Page 2 of Twisted Kings

“Yeah, but that was her plan,” Lan insisted. “So presumably something went wrong. I dunno. Maybe she didn’t have time? Or maybe she got too distracted by my dick?” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. She’s not who we thought she was, so she’s dead to us.”

“Ormaybethe guy in the clip coerced her to do it,” Kyril snapped, glaring at Landon.

So Kyril believed she was a victim. That was interesting. Of the two of them, I’d have assumed Landon would take Thea’s side.

“I need to hear this audio,” I declared. It could be fake. There was enough technology available to cobble together voice recordings and use AI to turn them into a fake conversation. Were these idiots so naïve as to take a recording on a phone at face value? “It might not even be real.”

“So you’re saying Dario faked it?”

“Dario? What does he have to do with this?”

“Dario was the one who played the audio.”

The plot thickened. Knowing how much he hated Thea, it was highly likely the file was fake, and even if it wasn’t, I wanted to know why he even had such a file.

But none of that mattered right now. Finding Thea was my priority.

“Where is she?” I asked again, squaring my shoulders.

“I don’t know,” Landon admitted. “She disappeared when we evacuated the main hall.”

“And you’ve not bothered looking for her?” I stared at him, silently wishing I had Kyril’s violent nature because right now, punching Lan in the face felt like an excellent use of my time.

“She’s most likely with Eden,” Lan muttered, refusing to meet my eye. He kept staring at his phone like it held the answers to the universe’s problems.

A flash of pink hair caught my attention and then a small but determined figure came hurtling over.

“Really?” I drawled sarcastically before Eden unleashed fury on us.

“What the FUCK have you done with my friend?” she screamed at Landon.

“Back off,” he huffed, moving out of her way.

“She’s not with you?” Panic flared in Kyril’s eyes.

Eden huffed irritably. “Ooh, let me check.” I watched as she opened her purse, scanned the contents, and then threw a venomous look at Kyril. “Nope. Apparently not.”

For once, Kyril didn’t bite back at her show of sass.

“She might have gone back to her room,” I concluded. If I was her, that’s where I’d have gone.

Thea’s room door stood ajar when we reached it. Just as I was about to step inside, Kryil stopped me.

“Let me go in there first,” he said in a low voice.

The inference I was too weak to handle any threats we might face irritated me, but I decided that yes, he was better equipped to fend off any murderous assailants.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Eden shoved her way past the both of us. “Bunch of pussies,” she scoffed. Kyril growled and squeezed his bulky frame into Thea’s small room after her.

We all took in the chair lying upended and the broken glass everywhere, and concluded something had happened.

Once again, panic mushroomed too fast to swallow it down. My breathing grew erratic and sweat beaded across my brow. The temperature in here was glacial, but in my panicked state of mind, the room felt boiling.

I couldn’t catch a breath and even my usual exercises didn’t help.

Then I felt a small hand on my arm. Eden stared up at me with concern.

“Milo, it’s OK. Thea is a complete badass. Whatever’s happened, she can handle it.”

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