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)
“What?” I ask, wondering if she’ll say what she’s really thinking. She probably won’t. I’ve known Luna since we were kids. Her father is part of one of the ten founding families my ancestor had chosen, but one of the ten that aren’t important. It is the three that are.
Hayes.
Malum.
Vitiosis.
They are the three who continue to run the Elite Kings Club from the vanguard without the disguise of being under anyone else. People still whisper the EKC in fear, only when it comes to the three, they don’t whisper at all.
They run.
My fingers find her chin as I force her eyes back on mine. Fuck, but they are weird. A concoction of lavender and gray, a complete mix between her mother, who has lilac, and her father, who has blue.
She looks like a fugitive who’s been exiled from another dimension.
Like Madness.
I trace her bottom lip and force her mouth open with my thumb. “Don’t like the truth, hmmm?”
Her doll-like features fly to mine, turning my blood to ice and my heart to stone. “It’s not the truth.”
She’s fucking madness. Complete and utter madness.
I shove myself away from her and open the passenger side. “Get in the fucking car.” She’s barely in when I slam it closed and round the other side.
Vaden’s voice stops me as my hand lands on my door handle.
“You sure about that?”
Keeping my back turned to him, my lip twitches. “You second-guessing me?”
Vaden is always the reasonable one of us. Having the Vitiosis bloodline, he resembles neither his cold, feared father nor his sunny, witch-like mother. He is his own self.
A poised poster child for insanity and control.
“Not second-guessing, no.” Vaden chooses his words carefully as gravel crunches beneath his boot. “But she’s Luna. She’s not disposable. She’s one of us.”
“Barely.” I am not unhinged. I remain the one always in control, yet tonight, insanity has left its mark on me.
Snowflakes drift down from above, disappearing on my warm skin. We don’t have much time. The sun will soon rise when not even your shadow can hide. “Go back to the party, Vade.”
“I’m coming.” He doesn’t wait for my answer, rushing to the passenger side and disappearing into the back seat. I wait a moment, thinking over my options. I don’t have many, especially when it comes to my best fucking friend. Even though I have two, War is a lost cause. Too obsessed with my sister to be loyal to anyone else, but Vaden is still pure. For now. Because there will be no saving him when the time comes, and the time will come.
“Fuck.” I slide into the driver’s seat. Mom gave strict orders about tonight and how she didn’t want any bullshit. She didn’t say anything about Luna being a fucking klutz.
Luna coughs from the passenger seat, resting her head against the window.
Vaden whistles from the back seat. “Well fuck me, damn…”
Tapping the car into reverse, snow kicks up from my tires when I turn the wheel, sliding out of the parking of Riverside Elite University. Cars sprawl out all over, guarded by security at both gate entrances. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. It’s messy. Unlike me. But she pissed me off—they pissed me off.
Luna coughs again. Clutching her stomach, she flips around to face me. “Priest, I’m going to die.”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “At least I’ll be the last thing you see.”
Her eyes stay pinned on mine, and that same tightness in my stomach returns. It’s not that I care. I can’t. It’s because tonight didn’t go as planned.
“You don’t have the gavel yet. You’ll be in trouble for this.”
“What part of me makes you think I would care?” I’m bored with the conversation, but I’ll entertain her. It’s the least I can do, considering she has my ancestor’s dagger sticking out of her ribs.
“I didn’t say you cared. You’re more like the pied piper…” Her words die out faster than she ever will.
“How so?”
I’ll write her obituary.
Luna Nox Rebellis. Daughter of Eli Rebellis, Elite King, daughter of Lilith and Kyrin, Brother of Kiznitch with Midnight Mayhem, an adult circus family that she would have been a lot safer being a part of. She spent her last breath begging for her life.
“Because you lure people to their death.”
“I don’t sing, Madness…” I drive us down the dark street of Elite Boulevard, slowing beneath snow-covered trees that bend over the cobblestone road.
“No, but you lie…”
“Lie?” My brow quirks. Okay, now she’s got me fucked up. “How’d I lie?” She’s curled into a ball, her lips bloodstained red, and her ivory dress a virtue of deceit.
“You told me I’d always be safe.”
I choke on my laugh. “That’s not what I meant.”
Vaden’s gaze heats the side of my face, and I know he wants to say something. I pull up the brake, leaving us idling in the middle of the drive.