Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
priest
I sit beside her sleeping form as her chest rises and falls with every breath. The dinner party tonight was too much. She’s been back for less than twenty-four hours and has managed to cause enough chaos that I’ll be left cleaning it up years later.
Or Vaden. Vaden will be.
My thumb follows the line of her lips, desperate to grasp onto anything. Anything at all that will provoke that same starved animal that was obsessed with her enough to cause all of this.
“Get up.” I force her to her feet.
Her eyes open as she stumbles out of the covers, still drunk with sleep. “What’re you doing?”
I catch her around her waist, my eye twitching. “Why didn’t you run?”
She pales. “I, uh…” her body trembles against me as a sob leaves her chest. She brings her eyes up to mine, the softness returning.
My skin prickles and the tension in my neck is back. Did she just…
She flutters her lashes before a lopsided grin spreads over her mouth. “Why?” Her claws mark my chest as she circles her way up.
Shit. That was close. I need to do better. Change on plans…
“Answer.” I pluck her hand off me. “That day I found you after you went missing in Aspen, what happened?”
Her eyes fly to mine and the room caves in around me. Nothing matters. Not a single fucking thing matters. Not why she’s here or how she got here.
I step forward. “What were you doing before I found you hours after you went missing, Luna?”
“I was taken!” She exclaims, her arms flying up in the air.
“No.” Another step. “You weren’t.”
“Yes, Priest, I was! I woke up, and they had me tied to this—the bed, and—” She pauses. “—and we, there was a man who came down and opened the door. Wait—“ she blinks rapidly. “Where are we?”
Her eyes move around the room, as if not knowing where she is. It won’t work this time.
I’ve been waiting for this day for too long.
“Where do you think we are?” I can feel the vein in my neck pulsing with every passing second.
“You said Aspen, but?—”
“Where am I?” Panic clouds her face.
I freeze. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Maybe…
With her face paling and her lip trembling, tears slip when her eyes meet mine. Fuck.
I catch her in my arms when her legs give way. “Hey!” My fingers weave through her hair before I force her face to mine by the back of her neck. “We’re gonna figure this out.”
Footsteps pound outside the door and I spin around, pushing her body behind mine. She’d created more than enough enemies this round.
“You—“my jaw snaps closed, all softness gone. Evaporated.
“Save me, Priest…” she whispers, eyes wide and her lip trembling. It almost worked. “Please.”
My hand flies to her throat, forcing her against the wall so hard her head bounces. Life drains from her as her pupils dilate and the corner of her mouth curves up in a smirk.
“Well hello, Rabbit .”
I snarl, teeth bared. “How fucking long?”
“Oh…I don’t know.” She flicks the blood from beneath her nails, shrugging. “Maybe a few minutes?”
I throw her to the side, the annoyance grating on my last nerve. She moves around me like one would an exhibitionist.
“Or have I?” She blinks. “Maybe it was days…months…maybe it’s even been years since Luna first came back into your life? Or maybe Luna isn’t real, and it’s all been an act on my part?”
She bats her lashes and tilts her head. “The tragedy of the Mad Prince falling in love with a girl who isn’t real.” Silence as she finally stands in front of me. “I think Slipknot wrote a song about that once. Ver…” She pretends to ponder before clicking her fingers. “Vermilion!”
“Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wanted you and not her, and if that was the case?” I snap my teeth in her face and she jumps. “You wouldn’t have taken so long to reappear.”
She nestles into the crook of my neck. “So you did miss me?”
I search her eyes when she peers up at me from below, so frantic and lost. The pain she’s always felt is too much. Too slow. Like a decaying body with years to live, it took its time with her. Ready to ease her into her coffin with carefully constructed steps.
“I knew you loved me,” She teases, dampening her bottom lip.
The footsteps return behind me, and she tilts to the side to address them. “But I know how you feel about me more, Vaden…”
My jaw tenses as she sidesteps away from me, but my arm flies out to stop her.
“Aw…” Her hand slips into mine, tucking herself beneath my arm. “I almost forgot what it felt like to be protected, since you know, you spent so much of your time hating Luna…”
Hating? Yeah. Fucking years ago. I spent the last few weeks fucking the shit out of her and falling so far in love that I’d fucking kill myself and everyone around me to ensure she was never harmed.
I turn over my shoulder as Vaden leans back against the wall, crossing his feet at his ankles. “Hmmm. Interesting. So, all it would have taken for us to bring her back, was for you to realize you were in love with Luna?”
She bounces past the both of us, patting Vaden on the arm. “I’ll meet you guys down there.”
She disappears before I can answer.
“You loved her once, you know.” He kicks the door closed and we both turn to face the window.
“I did.” I trace the lines carved into the desk. Luna marked every passing day that she was in here, until she didn’t.
Vaden sighs, his knuckles grazing my cheek. “She was the first person to ever make you feel love.”
“Fuck off.” I whack Vaden’s hand away.
He barks out a laugh loud enough to bring our ancestors back from the dead, before it slowly dies out in his throat. “So why do I get the feeling that things have…well…flipped?”
The tightness in my chest won’t fucking go away.
“This is what we wanted. All this time, this was the endgame, Priest.” Vaden leans against the desk. Probably to try to gauge what I’m feeling. He’s shit out of luck. I don’t even know.
I thought I loved her. I should be happy, relieved even, that we’d finally did it and she was free. We unlocked her into the wilderness to set her free, but—I drift off, stumbling backward.
Vaden straightens, uncrossing his arms. “What is it?”
“Call a meeting.” There is. the pounding of my heart beating in my chest. “I want everyone fucking here in less than an hour.”
A silent King is a weapon being loaded, and right now, not a single fucking one of us is saying a damn word.
Ash eats away at the trunk of my cigarette. Is it true? Is the reason why she was my madness was because I’d simply be it without her?
Maybe.
“Has anyone wondered why I’ve not been back to Perdita?” I keep my focus on the boardroom table. With twenty-three seats all tucked beneath a slab of ancient wood, all spots are finally filled with the help of our parents, including Luna’s.
“Hmmm?” I lift my head, eyeing each of them for a few seconds.
When I find Bas, I stop. Long enough for him to sink further into his seat like a coward. He isn’t one. But he damn well knows who he’s fucked with.
I rip myself away from him and land on Lilith, the mother of chaos. It all started with her, after all. She looks right through me. All this time, they knew. I didn’t think they did, but they knew their daughter suffered from a condition that doesn’t have a cure.
“Was that why you didn’t want her with the EKC?” I ask, flicking the ash off the end of my smoke.
“I simply tried to tell you all that she would not be a good fit.” She turns to Bishop. “You insisted she take a new place within the EKC. I think you knew the moment I had her.”
“And do you remember?” I ask blandly, my eyes burning when I don’t blink. “Having her?”
Her amethyst eyes narrow. “I remember the important parts.”
“Hmmm…” Vaden’s tone is way too fucking playful for the tension in the room right now.
Lilith and Kyrin are the exception to the rule when it comes to EKC. They weren’t born into our life, but they fell in love with a King, so like Madison, and to an extent, Evie, they’re in by default.
Because love.
Fuck love. Love is for starved souls that spend all their life never been satiated. I’d rather eat. Love got me in this place to begin with.
“I don’t much like that answer. What about you, War?” Vaden teases, turning his grin to War.
Having them both near is a reminder of what it truly means to hold this gavel. I’ve played house out in the open, did the things I knew I had to do with The Echelon, but this…this is different. The events that take part within our society as a whole are the parts that will take up more of my time. I feel that now.
War kicks out his leg and leans back in his chair as his arm skims mine. “Nup. Me either.”
The muscles in my neck turn rigid. “Continue, Lilith. Why is it that you think my father—”I shift to him, where he sits quietly opposite me on the other end of the table.
Shadows darken around his eyes, keeping his mouth in a flat line. This isn’t my father right now, this is Bishop Vincent Hayes, since he knows how to be both. Not a luxury I’ll ever have the burden of carrying.
“—Was insistent with taking Luna?” I continue, allowing the lies to be told instead of ripping them from their throat with my bare hands. “Why do you think the Kings wanted her so bad that they knew from the first time they saw her?”
Lilith’s shoulders tense as her fire stirs back to life. She opens her mouth to argue, but stops at the last minute.
I look down to where Eli’s hand rests on top of hers. Judging by the way her jaw tenses, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that she didn’t like that much, yet she remains poised. Smart. She knows that if you’re with a King, you can’t be fragile or easily triggered.
Something Halen needs to fucking learn.
An invisible filter falls over her mouth. “Because of the Rebellis line, Priest. Which I’m sure you already know.”
My lip twitches. “True. The dis-trac-tor…” I break the syllables down, my focus waning. “You were ever so good with that during your time, am I right, Dad?”
Bishop finally drags his eyes off me and onto Eli. “Yes. He was, but that’s beside the point. Son…” He lowers his tone. Now he’s my father and not Bishop Vincent Hayes. “Where is she, and how long ago did she switch?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk…. “The invasion of her in this conversation tightens the already unstable atmosphere. “That’s always the question, isn’t it? Why is that the times I visit…” She slides up onto the boardroom table, popping a cigarette between her lips and crossing her legs. “People always want to know the timeline of when I arrived?”
Lilith’s hands balls into fists as she pushes up from her chair. “Luna, baby, let’s go. I should have taken you to Uncle Killian.”
I pause. Lilith’s words caving in around me. Check-fucking-mate.
Luna’s head snaps in the direction of her mother. “I don’t like you much.”
Vaden’s gaze burns the side of my face. He’s thinking the same as me. It’s no surprise, since he’s the only one in this room who knows as much as I do when it comes to her.
The pain of— her —words spread over Lilith’s face. From that of a concerned mother to confusion.
“Luna, sit…” Dad doesn’t so much as look at her when he gestures to the empty chairs around the table.
She ignores him, her eyes zeroed onto her mother.
“Luna.” One simple name. One that wasn’t hers, but enough to make her feel important.
She turns to me and the finger that’s playing with my upper lip pauses.
I hold her stare. “Sit.”
She steps backward, falling onto the first empty chair.
Silence.
Dad’s mouth twitches, but he hides his smile behind the glass he’s holding before his attention is back on her. “Nice work on the entrance.” He tilts his head. “Do you make a habit of being so unhinged?”
“Can’t help it.” She shrugs, and my fingers flex beneath the table. I’d been lost in my thoughts very few times, mainly because I don’t like it there. They’re too cluttered. An array of portraits of her.
“Continue with your story of Luna, Lilith.” I don’t care who she is or was, or how terrifyingly unhinged she had been in her day. Not a single person at this table scares me.
Only the one who answers to Madness.
Her and Eli share a silent conversation, before she shakes her head. “Not with Luna here.”
Whiskey burns its way down my throat. “Aw, I’m sure she won’t mind.” I hold her stare. “Go on.”
“Well, I don’t remember much. To be truthful?—”
“—if you’re anything but truthful, I’m sure I don’t have to warn you…”
She grinds her teeth. Working Lilith up isn’t half as fun as working up her daughter. Shame. I’ll miss that.
“I don’t remember much.” Lilith sinks back into the high-winged chair, and Eli turns his focus onto me. No one sees my answers or questions as any form of disrespect but Lilith.“There was an issue with my sister. She took me, locked me up until I was at term.”
“Were you conscious throughout the birth?” Vaden shifts his weight forward, resting his forearms on the table.
My eyes land on Dad, only to find him already staring right at me. He bounces between Vaden and I, as if wondering where we’re going with this.
He won’t have to wonder long because unlike everyone else in this room, Dad’s brain ticks the same way mine does, only with a moral compass.
“Yes, but they filled me with enough drugs to kill a horse. What’s your point?”
I shrug. “None.”
A new waiter comes through carrying a tray of hot food as everyone sits in silence.
Lilith’s face softens when checks on Luna every two seconds, but it’s almost like she’s reminded of the monster she is when she stares too long.
As if she’s worth any less than when she’s not.
An hour later, midnight shadows over us. I love this time of night. When you know that the only people around are the ones who only feel comfort in the dark.
“What happens now, son?” Eli asks, burying his hands into his pockets.
Neither of us look at one another, both keeping our eyes fixed on the driveway in front. Lilith doesn’t waste time pulling up, no doubt gearing up to sharpen her claws over his back.
“Do you trust me?” I finally turn to him. I wonder if they find it odd, watching us grow to be who we are today. A product of what they trained.
He caresses his greying beard, before twirling the ends of his moustache. “I do.”
“That took you a while to answer.” My head tilts. “So many people see me as the Mad Prince. A product of my grandfather. Do you?”
“Why is it important to you?” His eyes finally land on mine. They’re way too similar in shape to Luna’s.
I look back out to the distance in front of me. “It isn’t for the reason why you’re hoping it is. I don’t care for what you, or any of the Fathers think. It is what it is, and I am who I am, and we are who we are—” Ahh…that probably slipped past him. “But it’s important not for me, Eli.” My focus swings back to him. “But for you.”
“Jesus.” He blows out a deep breath. One I once wanted to strangle out of him. “You’re a fucking weird kid, I’ll give you that.”
I snicker. “Odd way to say you’re scared of me.”
He laughs this time, patting my shoulder. “I’m not scared of anyone. If I was, I wouldn’t be a King.” He disappears into the waiting car. When their headlights disappear down the drive, a smirk crawls over my face.
Time to play a game.