Chapter 15
GALINA
“I think he’s a Knightsblood student.”
Wren’s eyes roll dramatically as she groans and flops back onto her bed.
“And I think you need a horny book intervention.”
Lucia snorts a laugh into the coffee mug of wine in her tattooed hands. I shoot her a look and stick my tongue out before I sigh heavily at Wren.
“Such a hater.”
She snickers. “I'm not, I just…” Her brows knit. “Actually, you know what? I think I am. At least when it comes to your horny books.”
“You can just call them romance novels, you know.”
Wren smirks. “But that doesn’t get the same reaction out of you.”
I sigh again. “You’re genuinely missing out. It’s not like I’m just reading spank books.” I glance at Lucia for backup.
She lifts her shoulders at Wren. “Honestly, yeah, I’m with Galina.”
Wren rolls her eyes again. “In any case, thanks for keeping me company while Lena goes and gets her freak on.”
Lucia’s brows shoot up. “Wait, you think she’s with a guy??”
I snort. “Do you not?”
Originally, all five of us in our group chat—Lucia, Yelena, Arianna, Wren, and I—were supposed to hang out tonight.
Ari had to ditch because of some study session at Ravencroft Library tonight.
But when Yelena bailed at the last minute, she gave us the world’s lamest excuse.
And it isn’t the first time she’s done this recently.
Lucia frowns. “I thought she had a study session for one of her economics classes?”
Wren makes a skeptical face. “Yeah, uh, quick question. Who’s the smartest person you know at Knightsblood?”
Lucia shrugs. “Ari?”
“Okay, after Ari,” Wren sighs.
“Yelena. Definitely,” Lucia nods.
I pointedly clear my throat. “Exactly. How much do you think Yelena De Luca—our Yelena, who gets straight As in her fucking sleep—needs a study group?”
Lucia’s brows knit.
“Plus, have you ever known Yelena to ditch out on quality squad hangs with the girls?” Wren adds.
Lucia rolls her eyes. “Okay, that doesn’t mean she’s with a—”
“She’s totally got a standing dick appointment.”
Wren’s declaration has us all cracking up as she reaches for the bottle of wine. I try to hold back, but she catches the slight arch in my brow as she pours herself her fourth glass of the night.
“Calm down, Mom,” she drawls.
It’s not that I’m worried about Wren, it’s just…
Okay, fuck it, I am worried. It’s not like I think she has long-term alcoholic tendencies. But since her shit-tastic breakup with Bryce, she’s been going hard with the booze.
Which is fair, but still.
I glance at Lucia, who has the same slight look of worry on her face.
“Anyway,” Wren sighs, setting her mug down and flopping back on the bed again. “You were selling me on horny…sorry, romance…books?”
Lucia chuckles and shakes her head. “It’s just…there are some really good stories out there. I mean, yeah, they’re spicy as fuck—”
“Which is why you read them,” Wren giggles.
“But,” Lucia continues, “the writing in a lot of them is incredible. I mean genuinely good storytelling and plots, they just happen to have a lot of smoking hot sex scenes in them as well.” She shrugs. “You should read one.”
Wren makes a face and jams her thumb way down. “I don’t think I’m the target market for romance right now,” she says flatly.
“Maybe I can change your mind.”
I groan as I turn to see my brother leaning against the open doorway to Wren’s room at Morvaine Manor, wearing what I’m sure he thinks is his most charming smile.
“What are you doing here?” I mutter.
Zane laughs as he brings up a hand to push his fingers through his slightly longish hair.
“Just stopped by for some of that friendliness and approachability that my baby sister is so famous for,” my slightly older brother says. “Obviously.”
There's only thirteen months between Zane and I, which makes us just one year apart at school. We’re not the world’s closest siblings, but standard brother and sister bickering aside, we get along okay.
We’re very different people, though, and tend to keep to our own friend groups, even though we’re both in Ouroboros.
He takes off his glasses and polishes them on the hem of his t-shirt, giving a small glimpse of his abs. I don’t think any of it is even a little bit accidental, given the way he’s still grinning at Wren.
Such a dork.
Zane shrugs. “I just came over to watch the Knicks game with Theo and Asher and I thought…” He winks at Wren. “Well, I heard you were single, and I’m sing—”
“Nope,” Wren says so fast that I crack up.
Zane’s brow furrows. “Bit quick on that response, but okay.” He instantly shifts his attention to Lucia. “Did you get some new ink, Luce?” he grins. “Maybe you and I could—”
“Not in a million years,” Lucia says with a bland smile on her face as Wren and I both lose it. “Come on, Z, you’re kinda like my big brother, too?”
“Exactly.” Wren makes a face. “Total ick factor. No offense.”
My brother frowns. “None taken,” he says sarcastically. He sighs and shakes his head, chuckling. “Well, had to shoot my shots.”
“Did you, though?” I mutter at him.
I screech and bat his hand away when he tries to mess up my hair.
“Get out, dick!” I yell as Zane makes a hasty exit.
I roll my eyes and take a big gulp of wine before I turn back to my friends. “I hope it goes without saying, but, please, no dating my brother?”
Wren makes a face. “I’ll try and restrain myself,” she says with a wrinkled nose.
My eyes swivel to Lucia, who blushes as she bites back a grin.
“Lucia…” I hiss.
She giggles, blushing deeper. “Whaaaat?” Then she sighs. “C’mon, Gal. I’m not gonna date him, but your brother’s hot. Sorry, not sorry.”
My face scrunches up. “First of all, eww? And second of all, fucking EWW!”
Wren and Lucia both laugh.
“Okay, obviously I’m never going to date your brother, or any other guy, for that matter,” Wren sighs. “But…” She arches her brows at me. “Sorry. Zane is hot. I mean those slutty little glasses?”
“Puke,” I blanch.
“Those glasses!” Lucia groans and exaggeratedly bites her tattooed knuckles. “I mean, hnnng.”
I make an exaggerated barfing face.
“Anyway,” I mutter. “What were we talking about?”
Wren sighs. “You were going off on your latest PornTok theories about some ghost guy?”
“The Ghost Prince,” I correct her, trying to hide the flush on my face.
“Yeah, Wren,” Lucia giggles, pulling out her phone. “Put a little respect in his name. Just look at him.”
Wren's face looks like the definition of the word “begrudgingly” as she drags herself to a sitting position on the edge of her bed, Lucia and I crowded on either side of her. Lucia taps her phone, and my cheeks instantly go bright red when a video I know way too well starts.
“This is why we’re obsessed,” Lucia sighs dreamily. “Just watch.”
The Ghost Prince’s last video, which is one hundred percent a message for me, continues to play.
“POV: she was just over but left too soon,” Wren reads out loud, her brows furrowed as she watches the screen. “Just thinking about the way she tasted has you—guys, you cannot be serious with this shit!” she groans, her face reddening.
“Hope you'll change your mind and still want to play, baby,” the modulated voice growls from the phone, instantly sending a ripple of heat through my core.
I’ve watched this video somewhere in the vicinity of eleventy million times by now. At first, it was indignant hate-watching. I watched it to remind myself what a fucking psychopath he is—at least that's what I told myself.
That he lured me to an abandoned building on the docks to spring his trap on me. That he’s been stalking me. Watching me in my most intimate moments via a hidden fucking camera in my room.
And yet…I keep watching. Not just this video, either.
I keep watching all his content, enjoying the kick I get when I look at his shirtless, muscled torso on screen and know what those muscles feel like.
When I watch his gloved hands twirl a baton or a knife, or knot heavy rope, and know what those hands can do.
I read the thirsty comments about his bulge, or fans speculating on the size of his dick, and I feel a rush.
I know exactly how big his dick is, and what it TASTES like…
That smug flash of exhilaration the knowledge gives me when I scroll through his comment sections is borderline unhinged and totally not healthy.
But as much as I want to roll my eyes at his fans, and as much as I understand the fixation because I see it in my own followers?
I can’t help myself.
Hello, parasocial ideation. Nice to meet you on this side of the glass…
“Hello? Earth to Galina?”
I yank myself out of my daydreams to see Wren and Lucia both grinning at me. My face throbs with heat.
“Sorry, did you need some alone time with his highness?” Wren giggles.
Yes. Because we need to have a serious conversation about boundaries.
…A name might be nice, too.
“No, thank you,” I mumble, trying to will the heat from my cheeks.
Wren glances back at Lucia’s phone screen, where a shirtless Ghost Prince, wearing his usual mask, is sitting backward in a folding chair, gyrating on it Magic Mike style.
Totally not me getting mortifyingly turned on…
“So, you think this guy is a Knightsblood student?”
I shrug. “Maybe? Probably?”
Number one, he always seems to be close by.
He could live in Hawthorne Hollow, of course, but even though I haven’t seen his face, his body looks college-age.
Also, he was at that Para Bellum party, and they were checking people at the door.
If he wasn’t a Knightsblood student, how would he have gotten in?
Also, I picked through the pieces of that spy cam I smashed, found a serial number, and looked it up online. It’s not a Wi-Fi connectable model, and the transmission range is only two miles.
That could still place him in Hawthorne Hollow rather than here. But I dunno…
I just have a feeling he’s a student here too. I want to say it’s crazy that a mafia heir at Knightsblood University would also secretly be a masked content creator.
But, um….pot, meet kettle.