fucking problems.

"You're not a fucking animal!" She snarled. "You can't breed females in a lab just to fucking eat them, right?" He blinked, and the silence stretched too long. It was a possibility they had considered. It was a possibility that they were prepared for. They were going to breed those girls. "Oh for fuck's sake." Her hand was pressed to her temple, shaking as she paced. "What are you? What the fuck is this?"