Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
“Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wanted you and not her, and if that was the case?” I snap my teeth in her face and she jumps. “You wouldn’t have taken so long to reappear.”
She nestles into the crook of my neck. “So you did miss me?”
I search her eyes when she peers up at me from below, so frantic and lost. The pain she’s always felt is too much. Too slow. Like a decaying body with years to live, it took its time with her. Ready to ease her into her coffin with carefully constructed steps.
“I knew you loved me,” She teases, dampening her bottom lip.
The footsteps return behind me, and she tilts to the side to address them. “But I know how you feel about me more, Vaden…”
My jaw tenses as she sidesteps away from me, but my arm flies out to stop her.
“Aw…” Her hand slips into mine, tucking herself beneath my arm. “I almost forgot what it felt like to be protected, since you know, you spent so much of your time hating Luna…”
Hating? Yeah. Fucking years ago. I spent the last few weeks fucking the shit out of her and falling so far in love that I’d fucking kill myself and everyone around me to ensure she was never harmed.
I turn over my shoulder as Vaden leans back against the wall, crossing his feet at his ankles. “Hmmm. Interesting. So, all it would have taken for us to bring her back, was for you to realize you were in love with Luna?”
She bounces past the both of us, patting Vaden on the arm. “I’ll meet you guys down there.”
She disappears before I can answer.
“You loved her once, you know.” He kicks the door closed and we both turn to face the window.
“I did.” I trace the lines carved into the desk. Luna marked every passing day that she was in here, until she didn’t.
Vaden sighs, his knuckles grazing my cheek. “She was the first person to ever make you feel love.”
“Fuck off.” I whack Vaden’s hand away.
He barks out a laugh loud enough to bring our ancestors back from the dead, before it slowly dies out in his throat. “So why do I get the feeling that things have…well…flipped?”
The tightness in my chest won’t fucking go away.
“This is what we wanted. All this time, this was the endgame, Priest.” Vaden leans against the desk. Probably to try to gauge what I’m feeling. He’s shit out of luck. I don’t even know.
I thought I loved her. I should be happy, relieved even, that we’d finally did it and she was free. We unlocked her into the wilderness to set her free, but—I drift off, stumbling backward.
Vaden straightens, uncrossing his arms. “What is it?”
“Call a meeting.” There is. the pounding of my heart beating in my chest. “I want everyone fucking here in less than an hour.”
A silent King is a weapon being loaded, and right now, not a single fucking one of us is saying a damn word.
Ash eats away at the trunk of my cigarette. Is it true? Is the reason why she was my madness was because I’d simply be it without her?
Maybe.
“Has anyone wondered why I’ve not been back to Perdita?” I keep my focus on the boardroom table. With twenty-three seats all tucked beneath a slab of ancient wood, all spots are finally filled with the help of our parents, including Luna’s.
“Hmmm?” I lift my head, eyeing each of them for a few seconds.
When I find Bas, I stop. Long enough for him to sink further into his seat like a coward. He isn’t one. But he damn well knows who he’s fucked with.
I rip myself away from him and land on Lilith, the mother of chaos. It all started with her, after all. She looks right through me. All this time, they knew. I didn’t think they did, but they knew their daughter suffered from a condition that doesn’t have a cure.
“Was that why you didn’t want her with the EKC?” I ask, flicking the ash off the end of my smoke.
“I simply tried to tell you all that she would not be a good fit.” She turns to Bishop. “You insisted she take a new place within the EKC. I think you knew the moment I had her.”
“And do you remember?” I ask blandly, my eyes burning when I don’t blink. “Having her?”
Her amethyst eyes narrow. “I remember the important parts.”
“Hmmm…” Vaden’s tone is way too fucking playful for the tension in the room right now.
Lilith and Kyrin are the exception to the rule when it comes to EKC. They weren’t born into our life, but they fell in love with a King, so like Madison, and to an extent, Evie, they’re in by default.
Because love.
Fuck love. Love is for starved souls that spend all their life never been satiated. I’d rather eat. Love got me in this place to begin with.