Crystal Hearts • Book 2 Of The Crystal Trilogy • ⏸

-| 13 / uninvited guests of honor |-

Once Violet and Alena woke up, they untied Will (who had been the one to wake them with his complaining) and left for Troy's estate with him.

Will wasn't really a fan of facing someone that powerful, especially when that someone could ruin his life with a snap of his fingers. Literally.

He was nervous and sort of terrified, if he was being honest with himself. He didn't want to march up to his clan leader with an outcast witch and said leader's rebellious daughter. That was too much drama for him and he'd spent his entire life staying away from trouble.

And no, being paid to keep an eye on people isn't considered trouble; it's just a really bad means to a good for him end. He needed the money.

Alena and Will fell behind as Violet sped up when they reached the estate. All she had to do was glare at whoever was guarding the house, and they did whatever she wanted without even getting orders.

"Troy!", she called her father upon entering the dining room.

"She calls her father by his first name?", Will muttered at Alena, who only nodded absent-mindedly because she was trying to pay attention at what was going to happen. "She has guts... My grandma would kill me if I ever did that..."

"Violet- Oh, I see you've made friends with two traitors.", Troy said as he walked into the room.

"He's not my friend.", Violet rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a traitor.", Will and Alena said at the same time. Will seemed offended by Violet's words.

"You hired someone to stalk Alena and ordered him to try to kill me of she told me anything?", Violet crossed her arms.

"You weren't supposed to find out.", Troy tried to defend himself. Cheryl entered the dining room from the same door Violet and her friends had.

"That doesn't make it any better, you know.", Violet glared at him.

"Wait, is that true?", Cheryl tilted her head, glaring at him threateningly.=

"I did what I had to. I needed to be in a position where no one would tell me what to do ever again. After what happened with Clara... Well, I couldn't afford to be busted like that again."

"Are you saying that what happened to Clara wasn't an accident?", Cheryl asked again.

"Of course it wasn't! I told her to come with me but she didn't want to betray Lux. She put her friendship over our marriage and I wasn't going to let that go thay easy. She deserved what she got."

"And you put your selfishness over your family, which is worse! Or had you forgotten you had a daughter when you cast the goddamn spell?", Violet screamed at him.

"I wanted you to come live here, but Lux wouldn't allow it and with what Astra did to punish me it was impossible."

"Is that why you killed her?", Alena inquired. "Is that why you killed my mom? To get your revenge?", she clenched her fists, gritting her teeth in an attempt to keep the tears glistening in her eyes from falling.

"Among other things.", Troy shrugged, eyeing the environment around them.

"You really killed Astra, didn't you? You told me that Alena was unstable! You ruined a young girl's life to get your revenge! You killed her mother and gave her the blame!", Cheryl yelled at him, seemingly waking up for the first time ever since she and Violet arrived at the clan.

"I thought we were past that.", Troy sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "William.", he turned to Will, trying to avoid another outburst from the others.