Dancing With the Devil

Chapter 24

Keep in mind this story, as well as Nobody's Angel, is seriously unedited. I'll eventually go back and make everything flow together, like with Eva's age (I know she's 15 here, 16 in NA...) but bear with me for now!

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“What?!”

At first, I thought that I had spoken the word, but the voice wasn’t mine. My gaping mouth closed as I turned around to see Violet behind Xavier and I.

“Jace?” she whispered.

“Violet, beautiful,” Jace breathed back, sweeping her up in a hug. “I’m so sorry I had to leave like that, honey. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“But… Your dad?” she indicated towards the man. “You ran away to meet him?”

“No, sweetheart, I…I’ve actually known him for some time now,” Jace admitted.

“You’ve known him?” Xavier interjected. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Oh, this is my favorite part!” the man, Jace’s father, exclaimed. “Let me tell them, son. Let me explain how you realized that Xavier wasn’t fit to be Lord, so we decided to get rid of him!”

“What?!” Xavier snarled. “Jace? What is he talking about?!”

“Well, you see, it all started long before he began planting those notes for me,” the man explained.

“You sent me those notes?” I gasped, looking at him fearfully. “Jace, you want me dead?” Violet recoiled from him at my words. Xavier clutched me tighter.

“No! Ivy, no, please, let me explain!” Jace begged, trying to reel Violet back into his body while pleading with me for forgiveness with his eyes.

“Well, someone had better!” Xavier snapped. “What’s your name, anyways, traitor?” he seethed, turning his burning eyes towards the stableman.

“Peter Walker, your highness,” he sneered.

“Xavier, you have to understand, I didn’t realize what he was planning!” Jace begged. “He told me how he was forced to work hours on end of hard labor, and his meals weren’t edible. He lied, told me that he would get beaten when he didn’t do his work correctly. He said the only way to escape his treatment was to become the stable master, so that’s what he did. He told me that I was his son, that I could help him. He just wanted me to give you those notes, I didn’t read them! I didn’t know what they said!”

“How gullible you were, boy,” Peter tsked. “The abuse stories were to gain your sympathy. I knew you wouldn’t listen otherwise. You would never turn on your pair number without reason. I made you see reason.”

“What about afterwards?” Xavier snarled, baring his teeth at his best friend. “How you pretended to not know anything about Ivy’s assassin? How you suggested Willy was guilty, when it was you!”

“Whoa, you’re getting ahead of yourself, boy,” Peter interrupted. “Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

“I revealed myself as Jace’s father shortly after I came to realize he had found his mate. He didn’t believe me at first, but I told him things only his father would know: his birthday, how he wasn’t truly of royal blood, that his mother was dead, and he didn’t know his father.

“After I convinced him, I set my plan into action. I made up little white lies about being abused, how the food was inedible, the long hours, blah blah blah. The food wasn’t that great, and the working hours seemed long and tiresome. I simply exaggerated a bit. It was then that I convinced him to turn against you and side with his long lost father; how he deserved to be Lord of the Demons instead. I could lead better than that idiot Jonathon until he came of age, anyways. Since he had found his mate, he could rule with her.”