Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
I rest my head against the window, ignoring her.
The heavy breathing.
His hot body.
The sweat.
Pain.
My eyes close as white noise buzzes behind my ears. I refuse to allow any weakness to leak down my cheek, but then I feel the familiar images scratch from inside my brain.
“Do you know who I am?” the girl asks, but I turn to the bleeding idiot beside me.
Shuffling out of my coat, I rest it to the side of his chin where a droplet of blood has dried. “I don’t care who you are. I know why we’re here and there’s no point with small talk.”
She snorts. “She’s funny…”
I ignore her. She’s not very anything. But it’s not her fault.
“Hey!” My palm rests on Deacon’s cheek, but it’s met with the cool nearness of death. Frustration has me grinding my teeth. “Hey!” I slap him gently and he mumbles back to life.
His green eyes stir, blinking past the clunks of dried blood on his long lashes. The lump in my throat swells the more I stare at him.
“Little Hayes. The perfect one. The chosen one.”
I sigh, my chest falling as I expel the leftover oxygen in my lungs. “The wrong one.”
Past
Halen 14 years old
I jiggled my leg as I kept my eyes on the entrance of the chapel. War was taking ages. Bet he was doing his pretty hair. Or maybe asking God to forgive him for all the sins he had already committed.
Maybe asking for an STD cure.
I rolled my eyes and threw myself off the bench, my Doc Martens hitting the dust with a thud. I swiped my hand down my ripped jeans as my eyes locked on the statues outside the chapel. They looked bigger today. All of them towered over, shading me from the sunlight. Dad had said they were moving them to the chapel on Perdita, that they didn’t want people to ask questions, or worse, google the names carved into the stone.
I stopped in front of my great-great-whatever’s one. Humphrey Hector Hayes. I’d heard a lot about him. More so recently than before. How he killed all the girl babies to build an army against a system that was fitted out for civilians to fail. Apparently, it was what inspired our generations-long secret society. It was a society where only the blood of one of the ten founding members could exist in, and one you only ever left in a box. There were no initiations. If you were in the Elite Kings Club, you were in by blood and birth. No options. If you tried to walk, well…
Sometimes it felt more like a cult. Without all the… I don’t know… cult-ish things that people do. Like worship gods and—
Wait.
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. We were not a cult. I knew for sure.
“You know, he wasn’t all that bad.” I heard Pop’s voice from behind me and a wide-toothed smile spread over my mouth. It was the first time in a long time that I’d felt my fingers prickle with glee.
I quickly dashed forward, my arms locking around the back of his neck when he dropped to catch me. Pop always smelled of aftershave and cigars. I loved it. He was my safe space.
He swirled me up in the air, catching me before gently placing me back to the ground. I loved Pop so much. I knew he was a bad man and he’d done really, really bad things, but recently, I’d realized that, well, he could be worse.
He could be very worse.
Even when he was busy running the country for two successful presidencies, he made time for me. He wasn’t a bad man. I—
I blinked back the sting in my eyes.
“How’s my favorite girl?” He twirled my hair around his finger and traced my cheek. “Staying out of trouble, I hope?”
“Never…” I smiled so wide I was sure my cheeks cracked. I didn’t have to force it around Pop. He made me warm and fuzzy. Same as Dad.
He chuckled. “I expect no less, my little hell-raiser.”
He stood to his full height. “Who are you here with?”
“The boys, of course. War’s new R32 comes off the boat today from Japan. The asshole wants to rub it in that he got one before me.”
He kissed the top of my head. “Well, now. We can’t have that, can we?”
His eyes flew over my head, stopping himself before he could say anything else, and I turned to see Lisa, our nanny.
My mouth closed. What was she doing here?
“Can I have a word, Hector?”
His head tilted as his hands dove into his suit pockets. It was weird. I’d never seen Lisa need to speak with Pop. Oh my fucking God. I hoped he wasn’t cheating on Nan again.
Ew. I’d snitch for sure.
Pop nodded, ruffling my hair playfully before making his way to her. I watched as her mouth turned to a frown and her brows knitted to the middle. Something was wrong—and just like that—