EPISODE THIRTEEN

'a lover's summons'

WE DIDN'T WAKE up at the hotel room.

Instead, with a pounding headache that was both familiar and alien, I groaned awake.

"Whoa." I rested back down after I tried to sit up and vertigo tided over like a wave. "Good Christ." My throat felt parched, my body weak. It didn't help that the pounding in my head is bouncing around my skull like echoes.

Drugged. I was drugged. I could feel it in my head, in my weak body. It couldn't have been the alcohol since nothing tasted out of the ordinary.

Panic gets you nowhere. Asses your surroundings. Make a conclusion.

Deduce.

I breathed in first, smelling a nice, linen scent. A fresh room. Dominic's room smelled empty. Leon's house always smelled like dust and wood, antique things, sometimes mysterious cigarette ash and English tea. My house smelled more like baked goods and sharply-masked cleaning supplies.

So I opened my eyes. The ceiling was not the hotel. I sat up, slowly, and took in my surroundings. It appeared to be a room in light pink walls. A dresser, a bed, two doors. Behind me was a portrait of lines that made up a possible woman turning over her back.

Drugged. New room. Got it. I didn't have any enemies, but since I started this case I knew I ruffled a few feathers.

Weapon then. Just in case.

I pulled drawers until I got to the dresser and got out an actual knife. It was small and glistened, almost like it was unused. I certainly felt ridiculous of all of a sudden, being reminded of Dominic and his unusual love for throwing people into his plays.

I turned to the door, inhaled, and pulled.

A small hallway, pressed with more vague line paintings of what could be particularly romantic scenes or disturbing ones.

When I rounded the corner, a wide living room greeted me with floor length windows and an almost all white interior. The windows were open and welcomed a drizzling of gray clouds.

"I saw you waking up." I stopped. A woman came out of a door. She was tall; a lean and gorgeous brunette dressed in obviously expensive clothes; silky dress, a branded leather belt. Even her heels had the familiar red in the back. She looked refined, maybe in her mid thirties. Her eyes were a shifting shade of green and gray, deep set with a calm gaze. "Cameras in the room. You can keep the letter opener for defense, it's fine. After all, you were taken here without your consent."

She draped herself elegantly on one of the chairs, her spine straight, her ankles crossed. Something about her was so dignified, I felt ratty. It wasn't just physical difference - pajamas, I say, aren't the precise outfit you'd want to die in when faced with a kidnapper - but the way she carried herself. I felt frazzled, panic. She was calm as moving storms.

Which could just be the situation.

Kidnapper. Kidnapped.

Her eyes lifted to me. Not a hint of emotion. "Please. Sit."

There was really no other way. Playing by her rules meant I could at least gather information. So I sat, letter opener clenched tightly on my lap. She saw this and smiled.

"You're different." She shook her head. "You shouldn't be part of this."

I swallowed. "Where's Leon?"

"Here," she said, unblinking. "He's still asleep. The alcohol in his system really knocked him out." I shifted. She smiled again. "He's in the room beside yours. I would've left you alone with another pillow fort, but I thought you'd appreciate a bit of normalcy that I'm sure Dominic is depriving you of." Her face and tone shifted. Things I was about to say or do or appear matters now. "Isn't that why you're here? To play a part in Dominic's little schemes?"

I blinked. That's where I knew her from. Of course I'd only seen splash photos from the press. "You're Genevieve. Genevieve Rottschild."

She smiled. Something about it felt bitter and biting. "Yes. The third suspect you'll interview so far. Unless you've gotten to the doctor, which I would think not. The Morettis will keep him close since he's the wildest card that night. That's why you're here isn't it? Caught up in the storm that is Leon Song, and therefore a necessary accessory in the storm that Dom left in his wake?"

"I'm not an accessory. I'm here to help him figure out who murdered his friend."

She nodded, humming. "It won't be easy. Dominic drugged us. Teas just before dinner. I couldn't even smell it. Hardly remembered any of it. But that was his small mercy - forgetting. It was a sparing. I'm not sure everyone else got the same tea. We were told to wait in separate bedrooms."

A man entered the living room, black suits and wires behind his ears, holding a tray of tea. He set it down on the table between us and left from Genevieve's nod. She took the pot. "Earl Grey? I have a bit of an old fashioned taste. Grew up with my grandparents. Parental figures were useless."

"No, thank you."

"It's really marvelous." Her eyes danced in mischief. "And I didn't drugged it if that's what you're worried about."

My eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't blame me for having a hard time believing that."

She chuckled under her breath as she poured herself some. Just tea, no milk or sugar. She took a sip, her eyes gazing with the cup on covering half her face. "Fair enough. But that's the only way I could get you to come here without particular eyes knowing. God knows Cordelia Song is losing her precious marbles, itching to turn cities into fire and ash. She's very predictable that way, dangerously protective her little brother. Not new, since she practically raised him. But after your little stunt to poor little Cassandra, I'm sure even her mother is itching for a chat. Not to mention the Morettis. They'd be a little suspicious that someone has targeted sweet, innocent Cassie. Then they'll start to wonder who else."

I frowned, feeling lightheaded almost. She laughed.

"My apologies. This might be all very new to you, but don't worry. They'll have a hard time tracking me down. Dom made sure I was protected until the end. Even though I did him a one up."

"A one up?" Old fashioned. An old grudge. Her husband. "Because Dominic killed your husband?"

She blinked, exhaling. She set her cup down and tossed her hair aside. "Well. That was certainly without tact."

"Dominic brought Leon into this. And I'm tired of seeing him suffer."

Her lips smiled. Her eyes were shards of broken glass. "Love is no place for people like them, my dear."

"He's not part of them," I said. "At least, not anymore. He left long ago. He wants peace... Dominic just found a way to reel him in."

"Well... that's certainly a true statement. Dominic bringing chaos even in death." She sighed. "I can't help much, but I'm willing to. For now, you won't be able to arrest me. And certainly before then, I'll be long gone. That's what he promised. And Dom, though a shaky, despicable character, doesn't let down his promises."

"What do you remember, then? Of that night?"

She sighed. "I went to the elevators, the passwords were the same. The guards know me. Dominic specifically said to look gorgeous - Old Hollywood style. He asked me to wear something in black, and a small hat with a fanned out lace to cover my face like I was in mourning. Red lipstick appreciated."

I made a face. She chuckled.

"Dominic loved theatrics. And even I'm not ashamed to like his ideas. Anyway, I got there - the very first one. He kissed me on the cheek and told me I would get my revenge soon. I was surprised, but he looked nothing else but the same Dom. Same cheeky smile, same look in his eyes. He knew what my revenge meant, and we both understood that he was going to die that night."

"And you didn't try and stop it? I thought... I thought you loved him."

"Just because you're with someone, my dear, doesn't mean you love them. Sometimes you are bound by promises not for love, but for a mutual benefit and understanding. That's what Dom and I had. And that was our finale." She leaned back, sighing. "I poisoned him. When he brought the tea, I knew I was going to remember pieces of that night. I told him to come close. He knew I held something behind me, he just didn't know it was a syringe. He knew and he let it happen. That was my revenge. His promise."

I was rid to silence. To say something - to confess to murder - and say it without but a calm face and a factual tone. I shivered. I was in a living room, kidnapped by a confessed murderer.

Dizzy would be an understatement.

"He killed my husband, dear." Her eyes glistened, her smile a shaky built. There was something very old about her all of a sudden. The old grudge, it would seem, had a physical face. "The only man I'd ever love. I only found out later, much later why exactly Dominic was siding with me. Wooing. And it was only understanding that I was going to extract my revenge that kept us together. His promise of death for my promise of peace."

I swallowed. "Why did... why did Dominic kill your husband?"

"Because my husband was part of Dominic's history. His true history. He was part of the horrors that killed the most human part of Dominic and fueled him with nothing but the will extract revenge. The only reason Dominic Prince was born was because he needed to take revenge.

"The friend that young Song knew, the friend that was spectacular and brilliant was nothing more than a farce. A spider that was making a web and slowly catching his prey in honeyed traps they wouldn't see until they realised they were knee deep in waters they could not rise from. That they have been tangled so tightly, so securely that they didn't see that killing the spider was going to destroy themselves in the process."

She straightened her spine, brushing her tears away. From her hand, an elaborate engagement ring glittered.

"I poisoned him with a very old substance. Something I had kept for a very long time. It was supposed to slow his heart rate, kill him slowly and humanely. A most patient ending for a lover." She picked up her cup again and sipped. Then she checked her time. "The Morettis are going to hold the doctor because of what happened to Cassandra, or suspicions of. They'll soon realise that you've also gone to Cavendish, and when they figure out that I've talked to you, they're going to be fortified. A fortress that will be hard to get through. Then they'll arm themselves to attack once they've figured out what Dominic has done. I'll only be in London until the engagement party, a last appearance as a grieving lover for a once great man, then I will be gone. My confession and truth with it.

"I'm sure Cordelia has already worked out for the two of you to be there at the engagement party. It's a shame that Mr. Song has not awoken, but I feel like it was for the best that I talked to you." She smiled slightly. "So easier to talk to someone not part of the picture. An accessory like I am. Here's a tip for you, my dear."

I shook my head. "I don't - "

" - You will need it. Wanting it is another matter, but here it is regardless. I was just like you before all of this. Normal beyond disbelief. A secondary school teacher if you can believe before I met my husband and was whisked away to this life." Her eyes hardened. "I hated it. I absolutely loathe it. Men and women in this world, they have power and never stop wanting more. Their ambitions and goals blind them from their humanity. It blinded my husband, blinded Dominic. Blinded me. When I confirmed who Dominic was and made me the promise that would kill him, he promised me a way out of this life. A mercy. After this, take care of who you are, Ms. Cain.

This life, these people, they will change you. No matter how innocent a simple ambition is, they will learn that only small things, things with prices they could pay, are stopping them. And when they realise that, it is so easy to become a monster. A monster that even if you look in the mirror, you only see your reflection back. These monsters rot from the inside. And if you really cherish Mr. Song as I think you do, you get him out of here. You take him with you and you live your life as normally as possible.

There is no reasoning with people who want. Endgames can blind you on the things, the ways, you have to reach your goal." She nicked up her chin. "Keep your innocence, Ms. Cain. It is a mercy most think they should not have. That they should abandon."

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NEXT

EPISODE FOURTEEN

GO BIG OR GO HOME

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There are lot of mistakes here, enough to fill a ship.

Also you'll realise that Dominic lied about the particulars when he introduced his suspects. I hope you're still paying attention.

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