Page 60 of Dirty Little Saint

He scoffs and shakes his head. “That’s only what I promised him, so he’d be more motivated. As soon as he grabbed her, I was going to kill him myself.”

“Unfuckingbelievable,” Riot growls. “Maureen is not yours to bargain with. She belongs to us.”

Pisces snickers. “You fucking idiots. Neither of you have any idea what you’re dealing with. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” I roar.

“Calm the fuck down. You, Riot, and Valentin are messing with something that you are too ignorant and immature to understand. She belongs to Nocturnus. To the elders. Not to a silly group of college boys who still walk in their fathers’ shadows.”

I charge forward and push him hard. His eyes widen before they darken into something so sinister it makes my skin crawl. He catches me off guard. The sigils on his neck glow as he takes two steps toward me and shoves me back, sending me flying to the ground. I feel my shoulder crack and dislocate the second I make impact with the hard cement.

I wheeze as I struggle to get air back into my lungs.

He comes at me again, but Riot blocks his path. “Get away from him before I string you up right next to your little bitch boy.”

I take a deep breath and climb to my feet. He’s never laid a hand on me before. Not even when I’ve been at my worst. With a loud grunt, I slam my shoulder into the cavern wall, snapping it back into place.

“We will not hand her over.” I pull out a vial of oleander and drink it down. It numbs some of the pain. “And we will kill anyone who tries to take her from us.” I raise my good arm up and point at Barnaby.

Pisces’s chest heaves as he and Riot remain locked in a match of death stares. “That temptress will be the death of us all. You’ll see. Soon… you’ll be begging me to take her.”

“Get out,” I yell. “Get the fuck out of our house. Get the fuck out of Tenebrose. And take your spies with you, or else I’ll send them back to you in pieces.”

He straightens his tie before slicking back a strand of fallen hair. “I should have had more children because you are a fucking disappointment.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Riot hisses.

I wince at my father’s words. He’s been cold and absent my whole life. But hearing him finally admit it out loud… that I’ve never lived up to his standards… it’s a fucking blow that hurts more than the one he dealt to my body.

“It’s fine. At least now, I know where we stand.”

Pisces snickers. “I’ll show myself out. And yes, I know the way. Despite your earlier efforts to distract me.”

I bite my tongue as we watch him leave. Lines have been crossed, and new ones drawn. We’ve spent our whole lives worshipping our fathers. We put them up on pedestals so high that it went to their heads.

“We can’t trust them anymore,” Riot murmurs.

I nod. “We never should have.”

I pull out my phone and dial Val.

He picks up before the first ring. “How bad is it?”

I close my eyes and pinch the middle of my brow as a headache starts to form. “Do not let her out of your sight.”

He lets out a deep breath. “Understood.”

I hang up and accompany Riot back upstairs. The initiates have gone to bed, and the house is spotless without any hint of a party ever happening. Fuck. What a long fucking night.

“So what’s our next move?” I ask.

Riot rubs my shoulder, soothing it with the power from his healing sigil. “They won’t try anything again for a while. But we stay alert. After the semester is over, we go to Ever Graves and end this feud ourselves.”

The first time I saw our firecracker was in this very room when she came to our first party of the year. She gave me fucking butterflies. I knew she would change everything. I felt it in my bones that night.

“I’m in love with her,” I admit.

Riot nods. “I know. We all are… Sleep with me tonight, Atlas. I don’t want to be alone.”

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