Chapter 56: The Truth Hurts
Snow fell on Chloe's face. Wind tangled her hair. Cold bit her fingers.
She noticed none of it.
Stephan had explained everything as he knew it.
The Feds had not kidnapped Jack and Ellie Hughes. The Algreils had, and left the Mother Goose to confuse the crew of the Reformer when it followed them.
Stephan had seen Chloe's parents in the Algreil box at the Wellach Cup. He'd been only fifty meters from them. Chloe herself could have walked to where they were held any time during the tournament.
Or she could have been invited in as a guest.
Her dad wasn't a prisoner. He was fighting – for her sake, presumably, and her mom's, because the Feds had gotten Ellie eventually and Principle alone knew what they would do to her. Chloe's mom had been captured because she was at the Algreil compound on Wellach, and that meant Chloe had been within running distance of her parents again. It also meant her mom had been captured because Otto Algreil hadn't moved on from the planet.
Because he didn't have who he was looking for. Who everyone seemed to be looking for.
Chloe's dad was fighting alongside Rudy's brother.
Rudy had known. He must have. How could he not have?
And he'd never said a word.
One of Otto Algreil's plots? Stephan said as much, but it made no sense to Chloe.
She wished she could say nothing made sense. But it did. Oh, Principle, did it ever.
Not at first, of course. Chloe had called Stephan a liar and run from the room where he was supposed to be training her.
Run to Rudy.
And Milissa.
Chloe doubted she'd ever forget that image. Rudy standing beside his bed, bare-chested, hands on Milissa's shoulders, while she nuzzled her face on his chest and –
And the look on Rudy's face when she called him by his last name. She didn't have to say another word to know he knew exactly what she was talking about.
The worst part of all was, she even understood why.
If Chloe were reunited with her parents, her protective spacer parents, she would never, ever relent to Rudy's all-too-charming self.
"Let the world go to hell," Chloe muttered, "brothers and fathers and mothers and friends go to hell, but by the Almighty Principle, Rudolf Kaine Algreil will get the girl!"
Rudy hadn't come after her. If he had, she might have awakened to her powers after all. If she did, she didn't think she could control them.
It was so damned petty. So lame!
A sinister plot, at least she could respect. She'd still feel used and duped and wronged, but she could respect that.
Rudy wasn't capable of plots. He just wanted to get her in bed.
And now he had Milissa instead. He'd claimed Chloe wasn't his type. So why did he go nuts for the first willing girl who looked anything like her?
Another damn stupid lie.
Another damn stupid lie she was damn stupid enough to believe.
Her tears didn't even fall when she slumped over the rail. They just froze to her face.
A soft, quavering voice broke through the haze of snow and misery Chloe had surrounded herself with. "Highness?"
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"Hello, Milissa," Chloe said, and her voice was as frigid as her surroundings.
She heard snow and skirts rustling behind her.
She turned.
Milissa had prostrated herself on the balcony, face pressed to the snowy stone, arms outstretched, back heaving. "Highness," she sobbed, "please forgive me."
For a moment, Chloe's vision flashed red. This little cheat was enough to sate the mighty Crimson Phoenix? That man very nearly had a princess of the Astroykos Dynasty and he settled for this?
Chloe recoiled from her thoughts, horrified her brain could even produce them.
Rudy deserved her hate. She deserved it herself, maybe even moreso.
Milissa, if anything, deserved her thanks.
Chloe knelt beside the Kyrillos girl and lifted her face from the snow. She was almost cherry-red from the cold. "I have no reason to forgive you, Milissa," Chloe said gently.
Milissa crumpled as if Chloe had slapped her.
Bad choice of words.
Chloe grabbed Milissa's arms and lifted them both to their feet. Stiffly, she hugged the Kyrillos girl. "I mean, I have reason to thank you."
Milissa went even stiffer than Chloe was. "W-what?"
"Stephan told me that... that person lied to me," Chloe said. "But I didn't believe him. You showed me."
Milissa shook her head frantically. "That's not how it was, Highness! The Crimson Phoenix – Rudy – he would never –"
"Did he send you out here?"
"He doesn't know," Milissa said. "I slipped away. Slunk away like the thief I am while he was out of the room."
"Milissa," Chloe said, "I appreciate your trying to spare my feelings, but it does me no favors whatsoever. If you really want to 'make it up to me,' don't make the mistake I was going to."
Milissa reached up to brush a finger along the line of frozen tears running down Chloe's cheek. She stared into Chloe's eyes, and Chloe saw nothing but abject misery in hers.
They could have been mirrors.
"I'm so sorry," Milissa repeated. She said it like she was standing over a grave, and looked ashen enough to belong in one. She stumbled out of Chloe's hug and to the doorway. She acted drunk, or in pain. Maybe she was drunk. She nearly slipped on the snow, but caught herself on the doorframe without her eyes ever leaving Chloe's. She started to slide down it. Chloe knew she should rush to help, but she couldn't break the gaze.
A shadow appeared behind Milissa and braced her.
"That's enough, Mili," Stephan said as his face emerged into the light. He sounded gentler than Chloe had ever heard him. "You shouldn't have had to do this."
Milissa looked up at him. Chloe hated how relieved she felt when the Kyrillos girl's eyes left hers.
"Go to your room," Stephan said. "I'll be with you in a few minutes."
"Stephan," Milissa began, "tell –"
Stephan kissed his sister's forehead and breathed a “shush” against her trembling form. "Go to your room, Mili," he repeated, his whisper quiet enough Chloe could barely hear.
Milissa embraced her brother and clung to him for a long moment, then, slowly, pulled her arms away and straightened up. She started to turn to Chloe, quickly averted her gaze. She all but ran down the hallway.
When she was gone, Stephan said, "You shouldn't have run off like that, Highness."
"You're wrong, Stephan," Chloe said. "I had to know, and now I do. If it had been his word against yours, you'd have lost."
Stephan nodded. "There were other ways to learn the truth. Less painful ways. If I'd known you didn't know the Algreils had your parents, I probably wouldn't have told you."
"Thank the Principle for your ignorance," Chloe said. "It's better this way."
"Milissa would say otherwise."
"If we're lucky, maybe I saved Milissa from making the same mistake I almost did." Chloe hated the coldness of her voice. She sounded like Stephan usually did, and he sounded warm and comforting.
"There were better ways for her to find out, too," Stephan said.
Chloe didn't answer. She was running out of hate, and when that well dried up, she wasn't sure she'd have anything left.
"What do you want done with Algreil?" Stephan asked.
Chloe didn't answer.
"Shall I have him removed? Or do it myself, if you prefer a formal duel? Certainly he has given ample cause."
"Don't hurt him," Chloe said quietly.
Stephan raised an eyebrow.
"He may have done it for all the wrong reasons," she said, "but he did save my life a couple of times. And even if it was a big lie, there were times, lots of times, he made me happy."
Chloe tried to imagine being happy again. She tried to imagine any of the people, places or things that had ever made her happy coming back into her life.
She couldn't.
What hadn't been a lie was lost, probably forever.
"Just send him away. Safe, but away." A spark of anger flickered in Chloe's eyes again and she almost managed to smile. "Send him back to his company. Principle knows he did them more wrong than anyone."
Stephan did smile at that. "You can be a very dangerous young woman, Highness."
For her parents' sake, she hoped so.
If she managed to rescue them, she hoped they'd recognize the daughter they raised.
Chloe wasn't sure she did.