Free Web NovelChapter 24: The Crow Nests On The Pupilt
ADRIEN’S POV
Orion’s reaction to Masamune was telling.
He was bloody furious, but what was worse than his fury was the way his attention snapped to me. The glass in his hand shattered in one breath, and in another, his eyes were on me.
"Did you just flinch...Duckling?"
Every instinct I had begged me not to move a muscle. I didn’t twitch, I didn’t even breathe, I swallowed down my rising panic and met his gaze with what I hoped looked like a blank look.
"You shattered your glass, Orion. I’m sure you know what I would expect after anyone shatters an object in anger around me."
"You dare to play the pity card with me?" He sneers. "Should I give in to your expectations and beat the shit out of you like your father used to?"
It’s a low blow, lower coming from him, but I don’t really care. I brought it up to distract him from my slip-up, so he can choose to react however he wants to.
"If that’s what you want, then yes." freewebnovel.cσ๓
His fingers twitch. "Pietro...explain why Masamune is making a move on me?"
Orion’s gaze never leaves mine, he wants me to know that he saw me. He can see me, but he must never understand me. I can handle a slip-up, but I can’t handle a reveal.
"I don’t know." The look Orion gives Pietro can burn water. It’s a look so heavy with irritation that the assassin takes a subconscious step backwards.
Pietro raises his hands defensively. "I really don’t know. All I have is evidence of some of their dealings, that’s what I brought here with me..."
"And somehow, I honestly believe that they let me steal those."
"So, you’re useless then?" The words land with a crushing finality.
Pietro backs up again, hands still raised in a defensive position. For one terse moment, his eyes flicker to me, heavy with the weight of secrets he must have stumbled upon.
I wish Orion would kill him.
If he speaks, I die. I would rather he dies in my stead, even if that makes me an accomplice to his death— it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve been an accomplice to someone’s death because of Orion.
"I see."
As much as I want him to, I can already tell that Orion’s not going to kill him. He’s not the type to lash out because of his anger. He’s the Basilisk. A snake.
Snakes hunt, they don’t move rashly.
"If you don’t have anything to tell me, then I’ll just ask the lovely watchman who’s supposed to be watching you."
A watchman from Masamune? I hope Orion kills him in the worst way possible. I hope he tears him limb from limb and feeds him to his hyenas while he’s still conscious.
Every piece of filth from Masamune deserves the worst death possible.
_________
"Our Father, who art in heaven..."
Staring up at the gold-plated cross, Louise wonders if she’s truly at a church or at a theatre. The building looks like a church, smells like a church, but lacks the feel of anything holy.
Not that Louise has ever felt anything holy, but she can guess, and this place feels nothing like it. The cross, the stained glass windows, and the pulpits crafted from numerous precious stones all resemble props.
Like a play set in what a maximalist believes a church should look like. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"Close your eyes and say the grace, Louise."
As she obediently shuts her eyes, Louise rejects the idea of religion. Surely, if God were real, He would not allow a black soul like her mother to set foot into His domain.
If God were real, why would her mother be allowed to exist on this earth?
The grace is chanted like a practiced melody, the voices of the congregation harmonize together and end as one. It’s nauseatingly beautiful.
It carries the kind of melody that stays with you and you end up humming under your breath all week.
"You were distracted today, Louise. You should not be distracted in the house of the Lord." Her mother— Alice Dubois— comments quietly as they walk towards the reverend.
"I apologize, Mother."
The reverend receives them with open arms and wide smiles. Alice’s greeting in turn is reserved, while Louise’s is demure and befitting of a high-class lady.
After all, who is Louise Dubois if not a paragon of poise?
"It is an honor to see you in these pews, Mrs Dubois..."
Louise tunes the reverent out after the first round of enthusiastic greetings. She’s not interested in being in the building, and she’s even less interested in watching the man fall over himself trying to please her mother.
Not when she’s seen them together, right in this holy building, with her Mother’s legs wrapped around his head while he—
"This is the house of the Lord, Reverend Michael. There is no honor given to us humans in these pews...everything is for Him." Alice speaks with a casual air, as if Louise had never seen them desecrate this building.
Like she didn’t sneer mockingly at twelve-year-old Louise when she caught her with the reverend’s tongue busy between her thighs.
Adrien’s father was still alive back then.
"You’re right as usual, Mrs Dubois. Your wisdom is as..."
Losing patience with the reverend’s speech, Louise tugs discreetly at the hem of her mother’s sleeves. She needs to relay the news to her mother first, before she finds out from any of her contacts.
Alice lets the man drone on for a few precious minutes, then gives in to Louise’s unspoken request. She silences the reverend with a serene smile, turns on her heel, and strides off, never once looking back.
No one reacts, because Alice Dubois does what she wants. It doesn’t matter where she is, or in whose domain she is— the entire earth belongs to the Lord anyway.
"Speak while I’m still in a good mood." She hisses quietly at Louise as she turns to wave to a familiar face.
Her good mood isn’t going to last till she leaves the gates of the church. She might not know it now, but Louise knows for sure that her mother is about to lose her shit.
"Your gamble didn’t pay off." ’Your gamble’ she says, not ’our gamble’, because Louise never wanted to leave her anchored boat for Leon’s sinking raft.
Alice stops in her tracks, featured hidden behind her thick curtain of hair. "Are you going to explain what you mean, or would you rather keep speaking in parables?"
"Leon didn’t even last two hours in Orion’s presence, and Orion walked in with a new partner...he’s engaged now, Mother."
"Engaged? Engaged to what?" Her voice is soft, betraying nothing of the rage rising underneath.
If only he had just died then. If only he stopped trying to survive and did himself in, then maybe Adrien wouldn’t get caught up in this situation.
She doesn’t pity him, but she doesn’t envy him either. Not anymore.
"He’s engaged to Adrien."
She stifles a gasp of alarm as Alice turns to her, emerald green eyes bright with fury and a hatred so dark, the green of her eyes is lost in a sea of black.
"That little rat still breathes?"
