The Grim (Ravens #3)

xxxvi. aftermath

 Following the match, King Hunter Summers and his Queen Sonja returned to the penthouse throne room in their concrete palace, eyes narrowing with anger for while they had achieved the dramatic fight they had imagined, the cockroach they aimed to crush was still breathing. Vanessa Doe, as they believed her to be, was still breathing. Five against one, and she survived. Her lover thrown into the pit beside her, and still she survived. The royal couple hardly spoke to each other, for they were both distracted by their anger and embarrassment, for they had rigged the competition so that their traitor would be killed, yet somehow she avoided every single trap laid out for her.

The tall doors to the room opened, and in walked two guards: the man and woman who had dragged Vanessa from the ring, the two responsible for subduing her after the match. They dropped to their knees. "Sire," the woman said, "We have a problem."

"Of course we do," Hunter murmured. "Vanessa wasn't supposed to win. The people will think that disobedience is okay—"

Sonja cut him off, glaring down at the two guards. "What happened? Did the girl escape?"

"No, madam," the woman said. Instead she held out her palm, where she held a small metal chip. "She's still unconscious. We found this behind her ear." The queen stood up and walked down the small staircase that elevated their thrones, picking up the device and rolling it between her fingers.

"I was right," she said. "She was working with the Fortress. They've been recording everything."

"Whatever evidence they've found is faulty," Hunter pointed out, his tone remaining calm although his whole body seemed to simmer with rage. "She is not their citizen. We've checked the records countless times, even since she came back. Vanessa Doe does not exist in the High Midwestern Fortress. All that we have done is legal. They have proven nothing."

"Sire, what would you like us to do?" the male guard asked, raising his head towards the king.

Hunter turned to a different soldier—a bodyguard of his—and instructed him to take the chip away, to hide it someplace where it would not pick up any noise. "They've heard up until now. We will not give them anything more," was his rational. When the doors slammed shut behind the strongest warrior in the room, he turned again to the two guards on their knees before him.

"The girl is defenseless," said the woman. "Executing her now would be easy. Her threat will be gone."

"We cannot kill her," Sonja muttered, and when her husband shot her a warning glare that she must not say exactly what he did not want to hear, she continued, for she knew that she was correct. "Say they found a loophole in the charter. Say they hid her citizenship this whole time. If we kill her, that is something they could us against us. Not to mention the riot it could cause with the other prisoners. It's no coincidence the Callahan boy arrived just as that old man betrayed his kingdom."

"If she's dead, she cannot testify against us, my love."

"If she's dead it justifies a trial," hissed Sonja. "And they have all the evidence they need. Her lover is dead, and he sure as hell was involved here. We cannot afford to aggravate them any further."

For a moment, the couple was silent, stuck at a stand-off, waiting for one to give in to the other's plan. It was Hunter that broke, the king who stepped back first. "So what do you suggest?"

A sinister smile crawled across Sonja's face, her eyes gleaming with the satisfaction of having won, of having power. "Take the girl someplace inconspicuous," she ordered. "Keep her silent. Don't let anyone find out where she is. If there are any more traitors in our midst, them knowing her location could be detrimental. Nobody outside this room will know where she is hidden. Is that clear?"