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 feel like they’re getting worse with age.” Evie tosses the bag of coke to River. Since Stella is a couple years younger than us, we mostly try to keep her away from trouble. But she’s eighteen, and as much as we’ve tried to shelter her from a lot of shit growing up, she’s a King. She’s going to want to play…
…and she does.
Evie turns to me. “Well, where to? New York? Please! I wonder if I can find that one—”
Suppressing a laugh, I steer us around the circular driveway that takes us down the mountain and back onto Elite Boulevard. “Have you not been on Snapchat?”
Evie shakes her head slowly as Stella leans forward and turns the music up. “Fight the Feeling” by Rod Wave plays through the subwoofers. “No!” she yells, just as her phone lights up. I watch as the two little lines that appear between her brows slowly disappear and the corner of her mouth twitches. “Oh, perfect.”
I turn the music down a smidge. “Yup.” My eyes meet the girls in the back. “I’ve been thinking. We could start something similar to Devil’s Cockpit, but without them being annoying.” I pause, thinking over my next words. Whatever they do on Perdita is in a whole different genre of playtime. Perdita is our mother island, and is a short three-hour flight off the coast of Riverside. The island itself is occupied by our own people, and civilians who are connected to the ten Founding Families who prefer to live in a lawless society. It’s run by a bitch I hate, and weaponized by a bunch of boys who have been bred on the island for hundreds of years. The Lost Boys. Only they aren’t boys. They’re as calm as Red Riding Hood, but as hungry as the wolf.
Stella peeks up from the back after scrolling through the private Snapchat. “You started something in Bayonet Falls? That place is abandoned, isn’t it? Since the war between they who shall not be named and us.” I choke on my laugh at Stella’s poor attempt of trying to not bring up the Gentlemen.
“Yeah, but that’s why it’s a perfect place to have them.”
“By them, you mean races? Actually, a good idea. It’s between Riverside and Chevalier Hill, so it’s not fucking with the treaty, and—”
She raises her index finger, flashing her ten-carat radiant diamond ring. Our fathers ice us out with every birthday, drowning us in diamonds. I’m sure there’s a hidden meaning behind why, and I’m certain it has to do with intimidation.
“—most importantly, we can do whatever the fuck we want.” The sweet smoke of zaza fills the air as Stella hands it to Evie. “You know they think we’re all virgins.”
My teeth catch my lip to stop my smile. “Only because we allow them to.”
I guide us through the forested landscape of Vitiosis Drive. Riverside may have over thirteen thousand residents, but everyone, including people who don't live here, know who we are.
Us girls came up with a loophole when we were young to keep the boys from finding out about anything we do. We would drive into the city and hit parties there. It was a four-hour drive there and four-hour drive home, but we usually left on a Friday and came home on a Saturday.
Playing with lies was easy, since we were all in it for each other. Deep down, I knew none of us wanted to be caught, yet it granted us freedom. Freedom to be around people that didn’t know us, our parents, or our families. At least not personally, and if they did figure us out, it was easy to say that rumors were just that—rumors.
Of course, we don’t kill people.
No, my pop wasn’t the president of the United States of America for two whole terms while also helping run a secret order.
No, we don’t gather and drink each other’s blood during a ritual to take over when it’s our time.
The Elite Kings were notoriously known amongst circles that we wanted to stay away from. We wanted normalcy. To snort coke off each other’s tits and make out with random guys. That would never happen in Riverside, or anywhere north toward New York. So, we went in the opposite direction, hovering around smaller city folks who are too busy and uptight that they don’t care about what’s going on around them. The straight-laced kind.
Evie didn’t need to be with us since she wasn’t a King, but she knew enough without knowing too much. She was the popular girl at school. Everyone wanted to be her friend because that’s how Evie made you feel. Wanted. Cherished and loved. She was the humanity to our family, and I think her father was that to Dad too.
River’s flash to her phone is popping off in the back, before she directs it toward me and Evie. I flip my middle finger up, and Evie sticks her tongue out to the side.