Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
priest
V aden’s thigh hits mine as he gestures out in front of us. I follow his line of sight, landing on the front entrance. All three of our fathers enter, with Dad leading the way. Even now, without the gavel, he holds the room with simplicity and finesse. Nothing like Pop.
People gravitate toward him the deeper he gets, stopping and chatting in his path. He entertains it but remains tense. I can’t say I’m glad he pushed us deep into the territory of entertaining the masses. Because I won’t.
My fingers itch for chaos, but I'll pull back because of our parents’ sudden return. Wait. If anything happens while they’re still here, it’ll only involve them.
That’s something I’m not sure I want.
“Do you know who she is?” I know who he’s referring to since not long after our fathers entered, a woman waltzed through in red velvet. Her face was hidden by a shawl of silk. They call her the Huntress. It was Dad’s final hat trick before handing me the gavel.
“No. It’s a surprise they brought her though.” Because this is a King event. The only people in attendance are just that—Kings. But somewhere between Hector and Bishop, people became comfortable in Riverside. The kind of comfort that allows people to test our boundaries.
“Has she been let out before?” War asks, looking over his shoulder and following who we’re watching.
“Yes,” I hiss, baring my teeth and snatching another drink from a passing waiter. “Once before.”
Awareness runs over my skin like a pair of Toyo tires.
“Isn’t she new? Like a new King placement?” Stella asks from beside me.
“No.” People laugh and chat with each other, and it becomes obvious the more time goes on how annoyed Dad is. He scans the room in a clear display of unease, until he lands on me. The muscles weighing down his brows ease. A moment passes, and regardless of whether anyone else notices, it doesn’t matter. There’s a distinct difference between the parents and us, and that’s purely responsibility and that alone.
“Where the fuck is Luna?” I drag my eyes off Dad, knowing he’ll move this way.
The opening is a simple way for people to get to know each other, the new staff that War has chosen, and the parents of the kids attending one of the most prestigious schools in the State of New York. The kind you don’t get invited to attend unless you hold a particular set of skills and a bloodline that bleeds black.
“Don’t know,” Vaden mutters, gazing back ahead. “You made me fuck her into a coma, not trail her.”
His thumb beats at the side of his thigh, the wheels in his head spinning. Vaden isn’t like War, where he’s volatile with his emotions and careless with his tongue, but he’s not like me either, where no one ever knows what’s going through my head. He’s in between the both of us.
This night needs to end already.
I hold his stare. “That bother you?”
The side of Vaden’s face doesn’t move when he reaches into his pocket to pull out a cigar. He clips the end with a cutter, plucking the leftover tobacco out and flicking it onto the ground.
“No.” He flashes me a lazy smirk. “She felt fucking incredible.”
His words turn to ash, and it’s not until the tension in my neck cramps that I realize I’m glaring at him for too long.
I drown whatever the fuck that was with two fingers of whiskey as movement catches in the corner.
Her pale gown trails behind her as she sashays through the swamp of people. It’s tight around her waist, allowing her ass to round out before flowing to the pool of her lies at her feet. She walks with intent, as if she knows exactly where she’s going and why she’s here.
When she stops near a table in the far corner, everyone else in the room disappears.
“Him being here,” Vaden asks, leaning into me. “This part of that Hayes shit you showed me?”
“No.” I put him out of his misery.
Hallen drops down on the seat beside me. “You want to tell me why I get the feeling you’re about to start a war during one of the most important events of the year?”
With her back turned, it’s the perfect opportunity to admire the curves of a body I’ve felt come undone in my hands, but she leans further into Archer to whisper in his ear. My thoughts sharpen the same way they do when handling business. It’s why I am who I am, because of my ability to take on any room the same way every Hayes man has previously, but there’s one issue this time.
Luna isn’t business.
The heaviness is an intruder in the night. With one hand around my throat and the other buried in my chest, the sharp caress of its talons over the slow beating of my heart is enough to cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand.
I lift my glass to my lips, bending my neck until the bones in it crack. “No. Relax.”
She drops it, but her silence is where she tells the most secrets. The warmth of her touch on my thigh snaps my attention to her. “Priest. What is happening?”
“What do you want me to say, Halen? That I didn’t invite him? That now, I want nothing more than to put a bullet right between his eyes?”
Her face falls. I’ve spent my whole life disappointing my sister and the fake idea she has of the world we live in. She was raised in the life, sure, but she’s been protected from the ugliness of it because it isn’t for her. Because as much as the girls want to sit around the table, and they will, they’ll never know the underbelly of what it takes to run a society like ours.
“Priest. I thought Dad said we weren’t to start anything tonight. If he’s here, it’s surely because Dad?—”
“—fuck Dad.”
She flinches as if I’d slapped her, and Vaden chokes on his drink.
Staying locked on her is good. It distracts me enough for the moment. “I’m fucking serious, Halen. Fuck Dad. It’s mine now, and you don’t know shit about what I’ve been doing. You stay to your side, and I’ll stay to mine, and if you forget your place, little sister, I have no problem reminding you exactly where it is.”
Shoving up from her chair, she disappears through the small crowds of people.
“Are you being mean?” Her voice is what I’d imagine swallowing acid to feel like, especially after watching her chat with Archer as if they didn’t have the last four years together. As if I don’t know that he was most likely keeping her well-fucked as much as he was well-fed.
Silk and lace cling to her tight body. White has always been the color of purity, likened to angels and everything I fucking despise. It was all bullshit.
The dress dips in at her waist, clinging to every inch until a heart-shaped corset dips between her tits. I don’t stop fucking her from across the room until I pass the delicate column of her neck and the angled cut of her jaw.
It's her scent that irks me most. It takes me right back to every moment I’ve shared with her. I don’t want to be reminded of all the ways she’s proven how valuable or strong she is.
She kept her hair pulled back from her face, only sharpening her high cheekbones. Obsidian smoke magnifies the hint of lavender and translucent gray of her eyes, a fucking softness about her that punctures my soul every time.
“Why are you here?” All of which she’ll never know.
“You know why I’m here.” Her fingers wrap around my glass as she plucks it from me. Curving her lips around it, the liquid disappears down her throat.
It’s the second time she’s distracted me tonight.
“Do it.” Her words bring me back down. As if she could read the thoughts racing through my head.
When I don’t answer, she turns, placing both hands on the table and the glass back into my hand. She pats it like one would a pet, and a growl rumbles from somewhere deep and primal. She can’t worm her way to my triggers, since I’ve had none.
Until recently.
The soft cushion of her lips caresses mine, but I keep my jaw locked. “Make sure you don’t miss this one.” Her thigh brushes my arm when it pokes out of the long slit that travels all the way too fucking high. With her other hand, she brings mine to her inner thigh. Flames travel down my spine, and my fingers bury into her skin in response. Searching. Seeking to rip her open and tear her to shreds. “Or maybe do. He might trip and fall onto a new wife the same way I did you, husband.”
My hand falls when she releases it. I’d thought about killing her more times than I’d ever thought about killing anyone. Put her out once and for all and be done with it, but that would cost too much.
I can’t kill the girl I hate because of the one I don’t.
“Where’s your ribbon, Madness?” My throat rasps as if I’ve smoked a thousand cigarettes. I need to.
My arm catches the back of Vaden’s chair in my attempt to put distance between us. Distance I need before I do something out of character, like losing my fucking cool.
Her search around the room stops at my words before it bounces around the group at our table. It’s only War, Halen, Vaden, and River, but that’s three too many in her head. Her eyes cut back down to me. If the Devil was real, then right now, Luna Nox was his mistress.
Too bad she’s my fucking wife.
Her fingers find the slit of her dress once more as she shifts it to the side, exposing the holster strapped around her thigh and the pale-yellow ribbon holding up the throwing stars. When I’d first given her them, I did so intending to embarrass her enough that she’d be forced to use a gun. Clearly, it didn’t work, and Archer Thorn took it upon himself to train her to use them.
A wave of heat crashes over me in what’s beginning to feel too familiar.
“Right here.” Her smile spreads wide, a ray of fucking moonlight. “Where it belongs.”
She snaps her legs closed at the speed of a Venus flytrap, clapping me out of her trance as the ambiance of boring chatter and music comes back.
“Okay, that’s it.” River appears from behind, an arm hooking around Luna to pull her away from the table.
“And what was that?” War asks with a half-wide smile. The kind he always wears whenever he’s going to say something dumb.
I lift the glass to my lips to swallow the rest of my drink, ignoring the taste of candy that Luna’s lip gloss left behind, when I realize she fucking drank it all.
“That was nothing but an annoying wife, one I didn’t ask for.”
Laughter and clapping can be heard from the other side of the room as Jessica makes her way to the stage.
She taps at the mic before her ruby-red lips curve in a smile. “Evening, Riverside! I’m Jessica Dela’mentes, and I’ll be entertaining you all tonight. Some of you may recognize me by my father—” She gestures to Nate. “Nathanial Riverside Malum.”
I find War instantly. Jaw tight and anger spreading up his neck like a rash. His eyes swing to Nate, and mine land on Dad.
The question hovers in the background of his stare. Where in the world is our long-lost brother? Since Halen brought him home like one would a stray dog. I work faster than the Devil, he’s already been…put away somewhere busy.
“Which gives me the immense pleasure of being your headmistress going into the first semester. For those who do not know me, and I know there are a lot of you, and only few who do—” Her emerald gaze falls on me.
My fingers flex in my palm.
What the fuck.
“I’m from a small town not far from here and studied law at the University of Del Morts. I have many talents, but one I’m passionate about is…” Her voice dies out as I dig into my pocket to find my phone.
what the fuck is that?
Dad: A necessity.
for who?
Everyone.
Halen’s name slides down on the top of the screen. I tap it and a new screen opens onto the group chat.
halen “drift queen” hayes has added luna nox to the group chat.
Halen: What the fuck is happening? Priest, I swear if this is another secret you’re hiding it’s not funny. A wife I can take, but this…
River: He didn’t.
Stella: I don’t like her.
Stella: Why she look at you like that, Priesty?
Evie: Fml. What am I missing out on?
Vaden: Just War about to explode after finding out he has another sister.
Evie: Standard. From the little baby farm?
Halen: … I don’t know.
I look up at War in time for my phone to vibrate again.
You know about this?
No.
Pop?
I read over it a few times.
Dad.
Nate loves Tillie, but he had an active past. There’s no saying how many kids any of our parents have walking around without us knowing, or when the next one is about to show up on our doorstep.
Exiting the group chat, I tap on Evie’s name away from prying eyes.
Your dad home?
The chat bubbles light up before disappearing.
Yep. My brain is fried from this weekend, or I’d help.
I close the message and type out another to War, telling him to pull himself together, before my phone is back in my pocket. In the darkest corner of the room, Pop’s eyes are already on me.
“Anything else I need to know about aside from the redhead on a power trip that’s gonna make Tillie’s old cat-fighting days shine bright?”
It’s a test for my grandfather. Everything I needed to know hit my phone an hour into the opening night, thanks to Dominique, Evie’s dad. Being my father’s best-kept secret, he has always remained on the outskirts of King drama, but soon, that same secret was about to be my own.
I’m undecided whether I want anyone at all to know about Jessica, since the possibility of her being hurt is enough to guarantee a full-blown war. There hasn’t been one since the marking of the first treaty that sits between both the Gentlemen family and the EKC, and no one wants another of those.
“No.” Pop leans against his Bugatti, staring up at my house behind me before crossing his ankles. “There is the issue of you needing to go to Perdita. Why haven’t you done that already?”
Crows squark above us as the cigarette burns between my fingers. Riverside Elite sits in a conclave of folklore, guarded by statues of our ancestors. As if nature itself could barely let the structures go, moss grows through the cracks of ancient stones, surrounded by flowering vessels.
“I will. I have things that need to be ironed out here before I can leave the mainland. I assumed everything was fine over there since War and Halen had been working on the new island that you so graciously gave. Always such a brat.”
The wrinkles around Pop’s eyes deepen when his grin spreads wide enough for the tattoos on his face to stretch. “And it is. At least for the surface. You still need to check in every now and then.”
“They won’t step out of line.” I bring my eyes to him. “Or I’ll kill them. They know that.”
He chokes on his laugh. “That I am sure of.”
Before he can slide into his car, I stop him with my words. “Pop, I can’t have any more surprises like the one you dropped on our lap tonight. This girl, whoever she is?—”
“—War and River’s sister.”
Flicking my burning cigarette to the ground, I stomp on it with my shoe. “She’s younger than River. Which would mean that it would have happened after the fact.”
Pop’s eyes burn into mine. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. Nate is as loyal to Tillie as any of them are. It isn’t as simple as cheating, but if you’re asking if there’s a chance I dragged her from the farm, then…why don’t you go and see if there are any missing?” That would require me setting foot on the new island War and Halen are playing with, and since it’s fallen into the category of what Halen is taking care of, I’m not interested. She still reports to me on what needs to be done.
Closing his door, the bright headlights of his car turn to embers as he disappears through the wired gates. Without him near, the music from behind me comes into focus, and I turn, staring at the swarm of people going in and out of my house. I thought Halen was joking when she decided to throw the after-party here, turns out, I underestimated my sister’s relentless spite.
Three boys stumble down the steps that lead to the front door, and I snatch the bottle off the one closest on my way back into the house. Even almost a week after Dad gave me the key that burns against my thigh, it’s all that lives inside my head. Why. It doesn’t make sense, and if I don’t figure it out soon, carnage will spill out into our streets.
I stop at the threshold of the lounge, leaning against the wall. It isn’t hard to spot someone that you almost feel conditioned to find. As if I’ve been fed her essence my entire life so she’s never lost again.
Her head swings back when River says something, her blonde hair catching the soft illumination of outdoor lighting. With how far the infinity pool hangs over the cliff, I know I went over the top with the theatrics of what I use it for.
Someone’s shoulder brushes mine. “When are you going to finally realize that you were wrong?” A chrome plate is handed to me, lined with white powder.
“Show me where I was wrong?” Tapping on the rolled hundred-dollar bill, I bring it to my nose and snort the first two lines, clearing my nostril and closing my eyes. Music becomes louder as the energy inside of me rises the longer I’m standing still.
Vaden holds the plate without taking it back, and my eyes swing to his. “The part where you look at her different to how you do everyone else.”
Chemicals turn to liquid down the back of my throat. This time when I find her outside, she’s dancing up against Stella. Without the ritzy gowns and updos, they look free. Their age. “Because I have a particular need to kill this one.”
He scoffs as if he doesn’t believe me, patting my shoulder before leaving. “Talk to her.”
I don’t bother telling him to fuck off. He knows he’s over-stepped. Vaden is by far my best friend, but even he gets lost along the way of stay in your lane.
Grabbing at the collar behind my tee, I tear off my shirt and toss it. Before I can take the first step toward her, a hand is on my chest. Who the fuck would be bold enough to do that?
“Priest…” Her mouth kicks up in a smirk, and my head tilts to the side as I take in her features. Shoulder-length black hair, tiny nose, and rounded lips. Her physical features are only half the charm. “I heard about the last girl who was here in my shoes.”
My hand finds her throat as I force her lips close. She doesn’t flinch or pull away. She holds my eyes the way they’ve been trained to do. Her lips brush mine and the bitch has the balls to smile. “Are you dumb, or do you have a death wish?” I bite the soft pillow of her lip before the first touch of metallic tarnishes my tongue.
Nothing.
Void.
Empty.
Bored.
Shoving her backward, I search her eyes when she steps back. “There a reason why you’re here?”
Fucking Halen. I didn’t want anyone at my house, much less a bunch of drunk college students who don’t know when to call it a night.
I’ve made it outside when I realize she’s still on my tail. Of course she is. Obviously I’m not sending a bold enough message.
“First, are you going to ask me my name?”
I’ll be sure to make them feel uncomfortable enough to leave.
Laughter bubbles from my chest. “No.”
She’s like a fucking puppy with a new bone when she follows me to the edge of the pool. Unlatching my belt, my eyes land on Vaden as I bite my lit cigarette into my mouth, squinting around the cloud of smoke.
Vaden’s sprawled over a sun chair in a ray of horny girls, and when his eyes shift over my shoulder, his mouth curves into a smirk.
Even in the cool night, I barely feel the bite of weather. It’s not until hands come to my stomach with scarlet-red painted nails that my blood turns to ice. They dip beneath the band of my jeans and disappear into my briefs. The warmth of her hand does nothing to replace the sharp rhythm of frost beating through my veins.
I turn, plucking the cigarette from my lips and blowing a cloud of smoke into her face. “Get in the pool.”
Her eyes move between me and the pool. “Ah, I just straightened my hair.” She got what she wanted.
Stepping into her space, the foundation of confidence she’s been built to feel begins to crack. “You wanted my attention, now you’ve got it.”
Her lashes flutter as her mouth falls open a little. “Fine.”
Crimson-red water swallows me as I lower myself into the pool. So far, the gavel hasn’t felt heavy, but it’s becoming a nuisance when your father is Bishop Hayes and obviously spent a great deal of time trying to micromanage shit even after he left it to me.
Resting my elbows against the infinity edge of the pool, I take the last three puffs, staring off over the cliff. In a spray of glittering stars that shimmer above, their soft light is a contrast to the rage of waters below. An untamed realization that there are two worlds that exist within everybody. Especially her.
Legs wrap around my waist, and my agitation grabs her by the ass as I spin her around, forcing her back against the edge. Before she can say some dumb shit, I force my lips onto hers. Her desperation makes me twitch when she bucks her hips forward to chase anything I’ll give her.
Breaking the kiss, she drops one near my ear and the stars above burn brighter, slowly falling from the sky in a rain of fire. “I’m different.”
I force her away from me with a grip around her throat. Every second she’s touching me is a second too long.
My thumb traces the crimson dents from my teeth marks on her lip. “Is that so?”
Her heavy moans and thrusts only stir the storm brewing deep in my bones. “You have to take me with you. I promise to make it fun along the way.”
Wrapping her hair around my finger, I twist her curls. “Really? I can take you somewhere if you really want.”
“Well, we’ll be working mostly.” Her tits squash against my chest, and her fingers swim through my hair, tugging gently.
I spin her around by her hips, and now I’m leaning against the wall, a hand secured around her throat and her ass between my legs. My eyes find Vaden, where three girls are lapping on him, one kissing his neck, another with her hand down his pants, and the last one with his up her skirt.
Placing careful pressure on the hollow bones of her throat, the steady pulse of her life flutters over my fingertips. With a single controlled movement, the resistance of her anatomy cracks through the air in a satisfying snap as the weight of her desperation turns limp against me.
Vaden’s grin is brighter than the fucking stars in the sky before he buries his face in the tits of the girl on his lap.
Shifting her hair away from her face, my lips touch the shell of her ear. “Still want my attention?”
Movement catches the corner of my eye, and I turn slowly, the euphoria of death still fresh in my hand. Blonde hair spills over her shoulders, her face free of makeup. It’s like she changed in record time before coming, with her effortless high-waisted white jeans and silk strapless crop that proves she may be little, but she trains like a beast. Her body is a weapon, and tonight without the disguise of feminine dresses to throw you off, it’s all out in the open.
She steps backward, her Nike Pandas squeaking beneath the concrete. Refusing to give any satisfaction of how she feels, her face remains passive and blank. No outburst. No snide comment. Simply a calm kind of acceptance of what she already knew.
It fucking bothers me.
With the grip around the Huntress’s throat, her body floats through the air. Seconds pass before the muted thud of her body hits the rocks below.