I sucked in a breath and shot from the sofa. Nate’s arm snatched out to me, his fingers grabbing mine. “Madison, it’s not exactly as she—”
I shook my head, my eyes going to my mom. “I don’t even care anymore. Regardless of whatever this bullshit life is.” I swiped the tears away from my eyes, my heart aching in my chest. I was a fucking pity bitch. “It doesn’t matter because I’m used to it.” I glanced at my dad. “Why did you bring me back here? You knew the risk.”
“I love you Madison.” His hands dove into his pockets. “But I have an obligation to this life. I hated it, hated it so bad that I couldn’t be here to watch it unfold.” He sighed, massaging his head. “I quickly recognized the look in Bishop’s eyes. It was obvious his feelings were real, and then I witnessed the way you were with Nate and the rest of the Kings. I knew that something was about to change.”
I was speechless. The words I wanted to scream were caged in my mouth, leaving me parched and pleading for air.
My dad stood and pointed to the door. “Get the fuck out of my house, Elizabeth, and don’t ever come home.” I didn’t entirely understand why he was upset with her because he must’ve played a part in her faking her death, but whatever, I no longer cared.
I marched up to my room, dialed Tatum and sunk into my bed.
“I hate my life.”
“What?” she asked groggily. I must’ve woken her. “I’ll be there in a few.”
“You don’t have to,” I choked out, struggling to contain my pain.
“Fuck,” she cussed, then the line cut out. Dropping my arm to the side of my bed, I let the tears silently run down my face. My life was so messed up. Just when I thought I had something good going, something else was thrown from the left field. My chest tightened every time I thought of how stuck with me Bishop had been, and how he said his dad was one of the main reasons why I wasn’t killed. It all made stupid sense now and I hated it. I wished I was back to not knowing anything. There’s a light knock on my door.
“Mads, it’s me.”
I slid off my bed and opened the door for Tate, then shut, locked, and sunk back to my bed, wiping my tears angrily.
Once the blurs had disappeared, I pointed to the bags in her hands. “Whatcha got there?”
She held up the bags, and it was when I realized she was wearing her cotton pajama pants with little unicorns on them. Fluffy slippers covered her feet, and her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. I smiled, grateful, once again, for my best friend. She jumped onto my bed, took my phone from me and turned it off, and then snuggled into the covers.
“This is everything we need for at least a couple days. Thank fuck for summer break, or else imagine having to go to school. It’s Monday tomorrow, by the way.” She gestured at my clothes. “In case you’ve forgotten the day just like you obviously have the shower.”
“Tate!” I scolded her through a laugh.
She shrugged. “What?”
I dug into the bag and took out a bag of potato chips. “I found out some shit tonight.” She didn’t say a word, just sat with a tub of ice cream resting on her thighs as I yapped away. At the end of my rant, she handed me the ice cream and went back to digging into the bag.
“Thoughts?” I was worried. Usually, Tatum had a lot to say. Had I broken my best friend? That was it, she finally had had enough of my crazy life. She pulled out a spliff, and put it into her mouth, lighting it up.
“Tate!” I looked at the door. Usually, I would care, but we were on the other side of the house, and anyway, my dad probably wouldn’t care. I mean, you can’t not bat your eyelashes at murder but scold me for smoking weed.
I took it from her and inhaled. I hadn’t smoked since we were out in the forest.
Tate lay back on the bed. “And you and Bishop?”
I shrugged, handing it back to her. “I don’t know. I got him a present for his birthday, though.”
“Lemme see it! When’s his party?” she asked, sucking on the smoke.
“Tonight.”
“Then we go and fuck shit up.”
I nodded. “We go and fuck shit up.”
I stretched my arms wide, feeling a little better than last night.
Tatum’s ass pressed into me. “Quit it, you know how I get morning horny.”
I chuckled, swinging my legs off the bed. “I don’t forget. What do you feel like doing today?”
“Mmmm.” She pressed her index finger to her cheek. “Avoiding the guys is one, but other than that, whatever you want to do.”
Her mentioning the guys had me slowly drifting back to reality. I was… hell, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt. I guessed I felt betrayed. None of them thought to mention this to me earlier, which is what hurt. If it never played a big part in Bishop being with me all those times, and us being, well, us, then why didn’t he tell me? I slipped into the closet and pulled down my bikini.
“I really want to go shooting. Maybe go back to the place where I met Katsia.”
“Nope,” Tate muttered, getting out of bed. “That’s way too heavy for today. We can do that next week. Today?” She pulled out a little red bikini from her bag. “We lounge by the pool and day drink.”
“We can’t get day drunk, Tate, we have a party to crash tonight.”
“Shit.” She massaged her temples as though she had just remembered. “Okay fine. She stripped naked and slipped on the tiny little… bikini? Looked more like a hoochie outfit for a Mardi Gras. “We start drinking at a more appropriate time, and we go slow, start with cider, and then we hit it hard before we roll up.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I like this plan.” Then I took out my white bikini. We were heading downstairs just as Nate was coming out of his room.
“Hey!” he snapped, but I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. “Madison!” he repeated. “You can’t ignore me forever.” I flipped him off over my shoulder, going into the kitchen.
“We can skip food,” Tatum says, pulling her oversized glasses down over her eyes.
“Speak for yourself,” I muttered, reaching for the bowls and pouring some of Jimmy’s famous homemade granola in. Best. Ever. I headed out the kitchen doors, the sun kissing my skin instantly.
I inhaled the fresh morning air. “Today is going to be great.”
“It better,” Tate whisked. “I need to get laid, stat!”
I chuckled, wiping my mouth and taking a seat on one of the lounge chairs. “What’s happening with you and Nate?” I was sort of rooting for them in the beginning, but I had witnessed how Nate was with Tillie to how he was with Tatum. There was no denying he was only using Tate, but Tate was starting to catch feelings. With Tillie disappearing for the past months, Tate and Nate managed to come to an agreement, but nothing else has happened between them after their little “talk.” Nate probably got cold feet.
“Don’t make me laugh. I’m not working out my abs today.”
I snorted, my head tilting back. “We will get you laid tonight. Have you seen Bishop’s cousin, Justin? He’s not bad at all.”
“We have different types.” She gestured to me with her free hand as her other rubbed oil over her leg.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, I think you’ll like him.” I placed my empty bowl on the ground and hit play on the sound dock. “Everybody’s fool” by Evanescence starts playing, and I lay on my back, letting the sun seep into my pores.
* * *
“Mads!” Someone was shoving me in the arm, my eyes slowly peeled opening to the bright sun. I raised my head up to see Tatum passing me a J. “It’s two P.M, you slept most of the day away. I thought about waking you but thought better of it. What’d you do this weekend to warrant such lengthy sleepy time?” She stood up and dived into the pool.
“Jesus, I don’t know, get absolutely wrecked by trying to save Bishop, and then ended up getting this.” I pointed to the tattoo that was over my ribs.
Tatum swiped the water off her face and started laughing. “Girl, you are owned.”
I shrugged. “His is bigger, and he has two.”
“He has two?” She quirked her eyebrow, pushing herself up and out of the pool.
I nodded and then chuckled. I thought I was wide awake before, but that has nothing on how I’m feeling right now. Tatum dipped behind the little Bahama hut bar we had tucked away at the side of the pool and grabbed out some bottles. “Your dad and Elena are gone, Nate is gone, it’s just us and these poor, innocent bottles of wine.”
I bit my lip. “Hand it over.”
She gasped. “No way, we’re at least going to be classy about this.”
“When are we ever classy?”
She paused, pondered over it for a few beats, and then nodded. “Good point, but, I do want to try my hand at some of these cocktails I saw on Pinterest.” Oh no, Tate and her Pinterest addiction.
“Fine.” I walked to the edge of the pool and dove into the cool water, pushing off the hard floor and coming out the surface. “Just make sure mine is strong!” She started dancing, and shaking, and then dancing more, and changing songs. Tatum moved at speeds that made my head spin. I dried off, straightening my tits in my bikini and headed back to her.
Sinking the first cocktail she had made, I moaned at the taste of silk sliding down my throat. “Damn, that was so delicious. What was it?”
“It was a milky way, be careful, that shit has enough liquor in it to put you on your ass.” She made another one, and then we went back to the lounge chairs, cranking the music higher.
“You know” —she waggled her eyebrows at me— “I think you should talk with him, maybe a little later.”
I shrugged. “I will, just not right now. Right now, I want to be a little angry at them.”
She lifted her glass. “I’ll drink to that.” Tate pulled out her phone, and she shuffled closer to me for a selfie. I pulled my tongue out and crossed my eyes, pulling a silly face as she pouted her lips. She uploaded with a grin on her face.
“What was your caption?”
Tate was famous for her captions. They were either extremely dry or over the top. There was no in between, but either way, they always managed to make people laugh. I wasn’t that active on Facebook or any social media. I had only just started using Snapchat, and even then, I almost always forgot to upload photos and videos.
“Beauty and the Beast have all the treats, with a little cocktail emoji.”
I cracked up, clutching my tummy. “You’re a dork.”
She shrugged. “Maybs, but you love me anyway.”
She was right, I did.
Around four cocktails later, we both began climbing up the stairs. We weren’t wasted, but you could definitely notice that we were under the influence. I think. No, I felt fabulous. Laughing about something Tatum had said, we stumbled into my bedroom. “I need something to wear. Something I know will drive Bishop crazy.”
“Girl, do you like seeing him mad? The man is lethal, I wouldn’t be poking the tiger.”
“Actually, I sort of do, but I am mad at him. I need… answers. I just need answers.”
She sighed. “I don’t blame you.” Pulling out some clothes she brought with her. After getting frustrated with my average closet, I turned in a huff, my eyes falling on the see-through mesh long sleeve dress she was holding.
“What is that?” I pointed to it. It was probably one of the most scandalous things I had ever seen, which meant I had found my outfit.
She threw it at me. “You’re to wear like, a tank or something underneath,” she mumbled, but I was diving into my closet, pulling out a little black lace bra. It had straps that lined over my breast skin and was all held together by lace and scandal. I wiggled on the spot with glee. Oh, this was perfect. Then I paused. What the actual fuck was I going to wear as pants. I couldn’t go in underwear, I didn’t want to get killed, so I took out tight little leather boy shorts from my top drawer.
“Are these yours?” I dangled them in front of her face.
“There they are!” She went to launch for them, but I snatched them into my chest.
“I’m wearing them tonight.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, taking out a white dress. “I’ll wear this.”
“Good idea,” I nodded, heading to the bathroom. “You look good in white.” I’m setting everything on the counter when Nate’s side opens. Ignoring him because I’m used to doing so, I unclasped my bikini while holding my breasts from his view.
“What?” I snapped.
“Are you coming to the party?”
“Yes,” I hissed, reaching for the faucet and turning it on.
“You can both come with me, and have you heard from Bishop?”
I shook my head. “No. I haven’t checked my phone, though.”
Nate glared at me, and I quickly slipped under the pelting hot water. “Anything else?” I called out, annoyed at his presence.
The door slamming was all I got as a reply.
Daemon
One two three four five six…six…six…
“Shush!” I roared to the internal battles inside of my head. Creeping down the dark and gloomy corridors, I pressed the palm of my hand against the damp concrete wall, my head tilting at the sounds.
Deep breathing was coming from one of the rooms. One of the many rooms in this quarter. The island was separated by quarters, each functioned by your importance to the Elites and your lineage. This was the royal quarter, also known as the Regiis quarter. Then there was the Secundus quarter, Tertium quarter, and finally, the Nihil quarter. Each faction was eloquently designed for their cause. The royal quarter was exactly as it was. I inched farther, closer to the white door where the sounds were coming out from and pressed my ear to the frosted wood.
Deep breathing was coming again, and then a faint scream.
“That’s it, keep going. You can do it. Push.” The door swung open and Jaysena, one of the nurses on the island was staring back at me.
“Sir.” She bowed. “Are you ok?” Her head remained dipped, her eyes searching the floor. So timid. So docile. So “Kill her, I’m sick of seeing her face.”
‘Shut up,’ I shouted in my head, my strength at keeping the voices under control getting better.
“Fine. What is happening?” She got what I was trying to say, and gestured wide, allowing me to see inside the room.
“A Swan, my lord.”
I tilted my head, and a girl with pink hair that hung down to the dip in her waist was crouched, hugging a baby wrapped in a blanket. Her eyes came to mine, and she whispered, “Please, don’t say anything yet. I’m best friends with your sister, my name is Tillie.”