He was mocking her. Enjoying her pain.
Allie’s hands curled into fists at her sides, nails digging into her palms. She wanted to punch Nathaniel’s smug face. To claw her nails across his smooth skin.
Isabelle, too, seemed to have lost her patience.
‘What is the point of this, Nathaniel?’ The headmistress stepped closer to the fence. All the humour was gone from her voice. ‘Lucinda is dead because of your endless vendetta. Isn’t that enough for you? Haven’t you done enough damage? Can’t we stop now?’
‘Lucinda is dead,’ Nathaniel said coldly, ‘because she couldn’t accept the truth. That her time in charge of Orion was over. The future has arrived.’ He held out his arms. ‘I am the future.’
Isabelle fairly crackled with fury.
‘Maybe you are. But Lucinda loathed the future you represented.’ She moved closer to the fence until they were staring at each other. ‘It’s not a future. It’s the past. You would take the power much greater men gave to all people, and keep it for yourself.’ She was within his reach now, but Nathaniel didn’t move. He was watching her, expressionless. ‘She was right to fight you. And now that she’s gone… I’m going to fight you in her place.’
Allie thought of their plan to leave the school – to give up and start over somewhere else – and lowered her gaze. Isabelle didn’t want Nathaniel to know anything until Carter was returned to them – just in case.
Nathaniel’s eyes glittered like broken glass. ‘It’s nice to know where we stand, sister.’
His gaze shifted to Allie. ‘What about you, little one? Will you fight me, too?’
She raised her eyes to meet his, forcing herself not to flinch. ‘To the death.’
She meant it, too. Maybe they would leave. But she would come back some day. And make him pay.
He arched one eyebrow. ‘Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’ He glanced around, looking into the darkness behind them. ‘By the way, where is that brother of yours, Allie?’
She frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t play games, little girl.’ Nathaniel tapped his heel against the ground impatiently. ‘Christopher has been missing since the parley in London. I presumed he came running to you. Is he here?’
So Chris hadn’t been caught. He’d run away.
This was stunning news. Allie fought to keep her expression neutral.
Maybe he was telling the truth – he really did defy Nathaniel.
‘Christopher is none of your business,’ she said.
He ran a hand across the smooth line of his jaw. His gaze was piercing. ‘You have a smart mouth.’
‘So do you.’
For a second he stared at her. Then he threw back his head and laughed. ‘Oh Allie. If you’d chosen the right side, I think I might actually like you.’
‘I did choose the right side,’ she fired back.
His smile faded. ‘You’re wrong about that.’
He rocked back on his heels. In the dark, on a dirt road, surrounded by his guards, he still managed to appear relaxed, in his element. He seemed to enjoy sparring with them.
‘You made a promise to me, in London, Allie. Do you remember?’
At first, she had no idea what he was talking about. Nothing seemed important about that night except Carter and Lucinda.
Then it came to her in a flash of images. Nathaniel and Lucinda, standing together – the lights of London spreading out behind them like a glittering carpet.
‘I will need you to promise, Allie, that you will never seek to take control of the Orion Group while I am still alive.’
Lucinda had tried to stop her from agreeing. But Allie had insisted. She never wanted anything like that anyway.
‘I remember.’
‘Good.’ He made a quick gesture.
She watched with narrow suspicion as one of the guards produced a stack of papers, which he pushed through the bars of the fence.
Allie took a step forward, but Isabelle gestured for her to remain where she was. She took the papers.
As she scanned the first page, her lip curled in disgust.
Nathaniel was still talking. ‘These papers bind you to that promise. I’ll need you to sign them.’
‘Allie will never sign this,’ Isabelle said, contempt in her voice. ‘How dare you even ask her?’
‘Come on Izzy, she’s a big girl,’ Nathaniel replied. ‘Surely she can decide for herself.’
‘She’s a minor,’ Isabelle snapped. ‘No, she can’t.’
Nathaniel waved his hand. ‘There are ways around that and you know it.’
As they argued, Allie tried to decide what to do. In the end, it didn’t matter what they said. The decision was hers.
When she’d agreed to Nathaniel’s demands that night, it had been in direct opposition to what Lucinda wanted her to do. She hoped it would make him leave them alone.
It had been a miscalculation.
She’d never known Lucinda to look at her with such disappointment as she had at that moment. As if she’d failed her.
She wouldn’t fail her now.