Chapter 36 Nyx #3
Nope. I refuse to cry.
I’ll do it later.
She lets me go and hands me a beer.
“You’re on the clock,” I declare after my first sip, but Milo absently waves me off as he steals Brynne’s spot next to Danica who’s talking animatedly with Evie. “Why are we here?” I whisper as Tori and Brynne sandwich me between them.
Brynne puts her arm around me and whispers back, “Sorry. Tori came over to congratulate Roth on getting Valedictorian and then they started talking about their graduation speeches.”
Oh for fuck’s sake. I take another long drink and subtly look over the Heirs.
Luther’s arms are crossed as he watches Killian dial up the charm with Lyra and Cynthia.
Thane is cocooned in a cloud of white smoke as Roth and Tori resume what is possibly the most boring conversation I’ve ever heard as Calanthe stares daggers at my friend for taking his attention.
“Good job.” Luther’s deep voice comes from where he’s sitting across from us, and I look around to figure out who he’s talking to, and then realize he’s looking at—
“Me?” I point with the beer bottle.
“With Prosper.”
“Prosper Hale?” Evie asks him, and he nods again. “What’d you do?” she turns to me, but Luther answers before I can.
“Broke his jaw.”
Evie smiles proudly and raises her glass in a toast. “Maybe that’ll get him to finally shut up for more than a minute.”
Calanthe scoffs and glares at her. “They had to wire his jaw shut in the Medical Center. He’ll be lucky if Dr. Mercer can fix it before the Crypteia tomorrow.”
“Maybe she can fix the rest of his face while she’s at it,” Brynne remarks snidely and fist bumps me.
“Careful what you say about my friend, witch.”
“Careful what you say about mine,” I meet Calanthe’s incensed stare, and the whole circle falls silent. “In case you don’t recall, your friend was the one who snapped my knee in three places and gave me a concussion that he had to fix.” I point my bottle at Thane, whose eyes widen in surprise.
Oh right, because after that, he finger fucked me and I pretended like it never happened.
I seem to be doing that a lot lately.
Fuck.
“I’d say we’re even, wouldn’t you? Unless you talk him into fucking with me again, that is.”
“Excuse you?” She asks, affronted. Perhaps isolating myself for a few weeks was a bad idea, considering I’ve forgotten that I shouldn’t piss off people like her and her friends.
“That’s what you were doing before class, wasn’t it? Telling him fuck me up?” I challenge. I wonder if anyone’s done that before.
Guess we’ll find out.
Her jaw drops and she scoffs in disgust. “You’re a powerless nobody, why would I waste a single second thinking about you?”
“Not powerless anymore.” I hold her eyes, taking another sip of my beer.
“Are you threatening me?” She seethes. “How dare you—”
“That’s a great idea!” Milo interrupts. “Let’s play truth or dare. I’ll go first—” he turns to Danica and holds a hand out. “Truth: want to get the fuck out of here?” She laughs and takes his hand, and then they’re both running away.
Motherfucker. I’m going to get him back for this. Maybe I can train Butthead to break into his room and shit on his pillow.
“I’ll play.” Roth announces, looking straight at me as everyone looks at him. “Truth or dare, Nyx?”
Oh no.
I swallow thickly around the last sip of my beer, only for the empty bottle in my hand to be replaced by another thanks to Brynne.
“Truth.”
He quirks his eyebrow and smirks. “What’s your favorite color?”
“I—what? You’re really asking what my favorite color is?”
“Are you choosing not to answer?”
“No, I just—black. Black is my favorite color.” I hold my the sleeve of my sweatshirt out as evidence. His black eyes twinkle in the firelight and—God damnit. How did he play me so easily?
I swallow thickly and turn to Brynne, because I can’t handle being under his scrutiny.
“Brynne—truth or dare?” She smiles and claps her hands.
“Dare, obviously.”
“I dare you to go over there—” I point to the next closes bonfire, “and steal their alcohol.” She rolls her eyes but stands up and makes her way over.
We watch as she talks with some of the guys and soon they’re all laughing together, but they don’t see her sneak three bottles into the waistband of her jeans behind her back, covering them with her oversized sweatshirt.
She says her goodbyes and practically skips back to our fire where she pulls out bottles of tequila, vodka, and rum to our applause.
“They’ll thank me in the morning for not having hangovers,” she laughs and pours herself some vodka before passing the bottles around for everyone to share.
She asks Evie next, and then we spend the next hour playing as the liquor flows and dares get increasingly more risky.
Killian dares Luther to take hit of whatever’s in Thane’s vape pen and hold it for as long as he can without using his air magic.
Brynne dares Killian to use his earth magic to create quicksand around the third bonfire until everyone’s neck-deep in the beach.
It becomes clear that Cynthia, Calanthe, and Lyra are playing wingwomen to each other when their clothes slowly disappear with each round.
I brace for the worst when Roth keeps picking me during his turn, but the smug asshole just asks me more mundane questions.
Cats or dogs?
Horror or romance books?
With each round that Roth ignores Calanthe despite her attempts to get his attention, she grows increasingly more indignant until finally, she cracks when I choose “truth” during her turn.
“Fucking Fate you are so boring. Figures you’re too chickenshit to choose dare.”
“I’m not chickenshit, I’m smart enough to not trust you farther than I can throw you.”
She laughs cruelly. “Everyone’s done a dare at least twice, and here you are playing it safe. What a fucking buzzkill.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Let me guess, Calanthe, you want to dare me to do something embarrassing like skinny dip and then throw my clothes in the fire.”
She scoffs and says totally convincingly, “No. If you choose dare, I promise I won’t dare you to take off your clothes.”
I consider her before turning to Evie. “If she pulls any shit, will you light her hair on fire?”
Evie cackles and raises her glass at me. “You got it, boss.”
With a smile, I turn back to Calanthe. “Fine. I choose dare.” She confers with Lyra and Cynthia before, “If you pussy out, you have to chug the rest of this—” she holds up the half-empty bottle of rum up. “Good luck getting through the Crypteia with a hangover.”
“God you are so dramatic, what’s the fucking dare already?”
“You have to give one of them—” she points to the four Heirs, “—a lap dance to the song of your choice.”
Well, fuck.
I know I look like a deer in the headlights as everyone watches me. Especially the guys. Roth is staring expectantly. Thane is clear-eyed for the first time tonight. Killian swallows thickly from where he’s now sitting next to Luther, who’s frozen in place.
I could refuse. I could leave right now and get some rest.
But maybe they were right to drag me out of my room.
Because when I look at Calanthe, her friends. The Heirs. I desperately want to show them—
Show them I’m still here. I am right fucking here. And I’m staying.
“Fine.”
Brynne squeals and immediately pulls out her phone. “Let me find a song!”
The Legacies whisper to each other.
Tori and Evie join Brynne to find whatever song I’m going to dance to, not that I care.
The Heirs watch me.
I drink the rest of my beer.
I look at each of them in turn.
Luther is an obvious no.
Killian is an obvious fuck no.
Thane—the last time we got close, he freaked out.
So I guess that leaves the Devil himself. “Roth.”
Calanthe’s jaw drops in shock.
Roth’s lips part as I walk over to where he’s seated, staring down at him for once.
“You good with this?” I put my hands on my hips and wait.
So does everyone else. Something flashes in his eyes—not the fire, not the moonlight—but it’s gone in a blink.
He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he spreads his legs for me to step between, and then Wonderland by Neoni starts playing on Brynne’s phone.
I step between his legs and maintain eye contact as I brush my fingers up his arms and rest my hands on his shoulders.
He’s... warm. And strong. I trace his jaw, then run my fingers through his hair.
His eyes flutter, but snap open when I crawl into his lap, straddling his legs.
Thane is close enough to Roth that I brush his thigh with mine.
When I glance over to him, his eyes follow as I bring my hands down Roth’s chest, tracing down to his muscled stomach.
My touch turns into an exploration as I move my hips in his lap, pressing my breasts into his chest, running my fingers through the hair at the base of his neck and pulling it gently until he’s looking up at me.
I undo my hair, letting it cascade over my shoulder in a curtain that hides us from everyone else.
And all along, he watches me as intensely as I watch him.
I slip off his lap, sliding to my knees in front of him and arching my back as I run my hands down his stomach to the top of his thighs.
He spreads his legs farther apart and I stroke up his inner thighs, teasing him with a promise that will never be made.
I stand slowly, turning my back on him, posting my hands on his knees and grinding my ass into his lap.
I lean back into his chest and snake my hand around the back of his neck, tilting my head to brush his jaw with my nose.
He exhales sharply on my skin as I writhe against him.
When I look up, Luther and Killian are fixated on me, unblinking gazes full of naked hunger.
Something inside of me twists viciously when Killian and I lock eyes, and then I’m no longer dancing for Roth—I’m taunting Killian with everything he’ll never have again.
I’m taunting Luther with the body he tried to break.
As the song comes to an end, I turn back to Roth and lift his chin with my finger, bending down until our lips are a hair’s breadth apart.
I don’t know who moves first.
All I know is that I’m kissing Roth.
He’s kissing me.
And it might just be the best kiss I’ve ever had.