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)
“Where are you putting yours?” We both head to where Mom is. I once heard that she worked in a tattoo shop in her younger days, after running away from Dad for the billionth time and trying to start a new life in New Zealand. Her art is a sugary glaze of destruction. It’s still only her pieces that hang on the walls of the Castle.
“I don’t know.” I turn over my shoulder to find the concrete seats that were once filled with people, now empty. Our parents are chatting amongst each other with Pop and Nanna, and it’s not until my eyes swoop back ahead of me when I notice Priest motionless on the ground.
A merciless web of protectiveness fractures my heart as my feet instinctively move toward him, but hands catch my arm.
“Leave him, Amica. He will come out when it’s time.” Dad’s tone is gentle, the kind he only uses for me and Mom.
“What happened?” What if I said something I wasn’t supposed to?
His weak smile isn’t enough to bathe my fears. “I’m sorry, Amica.”
“Sorry for what?” I ask, but his back is already turned to me as he saunters back to Mom. “Sorry for what, Dad?” Everyone falls silent.
His arm laces around my mom’s waist as he finally turns back to me. “For what may come.”
War
It’s been three hours since we’ve come home from the ritual, baring tattoos inked with the ash of our first kill. How fucking convenient for the boy Halen killed to be marked up so badly that none of us could recognize him in the off chance that we did.
The tumbler resting against my mouth swirls with whiskey as the endless glass walls circle the rotunda-style tower. Offering a full three-sixty view of Riverside, it’s a watch tower, but no one is actually here to watch. It’s more of a space away from everyone and everything except for the people in this room.
“You gonna move the tower over to your property?” I ask Priest as he lights the tip of his cigarette.
“Yeah, in a couple months.” He blows out a billow of smoke. “Completion should be in a few weeks.” Lucky bastard. Bishop and Madison have been building Priest’s palace of nightmares since we were in high school. Vaden and I only just approved our plans last year.
It’s not surprising that the tower will be moved to his property, considering it’s burrowed in the mountains of the highest point in Riverside, behind the Castle.
Fitted out with opulence, a neoclassical-style bar centers the room and sets the overall vibe, beside a rustic industrially designed table that’s paired with eight modernized velvet chairs. No rooms, but two king-sized beds on either side, and if that won’t do it, there’s a monster U-shaped sofa. You’re up shit creek with the chesterfield if you miss out on the beds and sofa.
My mind keeps drifting back to the ritual. Bishop was older than Priest when he took the gavel, yet somehow, I know Priest is ready. Even if he isn’t, he’s going to have to be.
“Sit.” Priest gestures to the chairs around the table after rounding the kitchen that’s built into the back of the bar.
After Priest lowers to the head of the table, Halen sits to my right and Vaden falls opposite. River hooks her arm around Vaden as she lowers beside him and opposite Halen, as Stella connects to Halen’s right.
“We can start with what you have been doing for the past five years. Any hidden skeletons that we need to bury?” Priest’s gaze filters through the three of them.
The heat of Halen’s tension burns as the tongue of flames lick the side of my face. Nah. We ain’t doing that.
My chair scrapes against the marble floor when I push back a smidge, just enough to notice the cues when she’s trying to hide some shit.
The muscle in her jaw bounces when I snicker around the hollow curve of my glass. The only woman walking this earth who is close enough to flip my detonate switch.
“We’ll go first.” Air hisses through my teeth when the liquor burns down my throat. “What you saw on Perdita wasn’t the only time we were playing around. Pledges are for our enemies, but we also have recruits. They’re who are offered from families who owe us favors, money, whatever, and can’t pay up in time so they give us a kid—”
Vaden shuffles in his chair.
“Dark.” Stella gazes off into the distance.
River glares at me. “A bit much, don’t you think? Even I have damn boundaries.”
I flip her off. River’s said boundaries are why she and Vaden get on so damn well. I wonder what will happen if—I mean, when—that changes.
“What I was about to say before being interrupted, is that we eventually let them go. We set them up and fuck them off to another connected organization or order.”