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)
The muscles in his jaw tighten, and his eyes return to their vacant harness. The exact kind that resides in there when he realizes she’s not with us.
“Priest, how could you…”
My head snaps to the side, where a girl sits with her knees pressed to her chest and her blonde hair pinned up in a high pony. She has a natural gold tint to her skin, and when she swipes the tears from below her eyes and sniffs, bright blue eyes the color of the ocean collide with mine. “I told you she needed me, and you couldn’t! You just couldn’t allow her to need anyone that isn’t you!”
Her eyes fly to mine, and the look of sadness is replaced with something familiar with hate. “I wouldn’t look too close.” The corner of her lip curls. “Or I’ll be inclined to carve poetry into your flesh by the bone of your teeth.”
My brow curves. Impressive. “Nice.”
She shoves the blanket that’s on her lap off and stomps off through the opening to the other side of the house.
“What is this place, anyway?” I ask, jumping down from the table and dancing my way to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Too many trees. Too many…plants. Everything will die, die, die.
“Ick…” I turn, only to see all faces looking directly at me. I start counting. “One, two, three, four, five, six—” My head tilts when I see someone new and big near the other side of the table. Deep-brown skin, dark hair, light eyes, and a scar that runs directly across his neck.
“Oh, someone failed?” I tsk, shaking my finger. “I must say…” Sliding on top of the sofa, my feet dangle over the edge as I trace the rugged scar. “Priest would not miss.” I clap my hands together. “But anyway! While we’re here, could someone fill me in on Luna and the person she was? I mean, to have Priest, the Mad Prince fall in love with her, she must be someone special.”
“Jesus, you’re dumb as fuck.” The only other girl left laughs in her drink. She has long brown hair, green eyes, and looks way too similar to Priest to not be related.
Ah! The twin!
“—Halen…” the boy beside her growls, keeping his eyes pointed on me like a loaded weapon.
“Gosh…” I murmur, making my way to the fireplace where a range of photos are framed. “You guys think I’ll hurt you, huh? Scared of little old me?”
“Little old you?” the same girl snaps, and I smirk, running my finger down the glass of a photo that was taken somewhere in a car.
I thought it might have been old, until I realize Luna is in it with the other girls here tonight. She’s wearing a jacket far too big to not be Priest’s, and she smiles widely at the camera. A face so symmetrical and perfect. Her hair is braided on either side, with two smaller bows on both ends.
I roll my eyes. Pathetic cunt of a woman she was. I’m glad she’s dead. Now it’s as it should be, with Priest and I together forever until the end of time. I am not going to skip through the madness, I am going to eradicate it.
“Little old you destroyed everything.” His voice is getting closer, and my smile is wide, despite the ache in my back. “Little old you took everything from not just me, but everyone.” Another step. “Little old you, is capable of anything.”
I turn as the sharp edge of his knife rests against my neck, batting my lashes up at him, unfazed. “And still such a shame that you can’t kill little old me.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
luna
Love is just a feeling, and like hunger, it’ll disappear once it’s fed.
In the room, there was a couch.
On that couch there was a man.
On that man was a—was a—
Heat flushes through my body as sweat trickles down the side of my temple.
There was a man and a girl. The girl was so familiar to the touch, she looked like me.
He touched her in places, fed her himself and slid between her legs until blood trickled from between her thighs. She cried. Cried, cried, cried, but the tunnels knew of nothing but pain, so they watched and laughed.
My throat burns as if I’ve swallowed a million razor blades. Someone’s screaming. God, someone help her…
My eyes pop open and the scream makes my ears bleed, and it’s then that I realize the person who is screaming is me. The dreams roll like a reel of nightmares, and each time I wake, I fall into another.
Make it stop.
“Tsk, Tsk…”
I fall backward, stones biting into the palm of my hand. I’m here. In Del Morts. Safe.
“You’ve failed.”
What? How! “I’m the best this place has ever seen and you damn well know it!” The words from Nate are crushing.
—wait. Dreams. This isn’t real.