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ELEVEN

Bella

"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. "

― Roseanne Barr

"As far as I can tell, the sixteen families can all be traced back to the Knights Templar," Alice started, settling on my bed. "Though, it's not unreasonable to think they can be traced back further than that."

"Templars?" I asked, frowning. "But they didn't keep thorough records of Templars. There isn't a way to know who was part of the organization and who wasn't."

Alice rolled her eyes. "There is always a way to know," she said definitively. "Everything we do leaves an echo in history. Sometimes, those echoes fade, and you're right, the windows for knowing things end, and they remain forever unknowable. But the Templars weren't just a group of friends. Their movements changed the course of our world," she pointed out.

I snapped my mouth shut, confused. "Okay," I conceded. "So the Sixteen started with the Templars."

Alice sighed. "They were leaders in the Templars. As I said, it's likely they predated that, but I haven't found any tangible proof."

I frowned. "What have you found?"

Alice glared at me. "Will you stop interrupting me? I'm trying to tell you."

I let out a breath but mimed zipping my lips. Alice shot me an annoyed look but continued.

"The Sixteen have power that most people can't fathom. They likely all started as nobility of some kind, and they have only grown in their wealth and influence over time. Around the mid-fourteenth century, either during or after the Black Death wiped out legions of people across Europe, the Sixteen came together to form an official union. The sixteen families drew up a pact, protecting themselves and vowing to safeguard one another in a common goal for money and power." She looked at me. "They've been running the world ever since."

"What does that mean?" I asked, shaking my head.

"It means that every election, every revolution, every new monarch ascending the throne, have all been handpicked by the Sixteen."

"In Europe?"

Alice shook her head. "Everywhere."

I tried to understand what she was saying, but it just didn't make sense. "I don't get it."

Alice sighed. "Their influence started in Europe, but it didn't take long to spread. They have access to money you can't comprehend. They are behind every natural disaster, every financial crisis. They run everything."

"But," I started, struggling to process her words. "If they run everything, why haven't I heard of them?"

Alice glared at me like I was purposefully being an idiot. "You really think someone with that much power would let people know about them? Their biggest asset is that they are ghosts. No one knows who they are, and those who do are paid generously to pretend they don't exist."

I shook my head. "But, then why invite us to go to school with their kids?" I protested.

Alice sighed. "Inbreeding became a problem for a while. They'd tried to cross gene pools as much as possible, but it wasn't enough."

"So we're here to be married into these families?" I asked, unable to keep the skeptical, slightly hysterical edge out of my voice.

"No, don't be an idiot. We're here for one thing, and one thing only." Her face went dark. "We're here to make sure we pass muster enough to breed with one day."

"What?"

"They bring in a couple of normal people, only a handful. Those who prove to be smart enough and who have the right DNA markers are paid for their genetic material. If they are girls, they are paid to carry the children to term. Most of the Sixteen only have one parent that descends from those families."

"Most?"

Alice shrugged. "A few, like Edward Cullen, have two parents from the Sixteen. Carlisle Cullen and Esme Platt were both born to Sixteen families, and because of their status and ranking, they decided that only children from their union are eligible to take over the family one day."

I considered that. Was this anything to do with the insurance policy Edward needed?

"It's rare," Alice added. "I think Edward's parents were probably the first pair to have kids like that in a long time. It creates too much tension between the rest of the families if any families bind together through blood like that."

I shook my head. "How do you know all this?"

I met Alice's gaze, surprised when I saw the haunted look in her eyes.

"I wasn't selected, you know," Alice said softly. "They didn't come to find me. I found my way here, on my own."

I stared at her, not exactly sure what she meant by that.

"How?" I started, unable to ask any other question wide enough. She took a breath, and I noticed her body shaking.

"I was raised by my mom," she said after a few minutes had passed. "I never knew my dad, but I suppose, it's because my mom didn't know who he was." Alice licked her lips, her eyes on her lap. "By the time I was born, my mom was messed up. There are some people that are strung out junkies or maybe even violent, and it's clear they shouldn't have kids." Her eyes flickered up to me. "But not my mom." She stopped, and I saw her swallow hard. "Sometimes, I think my mom was dead long before she had me."

"Why do you say that?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Alice sniffed. "My mom wasted her life away, searching for a way back here, to regain access to the Sixteen. She was their livestock, and when they were done with her, she was cast down, discarded like trash, and she wasted her life trying to find her way back." Alice's voice was bitter, laced with hatred. Perhaps for the Sixteen, perhaps for her own mother even.

"Are you…" I started slowly.

Alice's bright eyes met mine. "I'm an ordinary person," she said with a shake of her head. "Nothing about me is special, except I was born with the taste for revenge."

My body shuddered lightly.

"So, that's why you're here?" I asked, wanting clarification. "For revenge?"

Alice leaned back. "I used to think so," she said quietly. "I wanted to burn the heart out of them from the inside out."

"But now?" I hedged.

Alice's gaze met mine, and her eyes were heavy and haunted. "They have no heart. They cut it out themselves and burned it long ago."

I took a slow breath. "Is this why you pretend to be insane?" I asked, after a moment.

Alice blinked. "No, that's out of self-preservation. They mess with me less if I give only one reaction. It's boring, mostly, for them to mess with me, so they leave me alone. Everyone assumes I'm crazy, and so they pretend I'm not here."

I frowned. "What are you doing here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Alice leaned back on the bed, her fingers tapping her thigh.

"I have nowhere else to go," she said simply. "And at least being here, I'm fed and clothed and given an education. It's more than I'd get out there." Her head jerked toward the window, and I let out a breath. I understood. At least I had Mom still, as permissive as she was. I couldn't imagine having to be on my own for however long Alice had had to.

"So," I said slowly. "What now?"

Alice blinked at me like her mind was coming in from some far-off place. She blinked again then reached out and tapped her notebook.

"What do you mean, what now?"

"What am I supposed to do with this information?" I asked. I didn't know why I was asking her; it wasn't like she could magically give me permission to do anything. I had to choose what to do next.

"Let it destroy you," Alice said quietly. "Or, use it to destroy them."

I licked my lips. Both paths seemed hateful, but I wasn't sure there was a course through this now that wasn't. I'd entered the viper's nest, and now I'd made a deal with what seemed to be the prince viper amongst them.

If he truly had as much power as Alice thought, then this changed everything. He had a hell of a lot more to lose than I did, which meant I finally had my leverage.

I glanced at Alice, who had unwittingly given me the key that I needed to start unlocking this place.

She'd faced these demons and had chosen madness, but I had a different course in mind. I would finally get what it was I'd been craving my whole life, what I'd scrapped and scraped for, what had been denied to me for so long…

Power.