The Villain We Tempt (Dark Descendants #2)

Chapter 1

GALINA

The worst thing I’ve ever done has a million views, and no one has a clue.

Everyone has at least one secret they don’t tell a soul.

Maybe it’s something dark and horrible: a crime, an affair.

Something they’ll keep buried inside and carry with them to the grave.

Maybe it’s something that embarrasses them or clashes with how their world views them, or how they view themselves.

I’ve got one. A secret, that is.

Something dark. Something potentially embarrassing.

Something scandalous.

I hide this side of me partly out of fear of that potential embarrassment, and partly because it clashes violently with how the world sees me.

But mostly, it’s because this dark thing inside me honestly kind of scares me.

Not because of what it is, or because I can’t control it.

But because I have no idea where it came from.

I do know what fanned those first little flames into an inferno, though. It was BookTok; aka, the book-loving corner of TikTok. And I took my first steps down this path thanks to romance books.

“All I’m saying is, if one of these guys walked up to you in real life and said and did the kind of shit that’s in those horny books of yours, you’d call the cops and file a restraining order.”

I pull myself out of my thoughts and turn to glare dramatically at Arianna.

“First of all, how dare you.”

Ari grins at me and rolls her eyes. “Sorry. Did I insult your latest book boyfriend?”

“Please. Boyfriends, plural,” I huff with mock indignation. I take a sip from my red plastic cup of cheap beer as loud rap music blares through the party. “And yes, you did. Apologize, please.”

It started with more “normal” romance books. Beach reads. “Chick-lit”. Romcoms involving grumpy bosses and sassy, down-on-their-luck heroines.

Vanilla shit.

Don’t get me wrong: vanilla can be, and is, delicious. Vanilla gives you exactly what you want. You know exactly what it's going to taste like before that cone is even handed to you. Predictable, dependable vanilla.

But slowly, I started to want something different.

Something less sweet.

Something darker.

Something with surprises mixed in, so you weren’t ever sure what the next bite was going to bring you.

And the more I sampled the non-vanilla ice cream menu, the more I wanted to explore what the flavors tasted like the further away from vanilla you got.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I found dark romance.

No more grumpy, single-dad bosses with secret hearts of gold.

No more quirky neighbors whose dogs bring them together.

Thanks to BookTok, I found myself quickly gravitating to “morally gray” if not morally black heroes.

The pile of books I fell into and never climbed out of involves masks, knives, blackmail and restraint, and very, very questionable definitions of consent.

The cliché would be to say that my first forays into romance books were vanilla, and then I ended up in rocky road. But the books that I’ve fallen completely in love with over the last few years aren’t even ice cream anymore.

The dark romance that I read is more like licking a car battery.

Next to me, Lucia cackles loudly enough that even people across the party glance at her over the thudding, pounding music. “Galina, your book boyfriends are a walking red flag parade.”

“I knoooow,” I sigh wistfully, making the rest of our squad laugh.

The fact that I read inky dark romance books involving borderline problematic kinks you can’t even google without probably getting on some watchlist is not my big secret. All my friends know what I read, probably because I never shut up about it. In fact, I’m downright evangelical.

No, my big, dark secret is what happens after I read these books.

When I put on a mask, start the camera rolling, and become a darker, unrestrained version of myself.

A villainess.

“Please,” I grin at Lucia. “Don’t pretend you didn’t stay up way too late last night reading that last rec I gave you.”

She turns a deep shade of red and groans.

“Ooooh boy,” Arianna sighs. “What was this latest gem of a book recommendation? Tied Up In the Sexy Serial Killer’s Basement and Used Like a Sex Object?”

A girl I don’t recognize yanks her head around and makes a sour “what the fuck, bitch” face before she glances back to her friend. They both give us all another judgy look before they turn and push their way back into the loud, jostling party.

Ari groans. “That’s what she reads!! Not me!!” she yells after the two girls, jabbing a finger in my direction. But they’re long gone.

“Oh, no, Ari,” Wren frowns dramatically. “I think the horny book club has moved on to Wedded to the Psychopath Who Ignores the Word NO but It’s Fine Because He’s Hot and Has a Big D.”

“Shit, I must have missed the release of that one,” Lucia grins.

All four of us crack up.

Like I said, I’m evangelical about this shit. I can’t help it. Of the four other girls in our little group, I’ve managed to convert Yelena and Lucia to the dark side. Ari and Wren are still holdouts, but I’m working on it.

“Not that I’m getting sucked into your horny book world,” Wren sighs, cocking a brow, “but can we go back to this rumor that Velvet Villainess is a Knightsblood student?”

My face stays totally neutral, even though I can feel tendrils of heat rippling under my skin.

Feel my pulse quicken.

Feel that thing inside me fight to break free and scream my secret to the world in a fit of self-destruction.

A subset of the BookTok world is “MaskTok”, where content creators—usually men, but there are a few women too—don Halloween costumes, gas masks, tactical military gear, or even just a balaclava pulled down over their faces in order to feed the need of millions of readers who gravitate toward masked men.

The male creators are frequently shirtless, showing off their muscles and tattoos as they dry-hump the camera, growl filthy things through their masks, or twirl weapons while they call their fans “good girl”.

I mean…sploosh.

One of my personal favorites right now, which I was just showing to the girls back in Yelena’s room while we were getting ready to come out, is a guy who goes by the name of “The Ghost Prince”.

He wears a totally black tactical mask that covers his face and eyes, a crown emblazoned across it in drippy white paint, and growls “be a good girl for me” commands through a voice scrambler.

He also never wears a shirt, which means every video has his sinfully perfect body on full display—bulging shoulders and arms, chiseled chest, and mouthwatering abs and v-lines, all covered in beautifully chaotic tattoos.

His latest insanely hot video, which is what I was showing the girls earlier, involves him holding the hilt of a huge hunting knife against his crotch with his fist as if it were his dick, and thrusting his hips while the words “your hair x my fist” flash on the screen.

I mean, yes fucking please.

But to what Wren was just saying, the big news on campus right now is the fact that one of most popular female content creators out there, who masterfully bridges the gap between dark romance BookTok and MaskTok, might actually be a Knightsblood student.

Going by the handle “Velvet Villainess, she's a particularly vixen-coded blonde who frequently films her masked and utterly non-verbal videos dressed in bondage gear for her 923,000 followers.

Another big romance reader on campus, Mariana Guzman, just broke the story that one of Velvet Villainess’s latest videos was clearly filmed in Ravencroft Library on the Knightsblood campus, fanning speculation that VV might be a student here.

If only people knew.

“Okay, what the fuck?”

My head snaps around to follow Lucia’s stricken look. I startle slightly when I see a tall, broad-shouldered figure stalking the perimeter of the loud house party.

…Wearing a Scream mask.

“Cause that’s not the least bit creepy,” Lucia mutters, the corners of her mouth turning down.

Wren makes a face. “Guess someone took the ‘masked’ part of ‘masked ball theme’ a little too literally.”

Like us, everyone at the raging Kingsward Hall party is wearing a plain black Venetian mask that covers the top half of the face.

Well, everyone except the tall, creepy guy cosplaying a horror movie.

Arianna snickers. “Ladies, be nice. No making fun of Galina’s future husband.”

They all burst out laughing as I roll my eyes and flip them off.

Wren, Yelena, Lucia and I have known each other our whole lives.

My dad and their moms danced professionally together in the Zakharova Ballet in the city, and our fathers are best friends who’ve also known each other forever.

They’re like the sisters I never had or the cousins I don’t really see that much.

…Thanks, family drama.

Arianna and I met last year as freshmen here at Knightsblood when we were assigned as roommates.

Despite how it might look to an outsider, given how often we needle each other, she’s my best friend in the world.

We both pledged the Ouroboros Society at last year's Initiation Trials, and we’re now suitemates.

Lucia is the baby of our group, given that this is her freshman year while the rest of us are sophomores. She’s Arianna’s cousin but she’s already made it clear that she’ll be pledging The Order later this semester instead of Ouroboros.

There are four student clubs here at Knightsblood, the infamous mafia university perched on the cliffs above the Long Island Sound: The Order, Ouroboros Society, Para Bellum, and The Reckless.

Officially, they're student-run organizations that exist in a gray area where the college both acknowledges them and also takes a completely hands-off approach to them.

Unofficially, they're the reason you come to Knightsblood.

Halfway through the year, the clubs hold “Initiation Trials” where freshmen can pledge a club. Sometimes a student is outright recruited to one of them. I mean, it’s no accident who ends up where in a school full of mafia heirs.