Chapter 7
They were halfway through dinner when Rue, Bowie, and Lenore walked in, all three looking like a mess. There were smears of dirt and twigs in their hair, a clear sign they’d been roughing it through the forest all afternoon.
Ryker sipped from his cup and glanced out the window, catching sight of the last dying rays of the setting sun. Perfect timing.
“There, can you chill the fuck out now?” Ellery picked a piece of meat off one of the platters in the center of the long table they were seated at and placed it on the edge of Ryker’s untouched plate.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he drawled, popping the small morsel into his mouth, even as he tracked Rue’s movements from the corner of his eye.
The dining hall was set in a large room with a high beam ceiling and several long tables that took up the entirety of the right side.
The walls at either end of the space were made of glass, the windows giving view to the top of a mountain past the trees, and sprawling forest. Twinkle lights lined some of the branches closest to the paths that could be seen leading to other parts of the resort.
“If you were going to be this anxious over him lost in the woods, you shouldn’t have left him there in the first place,” Ellery stated, elbowing his cousin who was seated on his left. “Am I right?”
Uriel nodded.
“Can you let that thing go now?” He scrunched his nose at the brown and green snake currently snoozing around Ryker’s neck.
He’d found it outside on the way back and noticed it was injured. For reasons completely unknown to him, Ryker had picked it up, brought it back, and bandaged the thing using second-skin, a medical advancement that didn’t require removal.
Once the flesh beneath it was completely healed, it would fall off on its own.
“Never knew you were afraid of snakes,” Ryker teased.
“I’m not scared of it,” Ell corrected, “It’s just gross to look at while I’m trying to eat.”
“Doesn’t really seem like you’re having a problem there.” He motioned to his friend’s empty plate.
“Whatever. But, seriously, dude.” Ell leaned in closer, voice dropping to keep his next words between them. “It’s been, like, six months. Haven’t you punished Rue enough for leaving?”
Ryker stabbed his fork into a potato. “And what about the other thing?”
“What?” He tipped his head, as though he seriously needed to think before snapping his fingers. “Oh. Screwing Ryder?” His eyes rolled. “Man, who cares?”
“I do.”
“See, that’s your problem.”
“He’s right,” Uriel agreed, shrugging when Ryker set his cutlery down with a click.
They’d chosen the end of a table away from the rest, and the space was large enough that with everyone spread out the way they were, it was simple enough to keep conversations private, but that didn’t mean Ryker wanted to risk it.
If Rue or his dad overheard this…
Fuck.
He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled.
“Just fuck him again,” Ellery suggested bluntly.
“You’re a Black Hart,” Uriel added, as though this were the most sensical solution in the world. “Since you want him so badly, take him.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be Ryder’s best friend?” Ryker drawled. “And also, pretty sure I’ve never said I wanted him.”
“Didn’t have to.” Uriel sipped at his drink, something alcoholic and surprisingly fruity, then drummed his fingers on the table. “As far as my friendship with your brother goes, you try letting Illya kill you a few dozen times and see how you still feel about him after the fact.”
“No thanks.”
“Exactly.”
Whether or not that meant they were going to have a problem when—if—Ryder ever woke up was an issue for another day. For now, Ryker wanted to focus on the positives of having his friend back.
For the most part, Uriel was the same as he’d always been, but there were moments where Ryker caught him staring off into space, no doubt reliving something that happened to him in the game.
He wanted to ask about it, but it never seemed like a good time, and since this whole trip was about helping him heal, Ryker’s questions could wait.
“Ryder was never serious about Rue,” Uriel said then. “Trust me.”
“Don’t,” Ellery pressed a finger to Ryker’s lips, chuckling when Ryker shoved him away, “say some bullshit about how you’re too good to settle for Ryd’s sloppy seconds. We all know you called dibs first. Hell, everyone on the gods damned planet knew you and Rue were fated from the get go.”
Apparently everyone except Ryder.
And Rue himself.
“What are you going to do about that?” Uriel motioned discreetly across the room to where the board members all shared a table, clearly indicating Rhys. “Dick move, getting married, knowing that you’d already claimed Eulalie’s son.”
“I didn’t—” Ryker began, only for Ellery to cut him off.
“Precisely our point,” he clarified. “You hesitated for years and look what that got you? Are you really going to give it another half a decade before you grow a pair and do what you should have done when we were sixteen and you fell for him?”
“It was just lust.” Ryker had wanted Rue then, sure, but it’d been a strange time. Suddenly, he was looking at his closest friend as something more than a friend. Anyone would need a minute to sort through that and be certain it wasn’t merely hormones messing around. “Maybe it still is.”
“So go get your dick wet so you can stop moping about it.” Ellery finished his second dessert and leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. “We’ve all been putting up with it for three years. If you poison one more professor to alleviate your pent-up rage, Illya is going to blow a gasket.”
Ryker had been taking out his anger on the rest of the world since the accident, but most people assumed that was due to the fact his brother was no longer there. Only those closest to him, like his fellow Black Harts, understood the real cause of his fury, and how misplaced it’d been.
There’d been comments here and there, well-meaning comments disguised as subtle jabs. His friends, who were fucked up and broken in more ways than one, were worried about him. Had been worried.
He looked over to the other table, watched as Rue solemnly ate. His shoulders were caved in, and he looked like he was fighting back tears, even now that he was out of the woods and safe.
Ryker had done that. Had put that look there.
But at least this time his anger had landed on the correct person, right?
So why did he feel like crap?
He never regretted his actions…and yet…
“He slept with my brother.” That knowledge ate at him like a parasite.
“More of a reason to show him which of you is the better choice.” Ellery clapped him on the back, but Uriel grunted.
“Choice?” He stood, grabbing his glass, clearly about to return to the bar for another. “Something important I learned in Belladonna? Choice is subjective. You feel played? Play him back.”
Ryker mulled that over as Uriel walked away, but before he could come to a decision, Ishleen and Esti stepped up to their table.
“There’s a bonfire going on in the back,” Ishleen told them.
Ellery glanced out the wall of glass. “Looks kind of foggy.”
It wasn’t too bad, but the ground was starting to be overtaken by a thin layer of white and gray, the spaces between the trees, even those illuminated with lights from the lodge, harder to see through.
“Perfect for ghost stories,” Penn said, joining them. “You guys in?”
Ellery, ever the sociopathic social butterfly, shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
Ryker could think of several reasons why not to waste his night huddled around a smoky monstrosity listening to these idiots talk.
“Your stories are probably shit though,” Ell added as he got to his feet, and Ryker laughed. “I’ll tell one. Just don’t come knocking on my door when none of you can fall asleep tonight.”
Okay, he could probably listen to—
“Ryker.” His father appeared then, like an actual apparition. Even his expression was grim.
Great.
Whatever he wanted to discuss, it wasn’t anything good.
That was one thing the two of them had in common. Maybe the only thing even.
Their tempers.
“A word,” Rhys stated. “Now.”
“Here, take this outside.” Ryker looped the snake over his head and handed it to Ellery, who took it with a scowl but otherwise didn’t object. “Put it far enough in the forest no one will step on it. I’ll catch up with you after.” Dutifully, he got up and followed his father.
They passed through the lobby, then trailed down a long hallway at the opposite end and entered an empty game room.
The billiards table was set up and ready to be played, and Ryker was considering asking Uriel if he wanted to hang with him here instead, too distracted to see his father’s hand coming until it was too late.
Not that he would have done anything about it even if he had noticed it.
Getting hit wasn’t anything new, and they’d learned from a young age it was better to accept the one. If they avoided it, it only earned them an extra.
The slap echoed in the room, and Ryker kept his face turned away for a lengthy moment, inhaling through his nose in an attempt to calm himself so he didn’t do anything foolish.
His cheek burned where he’d been struck, his pride seething even more, and his nails dug tiny halfmoon carvings into his palms.
Once he was certain he’d contained the rage, he dared turn back, eyes meeting his father’s head on.
Rhys clicked a few buttons on his multi-slate and then turned the device so that Ryker could see the screen. There wasn’t any sound, and the picture was somewhat blurry, but its purpose was clear.
Ryker hadn’t known there was a camera in the library.
A video of him with Rue folded over the table played, his hand moving somewhere off screen—somewhere obvious, despite the fact it wasn’t visible. The video captured the entire room at an angle from a high corner, so the two of them weren’t very large, but still.