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)
“I want to say around the time that she came back for the ritual. She made a deal with them. A favor. They’re trying to chase this same person, and used her as a way to help that, knowing her background.”
I stare off into the distance. Since I was a young boy, I didn’t have to balance two lives. I thought I’d reign well because nothing would ever mean as much to me as the EKC.
Turns out. I was wrong.
“It’s time everyone knows.”
I gaze back at the old painting hanging on the Watch Tower wall. I knew that this was coming, either way, I just figured that I’d have more time to gather everything, learn about it, and at the very fucking least, clean house.
“Must be bad…” Halen’s eyes widen at me when she lowers to her chair before the rest follow suit. Dad, Nate, and Brantley are in separate areas of the room, with Pop not far from my shoulder.
“Before I start, you all need to know that I don’t give a fuck what you think about the decisions that I’ve made. I don’t do shit for your approval; I do things to continue our legacy and to keep us exactly where we belong. On top. So before you think of opening your mouth and complaining about my lack of moral compass, know that I don’t give a fuck, and I simply don’t have one. Moving on…” I flick the ash off the end of my cigarette, watching when the burning ember swallows the trunk. “I know about the favor you made with Luna before I took the gavel.” I don’t bother looking up at my father. “I don’t see what you did as a betrayal, nor am I mad that you did it. You had the gavel and made the choices, which I respect. So now you’re going to do the same for me.”
Dad’s leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window. He nods.
“Why did you willingly drop her into the tunnels?”
Dad works his finger and thumb. “Because she was the only one who had a foot in that world and, for lack of a better statement, that was our way to penetrate yet another organization without putting our entire foot into it.”
I stay silent, blinking. The picture directly opposite me is my favorite: a charcoal swirl of shadows and lilac. It reminds me of a simpler time, a time when none of this mattered.
“Interesting. And you didn’t think it was dangerous for her?” Even as the words pass through my throat, my fist clenches, and the veins in my neck hammer against my flesh.
“Which brings me to my next confession…” Nate adds. “Perdita and the tent.”
I choke on my laugh. “Slick. I’ve got to say, I wasn’t shocked that you took her back and dropped her in the one place where you knew she couldn’t be touched by me.”
Perdita has a rule and the only rule that’s ever mattered. Our people are safe there for a reason. The island works because we have rules, and we’ve always stuck by them. One of them, and the main one, which is why the island exists the way it does, is that a King cannot hurt another King. It’s why they’re all still alive.
Lost Boys? Not Kings.
The Prisoners? Mostly not Kings…
“She wasn’t just running the entertainment.”
My eyes fly to him. Any second, the cigarette would swallow my finger, but I didn’t care. I wait. Like a lion does his food.
“She was below deck.”
I already knew this.
“Helping Vaden through level two.”
“You what?”
My eyes bounce around the table before landing on Vaden. “Ah, I see…makes sense now.”
“You weren’t holding the gavel when it happened, and the conversation never came up. If it had, I would have told you. You know how it goes.”
I slowly lower back down to my chair, eyes remaining on Vaden. “Yeah. I do.” Heat rushes in my ears, and I slowly close my eyes, taking a moment to rein in what I’m guessing is rage. Undiluted rage. Not because Vaden held something from me, because that came with the territory, and as he said, I didn’t have the gavel at that time, which meant he had to take orders from my father, but because of her.
Because she was below deck. Which only means one thing…
“She’s a trained killer.”
Nate holds my stare. “The very best we’ve seen.”
“That should surprise me, but it doesn’t,” Halen murmurs, leaning back against her chair.
Her training in Del Morts isn’t a secret. The girl has throwing stars harnessed around her thighs. No one talks about what happens beneath the surface of Perdita for a reason. Because nothing good ever happens there.
“Wait, but the prisoners under there are the worst. How’d that go?”
Brantley’s voice filters through the tense space. “She played poker with them on Sundays. What can we say…she’s charming like her father and deadly like her mother.”