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)
“Of where Vade?” Dark shadows form around his face, but he keeps tracking my every curve.
“Of this hell.” The silence of unspoken words pulls between us as he directs me through the maze, picking up speed as hedges zip past me one at a time. Stones stab at my feet as we move through the thick foliage, and every few seconds, blood-curdling screams erupt from the forest behind us.
“What happened to this place?”
Vaden pauses. “Madness.”
My legs ache once we finally reach the entrance to Priest’s. Beacons of light warm the entrance, where a man dressed in all black stands, his face hidden by a balaclava.
“Why are you smirking?” I cross my arms, glaring up at Vaden. “I’ve either had too much to drink last night and this”—I wave my hands around the place, mainly down below where the castle and maze are—“is either all a dream, or you guys have set up while I was asleep some sick twist to the Hunt!”
Vaden’s head tips back with a roar of laughter.
“Not funny…” I complain.
His amusement dies as he steps back into my space, his fingers find the back of my head, pulling me close. “It’s not a dream, and you haven’t lost any time, Lost One.”
“—but.”
He releases me and walks toward the front door. His dark hoodie stretches over the muscles in his back.
“But I don’t remember anything after texting River that I was coming to the party!”
Vaden stops moving. I can’t see from here, but I swear he’s still smirking. Smug bastard.
“That was just last night. Come. You need rest.”
I follow him through the front door, this time looking closer at the guard. His eyes follow as I tread behind Vaden and into the foyer. Silence fills the minimalistic space with the smell of rich leather and sugared spice. The light is low, that same chandelier hanging above me at the entrance, as I step into the open space of velvet couches and secrets.
Vaden pauses on the bottom step that lowers to the living room, finally removing his hoodie and tossing it onto the floor with his mask. Angry red streaks mark his neck, holding me in surprise.
“What happened?” I ask, following his steps.
He turns in a way that puts distance between us. His mouth opens, but as his eyes shift over my shoulder, it slams closed again.
I don’t need to turn to see who it is since that gaping hole is now filled with gasoline, and any second now, I’m sure he’s going to light the match that burns me to ash. I don’t know when the feeling of ice was replaced with fire, but I don’t like it. I prefer the trail of ice.
Priest swipes the blood off his cheek, tossing his shirt and mask onto the sofa. His eyes are swallowed in darkness; his skin is paler than usual. “I need a drink.”
I run the palms of my hands up and down my arms, dread tasting a lot like mud and bone marrow.
“She needs a bath, Priest.” Vaden’s voice cuts through the tension. The muscles in Priest’s back ripple when he stops walking. The tattoo covers every inch of skin on his back in intricate artistic strokes. I can’t make out all of it from here, but I’m sure that’s a skeleton ribcage.
Being nestled between two of the same kind of monster should frighten me more than it does. They’re so similar… yet achingly different. Vaden has always had more humanity, but that wasn’t hard to do, considering Priest has none.
Priest’s blank stare lands on me when he turns over his shoulder. “Then bathe her?” He returns to what he’s doing, filling a glass with whiskey. Priest is like a thousand-page novel written in invisible ink. Everyone assumes he has nothing but blank pages inside, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s what he wants everyone to think. His first mistake was assuming I was like everyone else, all the while I’ve been studying the structure. The spine that binds the pages. Does the rot start there? Or do I need to tear the pages out to find it?
I must have slept through whatever chaos Priest and the Kings have unleashed, but where are the girls? Where is everyone?
Heat covers my upper arm, and I turn in time for my eyes to collide with Vaden’s. One blue and one brown. He is a beautiful monster. So beautiful, but only because of his soul. His soul even, I can feel, is rotting the more that time goes on.
“Come on, Lost One…”
The palm of his hand leaves a trail of warmth down my arm when it slides down, landing in my own.
I don’t like this new version of Vaden. Since coming back, he and I clearly do not share the same bond we once did. That doesn’t bother me. It should, but it doesn’t. What does is the wave of pain emanating from Priest as he stands emotionless in the corner, head bowed and shoulders rippling with the glass of whiskey sitting on the bar between his hands.