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)
Back on the first floor, we follow a long hallway until we arrive at a pair of black doors. River presses her thumb to a small screen on the wall before they open and we step inside.
“An elevator. Of course,” I joke under my breath.
River taps on her phone, lifting her hand to snap a photo of us. “Mmhmm. Only to get to the garage.”
She’s scanning over the three photos we took before the doors open onto a white basement where hundreds of parked cars are spread out. I couldn’t name the cars even if I tried.
River snatches a set of keys off a hook and points the remote at a shiny black one in the far-right corner.
“We’re so taking Uncle B’s Maserati.”
The headlights flicker, but she stops when we’re a small distance away. She looks me up and down before tossing the keys into my chest. I catch them just in time.
“You should drive.” She grins.
“Ah…” I shuffle nervously. “I don’t know how…”
“What!” Her mouth falls open before closing. “Damn. That’s not okay—no. Get in the car.”
My hand tightens around the keys. Did she not just hear what I said? “I can’t! I don’t know how!”
“Get in the car, Luna,” Priest growls, brushing past me.
I tense, heat rushing to my cheeks. “You’re coming?”
His arm disappears through the side of a different car, before reemerging with a cap. He flips it backward and opens the door to Bishop’s Maserati. An expensive car, I’m guessing.
“What, you think I’d let you leave without me?” His face remains hard and expressionless.
Neither of them wait for me to answer before disappearing into the satin black sports car.
“Shit. Okay.” I rush to the driver’s side and close the door. “I’m not kidding. I truly don’t know how to drive.”
Priest’s laugh dies in his throat as he massages his chin. “Yeah…we can’t have that.”
I don’t know why it matters to him whether I can drive or not. I straighten, resting my hands on the wheel. “I guess this isn’t a good time to ask how to turn it on?”
No one else laughs, so I search around the steering wheel until a button that says Start glares back at me.
“Foot on the brake before you push.” With his clear instructions, I press the base of my foot against the brake, pushing the button. The engine growls to life and I release a small exhale.
“Okay. But wait, I don’t even know where we are!” I turn to them both, but dark eyes hold me captive, matching the shadows that contour his face.
His lip twitches. “Riverside.”
I stop a moment. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. “Riverside? But…won’t I get spotted?”
The muscles in his jaw tense. “We’re not hiding you. Those who know you know you’re alive.”
I look between the gear stick and the lights on the dash. “P is for Park, D is for Drive, R is reverse, N is Neutral. You don’t use the others.” I’m still reciting the letters when his next words come out strained. “Put the car in Drive, Madness.”
“Oh.” I squeeze the gear, but it doesn’t release.
“Foot. On. The. Brake.” He doesn’t even hide his annoyance.
“Geez, okay.” I press on the brake again and the gear stick slips into Drive.
River bursts out laughing from the back seat.
I turn in time to catch her taking a photo. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You love me. That’s why you’re happy I finally came.”
I am happy she’s here, but I’m worried about what she’s been doing as well, or why she hasn’t mentioned it.
“Tap the accelerator. Not too much, or you’re gonna owe me a new GTR.” He gestures to the car in front of us, his eyes darkening. “Slow.”
I’m deluded. He kills people. You do not find your tormentor attractive. But…
“Okay.” Blood roars behind my ears, drowning me in a pool of haze. When his eyes fall to my lips, everything dissolves around us, including time.
He tilts his head to the side and rests back, snapping us back to reality. “Drive. We have to be back by twelve.”
“Agh!” River whines from the back, the light on her phone illuminating her face in the rearview mirror. “Can’t slaughter wait?”
I do as I’m told and the car rolls forward. “I did it!”
“No.” Priest gazes out the window. “Don’t get too excited, Madness. I haven’t taught you to drift yet.”
Chapter Six
luna
year two
“Today was harder than the others?” Vaden asks, and as much as he tries to act as if he cares, I know that deep down, he’s a King. He’s just like Priest. Like War.
Like me.
I never thought I’d wish for another year of silence until that first night Priest took me into his room of slaughter. Every single day. Without fail. The same routine, with one slight change. Priest. Since my birthday, he hasn’t so much as looked at me while we’re in the room. Like he can’t stand my presence, or worse, I disappoint him.