“Bishop! This place is fucking creepy!” Khales ran up behind me, tossing her hair into a high ponytail. “Do you come here often? Is this your secret playground? Is there cake here?”
I chuckled. “Shut up. No, I don’t come here often. I have to run an errand for my dad.”
She looked around the little township in skepticism. “This is an errand?”
I shrugged and pointed to one of the little shops. “There’s cake here.”
Khales eyes lit up, then she grabbed onto my hands and pulled me toward the cake shop. The bell dinged up ahead as we entered. I shook my head. “You’d be too easy to kidnap you know. Just wave some cake and they’ve got you.”
“Ah, but will they keep me, that’s the question…” She winked and skipped the rest of the way to the counter where a glass cabinet displayed all sorts of different cakes cut into delicate slices and sitting on tiny plates. I turned to look outside, a shiver of terror running through my veins, but I was met with people wandering down the dark street, the only light coming from the fairy lights dangling ahead of them. Some were dressed in gym gear, some were in suits and armor. Perdita was an odd place, but it was all these people knew. It looked pretty on the surface, but most of these people weren’t aware what laid below their feet. They lived, thinking that this was the only life available. Generations back, there was a crock of shit cooked up to make them believe there was an apocalypse that wiped out the rest of humanity. They were caged in the town, without a clue. It was really just a well made-up story that started generations ago, all for what? Power. Power, money, respect, and order.
“Here!” Khales handed me a piece of vanilla cake, but I shook my head.
“I’m good.”
“Oh, come on, B. You need to loosen up a little. You’re too tense all the time, but I get it, I mean, what...” Her voice died out in the distance as we walked out of the cake shop. People moved and parted like the red sea whenever I was here. They knew who I was, but they didn’t know where I came from. Their knowledge was very limited when it came to Perdita, and they all spoke fluent Latin. No one knew English. As far as they were concerned, English was a dead language. I continued to walk down the main strip with Khales still venting beside me. I snarled at a passerby and bit at her with a grin on my face. She screamed and ran off, ushering her child away from me. I was the monster that lived under her bed.
“B! That was mean,” Khales giggle-snorted, grabbing my hand.
I pulled away from her grip.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, what, so we can fuck, but I can’t hold your hand?”
“We fuck, Khales. We’re friends who fuck, we’re not friends who hold hands.”
She grumbled something under her breath that sounded like “asshole” just as we reached the entry to hell aka Regiis.
That was the last time I took her anywhere. Fuck she was annoying. Yanking open Madison’s door, I gestured for her to get out, but she remained frozen in her seat, her eyes going up to the building in front of us. I couldn’t blame her, the first time I saw Perdita I was all of five years old and it looked the same scary now as it did through the eyes of a five-year-old boy.
“Babe, come on.”
She slowly gathered her wits and slid out of the truck. I wasn’t sure exactly what we were walking into, but I knew whatever it was, unless the island had really turned to shit, we were safe. The Kings were royalty, and the Lost Boys were the shit on the bottom of our shoe. The reason for our safety was the same reason for my apprehension, though. They had a lot of reasons to hate us, under all their loyalty. There was one other thing that was floating around in my head. Tillie.
Pulling Madison under my arm, we met the rest of the boys in the center, and then I let my eyes come up to the main building on Perdita. The island itself was natural. With bushlands and wildflowers growing through the soil, and animals that were only found on this island, it was exotic, foreign and protected. It simmered behind the fog and mist of whatever you thought you knew about not only our world but our country. Right at the center of Perdita was where the township resided. Where we stood, there was the entry building which was armed with guards and led you into the township. The reason why the island remained for the most part untouched was because The Lost Boys and Katsia’s army remained behind the one-hundred-foot brick wall which circled around their entire township. The entry, which was where we were standing in front of, was built by the same stone. Milky white marble with streaks of black slicked through in intricate patterns. The stone was called de regno diabolic, which in English translated to The Devil’s Kingdom.
“What the hell is this place?” Tatum whispered, walking to the other side of Madison.
“Hell, that’s what,” Nate muttered, flipping his cap backward and putting a J into his mouth.
I walked up the thick, long stairs that lead to two heavy metal doors. Reaching for the white button that was strangely put in the center of the door, I pressed it, then waited.
And waited.
I don’t like waiting.
I turned back around to see Madison walking up the steps with the rest following her. Exhaling, I rested my head on the door, waiting. A loud lock slid across from the other side of the door, vibrating my head. I shot up and spun around. The door cranked open wider.
“Boys.”
Madison gasped. “Mrs. Winters?”
She grinned, then her eyes came directly to me. “I heard my niece is back from the dead?” Her eyebrow rose. Fucking Khales.
“Your niece is a whore.” I shoved the door open and walked closer to her, only her guard who was dressed in steel armor (like he had just walked off the set of a Game of Thrones episode) put himself between both of us.
“Aw.” I tilted my head at the man in armor. I could see the bead of sweat coming down the center of his forehead between his eyebrows. “Tinker, why don’t you tell your Peter to move his shit before I snap his neck.” I ended my threat with a small smile and a wink.
She rolled her eyes, pushing him away. “He’s not my Peter, you and I both know who that is.” She gestured, the door opened farther. “Well, come on then. We were expecting you to come, just weren’t sure when.”
I walked farther in without looking back, my hand flew out behind myself and caught Madison’s. I pulled her behind my back protectively. Tinker gave me a look. “B, you kn—”
“—Shut the fuck up, Tinker,” Jase sneered at her. Instantly her mouth slammed shut. She pushed her glasses up her nose, straightening her shoulders. Good to know Jase still owns that shit.
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Some shit will just never change.”
“That’s a bit rich…” she started, and I swung around, eyebrows raised.
“What’s that?”
She shut the door in a huff and then gestured out with her hand. “Well, come on then.” We walked through the old building and out onto the township.
Madison’s eyes were flying around everywhere. “Wow. It’s really, beautiful in here.”
“Don’t let this shit fool you,” Hunter grunted, walking past us and taking the lead behind Tinker.
“He’s right.” We began following Tinker down the steps and into the small township. There were small stores lined on every side of the main street which was lined with lilac daisies and black roses. Each store had their own signage out the front. Weapons. One read, with the next, Food, and the next, medical supplies, hospital, gym, as we walked past each one, Madison noticed how there were no people wandering around.
I watched as her head turned to me out of the corner of my eye.
“It’s daylight. Everything is backward here. They’re nocturnal. Sleep during the day, and work, shop, everyday shit we do during the night.”
“So strange.” Her interest grew the farther we went in. Slowly, the purple flowers began to sink into the dark roses until there was no more color. We reached the end of the main street and the stone had come back, leading upstairs that once again, brought you to two heavy metal doors.
Madison turned around with Tatum copying her. “What? Is that it?”
Tinker pressed the button on the door. “No. And girls, if you want to live, I would watch your words beyond this door.”
My eyes cut to Tinker. “Threaten them again and I’ll slice your fucking neck like I did your mother. Open the fucking door. I’m done playing games, Tinker.”
Madison stilled beside me, her hand squeezing mine instantly. The gesture in itself was cute, but I wasn’t mad or raging. I hardly ever lost my cool, which was exactly why I was where I was.
Tinker’s face flushed. “Sorry.” She opened the door out onto the stone floor and lobby to what looked like a normal mansion home entry. Only it wasn’t a normal home. Soft piano music was whispering through the air, and I pushed Madison back, walking in first. Nate was behind me, and then Jase, Hunter, Saint, and whoever else followed. Madison was second to last, sandwiched between Eli and Cash.
“Well, well, well, to what do I owe the pleasure of having the elite in my home?” Katsia came walking down the spiral stairs in nothing but a white silk robe, displaying her black lace panties and bra. Her hair was messed up and falling over her shoulders. She had a glass of scotch dangling from her hand. Running her fingers through her hair to push it out of her face, her eyes raked down my body.
“You’re growing well, B.” She licked her lips and then curled her finger. “Come on, we can talk in the sitting room. You woke me.”
“We woke you?” I rose an eyebrow.
She bit her lip, flashing me a grin over her shoulder. “Well, sort of.” The story of Katsia was a complicated one. Katsia Stuprum. In English, she was Seduction. She oozed sex, even when she wasn’t trying. There were rumors that said she would do things to the Lost Boys, and I wasn’t sure how much of that was true, but Katsia being Katsia, I was sure the boys would be fighting to get into her bed.
She had fucked all of the Kings in our generation and everyone in Jase and Saints generation - bar one, too, but not me. Not from lack of trying on her part, because she had, but she wasn’t my type, and I don’t mean the age. I mean just the her.
She pushed open doors that were at the end of the corridor and they spread out onto a sitting room that looked the size of a basketball court. There was a large gas fire lit and sitting in the middle of the vast space with lazy boys scattered out of order. There was a large U-shaped sofa that faced one cosmic floor to ceiling window. It gave you a direct view to the ocean. The white silica-like sand was immediately right there, and the pearl crystal ocean was crashing against the untouched rocks.
“Jesus,” Tate exhaled, nudging Madison.
I took a seat on the sofa and pulled Madison down beside me. There was a large white leather hand-shaped chair which was opposite us, where Katsia took a seat, with two armored guards standing on either side of her. She crossed her legs, smirked, and then took a sip of her drink. “Good to see you again, Madison. Not surprised but slightly disappointed that you’re still alive.”
Madison didn’t reply, she remained impassive as her arm brushed against mine. I leaned back on the couch, allowing my arm to go over the edge of it, pulling her into me more.
“What’s going on, Katsia? Why the fuck am I getting phone calls?”
She cleared her throat, resting her glass on her knee. “Who do I have to fuck to get out of this?”
“You can’t fuck your way out of this one. You have someone who is one of our own.”
Her eyes came to mine, and behind the seductive glare, I saw a stroke of annoyance. Good. I want her angry because that’s the only way to get truth out of Katsia.
“He is not yours, he is mine.” Her eyes finally rested on Madison where she dropped her stare to icy levels. “Blood or no blood, make no mistake, he is mine.”
Madison shuffled in her seat. “Um, so I’m confused, are you talking about my brother? Because if you are, trust me, he’s all yours, but I just want to make sure he’s safe.”
Katsia’s eyes slowly rolled, her smile coming back to her face. “As safe as he’ll ever be.” Then she looked at me. “But that’s not speaking for all.”
Fuck.