They walked down the hallway, past the portraits of Selena's ancestors. Lexo held the dagger at her throat still, the tiara in his other hand.
“Please don’t do this,” Selena said, voice full of desperation. “Please. You have no idea what that tiara can do.” Her heart heaved with each word, with each step. She'd spent the last year to get to this point. She should have known better than to trust the Shadow Blades. How could she have been so ridiculously stupid?
“I don’t care what it can do,” Lexo said with the usual coldness in his voice. “You should know me better, all I care about is gold, dear.”
“In that case, I’ll pay you. I’ll double what your buyer is paying. I’ll triple it.” There had to be some way to make this right, some way to save her family, to save Octoton.
“Don’t be silly, you don’t have the funds. Now be quiet, or I'll gag you.”
Lexo continued to drag her down the stairs and along the next corridor, the sharpness of his knife scraping against her throat. Selena gulped, wondering where Varga might be, whether he’d been able to get out of the ballroom to help her. It seemed she was all alone.
Along the next corridor they passed her ancestor Phillipe’s armour, then his portrait and those of the leaders of the house after him. It seemed like soon it’d be the end of House Reyes, it felt like it had been her fault. How could she be so stupid to not check that she’d been followed before entering Javier's chambers?
As they reached the end of the corridor, Lexo stopped at the door to Javier’s study. He turned the handle, and began to open the door.
