Priest and his Anarchist

Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

luna

past

“ A re you sure this is going to be safe for me?” I ask Nate, the urgency in my tone obvious. I need him to see it clearer. Hear me louder.

He takes me by the upper arm and directs me further through the metal doors, kicking them closed behind himself and shutting out the burning mid-day sun.

“Yes, Luna.” There is something about him I trust. Maybe it is because he and Bishop are the only two who ever showed an interest in me, or maybe it is because this is the man Nate Malum is. The kind that makes girls feel safe while making little boys run scared.

Fitting.

A small light flickers on from above, burning the retinas in my eyes. Glass walls and a single train track that runs over a dirt road, disappearing into a dark hole.

“What is this place?” I ask, stepping over the rubble. I squeeze my shoes in my chest, peeking around the corner. The dress I wore to the gala now a ruin of dirt and stains, and despite the fresh stitches and assistance of the IV Nate pumped into my vein on the way here, I’m still feeling like shit.

I hate Priest.

I never thought it’d be possible to hate him as much as I do now. When I was brought to him as a young tween, I didn’t think anything of it. I was simply doing a task I was set out to do for a family I knew fate had chosen for me. On an easier path, I would have been a Midnight Mayhem girl, but now…now I was simply this. Being tossed between them all as if I was a disposable toy. He tried to fucking sell me! Sell me! To—to—them!

“It’s whatever you want it to be, Luna.” Nate leans against a single table. Minutes pass before I hear the faint sound of rusted wheels braking over the metal. “You came with your mother as a young girl and allowed Priest to take you in, even if you didn’t understand our world, you understood duty. Care. Respect, and you sure as hell have proved loyalty.”

“Unfortunately,” I whisper.

“Which is why I’ve brought you here. You’re not a prisoner, Luna, but I would appreciate if you lived a low-key life. People know you’re here, your mother and fathers. You’re welcome to use private jets to fly back and forth between here and Spain, but for the next however many years, you’ll stay here. Allow me to train you the same way I did some of the world’s most notorious legacies.”

My teeth sink into my bottom lip, enough to draw blood. “This place? Doesn’t look like much.”

The squeak of metal against metal ignites in embers in the dark tunnel, and I reach up to cover my ears from the scream. When it finally comes to a halt, I look up at Nate, straightening my shoulders.

“I don’t know if I’m fit for this side either.”

“You are.” Nate pushes off the random table, closing the distance between us while reaching behind me.

I turn to follow his movements as he opens a small door that leads to a miniature version of a train. With velvet black seats and small gold buttons, he gestures to the driverless seat at the front.

“You always were meant to be here, Luna. That’s why we always showed an interest. Your skill in chess? Impressive.”

I don’t know if he’s being serious.

I touch the soft material. “I thought you all did that because I was a loner. The rest, they didn’t like me much.”

“Slayers don’t have friends, Luna. Not the kind we need. Not the kind I teach.”

Interesting logic. I refrain from asking if it’s because they kill them all. “I thought you taught Riverside Elite?”

The corner of Nate’s lip twitches. “That’s what we like everyone to think, but this side of our life, it’s all a little…more than that.”

I lean my hip against the metal frame. “This is the real school?” I say it out loud, more for myself than for him.

“Yes.”

I ponder over his words while reaching for the door. “And where are we, exactly?”

Nate flashes a wide smirk, one I’m sure worked numbers on girls when he was at school, much like War’s does now. War has always been the one I had no problem with. Vaden wants to use his light for good, but I see it drain from his eyes every passing day, as if the darkness inside of him is slowly feasting on the light.

“Do you know what the Latin word for lost is, Luna?” He tilts his head.

“Perdita…” The word leaves my mouth in a whisper. “I’ve heard about this place.”

“No…” He takes my hand with his. “You’ve heard what everyone has heard if you’re not one of the founding Three. Three, Luna, not even the ten.”

I swallow, but my throat is so dry and the dirt beneath my nails is starting to set to clay. “Which is?”

“That this land is an island, the mother ground of our people. That between here and Riverside, this is where the Kings were birthed. Forged.”

“And this is another Riverside school thing?”

Nate nods, his eyes closing briefly. “Do you know the tale of Peter Pan?”

“Of course,” I whisper. I need water. With the lack of oxygen, my mouth feels as though I’ve sucked on cotton. “I much prefer Alice, but I am familiar with the tale….”

“The Lost Boys run this island, kind of true, but not really. They’re like security.”

“Security?” My patience is waning.

“Perdita is a prison island, Luna. The people who live up there,” he points with his finger, and like a lost girl, I look up. “Are prisoners.”

“But—families? Babies? Children?”

He holds my stare. “Their own. If you sin, it isn’t only you who it costs. They had choices. They chose to bring their own. We run by a very specific set of rules up there, and if they’re broken, they’re dealt with accordingly, but they have curfews. They have uniforms. They have shops that are run by other prisoners, and they have houses that are streetless, forged in the bushland.”

Information spins inside my head, but I remain quiet. I’m good like that.

“And down here?” I’m almost too afraid to ask.

“Well…” That smirk turns wide as he gestures once more to the front seat of the train. “Care to see for yourself?”

I slide into the driver’s side. Jesus. What the hell have I done. Maybe I should have taken my chances outside, running. Except that they’re all animals and they like the Hunt.

This is going to be bad.

A metal bar falls from above and onto my lap, causing me to drop my shoes.

“Try not to look at the walls. As we go through, you’re going to see a lot of weird shit before we get to the hive.”

My body jerks forward, and we start moving. Slower than I expected it to be, almost annoyingly so.

“They don’t like adrenaline down here?” I joke, staring up at Nate from beside me. I swear Priest is already the same height as his uncle.

Nate chuckles, the wrinkle on the side of his cheek probably used to be in the form of a dimple. “They do. Just a little different.”

He hasn’t even finished his sentence when the sounds start.

Screams.

Cries.

Sobbing.

My eyes fly to the wall behind him as a video plays out in first person, as if someone was recording it. He follows a girl, her eyes wide with tear stains down her cheeks before her hair whips her face and she runs. Blood spills from between her lips and her eyes glass over.

Oh shit.

We keep moving, screaming of metal replaced by those of dying victims.

I turn to my side, in time to see a hand buried in a nest of hair, as the line around her scalp fills with blood and the top of her head slowly slides in two, as if sliced cheese. The camera vantage point is the same. First person.

And the further we move in, the worse they become.

A girl’s smile fills the next concrete wall, black dress tight around her curves. She curls her fingers suggestively, gesturing to the bed beneath her.

Arms come into view, boxing her in as she slowly lies back on the bed. Her deep red lips only make her teeth whiter and her dark skin a beautiful shade of brown. Her head curves back, and her sensual moans fill the space as he sinks into the crook of her neck.

A mask slips over her head, the black and green shade a twisted concoction. When her eyes open wide, and the straps of her bra slip over her shoulders, we reach the end.

Walls separate and a bright light beams straight onto our faces. My eyes close instinctively. Metal slams shut, causing them to pop open.

Nate’s staring back at me, reaching forward to pull a long lever. “You asked me if this was going to be safe for you, and the answer is no. It’s not. Nothing in this world is safe, Luna. That’s the price we pay for the blood that runs through our veins, but will you be stronger? More resilient?” His footsteps are careful when he exits the cart before he turns around and places his hand out between us.

“Yes, you will.”

I look between his hand and his face, unable to control the wavering images inside my head. I trust them. I do. Even through all the years that I spent with Priest locked up in his palace, a stupid part of me still trusted him.

I take his hand, and at the very connection, my stomach warms and excitement ripples through my fingertips.

This is the right thing to do. I know it.

He pulls me up to the platform and I straighten my clothes, or what is left of the gown Priest chose for me. The pull

“There are things you need to know,” Nate says, shutting the cart’s door and walking back around to the front of me.

“Okay.”

He takes out a small white box and hands it to me. “This is your phone now. Get rid of whatever you had before if the Mad Prince even allowed you to have one.”

“He didn’t,” I answer, taking the phone from him.

“There are other students here, but only few. This is a very small organization; it always has been. Some of the most skilled assassins come from this school. There’s a reason why you won’t know who they are, and that further only signifies their skill. But hear this, Luna, you are the first of your kind.”

“Rebellis?” I ask, tucking the phone under my arm.

Nate shakes his head, the smile wavering on his mouth. “We usually keep this away from other happenings out there. The Malum line is the one who takes care of what we need to take care of, but I fought hard to keep War away from this. Truthfully, his skills will be suited much more as a counter product to Halen.”

I choke on my laugh because I knew I couldn’t be the only one who matched them. “They’re going to be together one day.”

Nate’s smile widens. “Indeed.”

I sigh. “Okay, so is this a warning that things will be harder for me because I’ll have to prove myself?”

He moves forward, offering me his arm. “You’re a King. You don’t need to prove that. But you will need to prove that you’re worthy of the same table they all sit on. Are you prepared for that?”

I blink. Years ago, I walked into The Devil’s arms because that was what they had planned for me to do. So why am I here now if this was the plan all along?

“Wait, I have a question.” I suck in a deep breath. I don’t like to ask a lot of questions. In fact, I’d rather make up my own mind with whatever is being shown to me and keep quiet, especially with the Fathers; but if what he’s saying is true, this is something that I need to know, regardless.

“Go ahead.” He stops shy of the wide metal doors.

“If this was the plan all along, why did I need to go with Priest?”

Nate’s smile drops. “Ah, little one. That is something I cannot answer.”

He reaches for the door and slides it across. “Welcome home, Luna.”

The monitor is as big as the window I spent the last few years staring outside of from Priest’s haunted palace. I hate that even in this moment—this, what could be otherwise explained as a freeing moment—all I want is to feel the fear slide down my spine and every ticking loop of uncertainty the more that time goes on.

It probably makes me stupid. Definitely does.

“Ahhh, so a King?”

My eyes fly across the room to find the girl deciding to be the first to break the silence, when my stomach fills with knots. She is beautiful. Dark skin, long legs, and hair that flows down her back in tight curls. Her eyes remind me of the cliff faces in Aspen, where we used to visit.

She opens her mouth, and closes it again, before her chestnut gaze lands on Nate. “Seems a little unfair to have one of your own here, Malum.” She even crosses her arms in front of her chest to better draw home her seriousness.

It only pushes her breasts up high from her leather crop.

“How’d I know you’d be the first to contest, Isabella?” Nate’s brow curves upward, but he brushes off her small tantrum.

“And me.” A boy’s voice comes from behind, and I look over my shoulder slightly, but not enough to be blind from Isabella, since she clearly isn’t a fan of my being here.

Neither of them are.

How many did Nate say were here at this school? Not sure I can handle more enemies. Damn. I’m going to have to sleep with one eye open. I prefer not to, since I rely on my sleep.

Even from the limited view of my side-eye, I can make out the silhouette of the boy. He is bigger set, but not as much as Priest or Vaden, and definitely not like Nate. But big enough.

“I thought you’d be happy, of all people.” Isabella rolls her eyes, and I’m back to keeping my focus on her, since I’m pretty sure that she’s the one I shouldn’t, under any circumstances, take my attention from. She moves to the center of the room, typing on the keys that fix to the bottom of the large screen. “After all, she’s not only a King.”

Nate stands awfully quiet somewhere. I guess this is what he was talking about.

“She’s about as Mayhem as she is clueless.” It’s the boy this time.

Isabella laughs, hitting one last button before whatever is holding the screens lifts up to the beehive above, exposing the view. Behind a wall of glass is an endless bed of water.

I take a step forward.

“Well, I like her….” A small voice pops in from behind. “And I shouldn’t…”

Dragging my eyes off the view, deciding we must be built right against the end of a cliff face, I turn to see the new girl. She doesn’t look familiar, and as much as I want to know who she is, I know I can’t.

She steps closer, the sway of her white dress gliding around her legs. The closer she gets, the clearer I see. Her deep-toned skin and green eyes are a contrast to her molten-colored hair. Her plump lips, high cheeks remind me of someone out of a magazine. She is breathtakingly beautiful, in a way that not only would she steal the show in any room she steps foot in, but that she’d literally take your breath away.

Her hand rests against her chest bone and her thumb swipes over a crucifix at the nape. “I like that I’m not the new girl anymore.”

“You never were…” the boy joins.

Her emerald eyes settle on me. “Hi.” The girl comes closer, her head tilting to the side. “We’re supposed to be sworn enemies, you and I…”

“We are?”

She nods her head, lowering down onto a chair. “I guess in a sense we may always be.”

“Okay!” Nate claps his hands. “Show time.”