Page 122 of Priest and his Anarchist

“Hello, lover.” The energy in the room grows tense.

Silence. Pure silence as she shifts her tiny weight around the place.

Her eyes land on mine and I squeeze my fist tight to gain control. Control that I’ve never had. “Do you like my dress?”

Even when I look back at her in this moment, I know. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she’s wrong. Luna isn’t dead. There’s no way she can put down a girl with crimson in her blood, no matter how tough she thinks she is. There’s no way that Luna could be taken out by this. This…whatever she is.

It hits me. I never loved this girl. It took being around Luna to realize it. Being around Luna kept me on edge. It was sickening, up and down. It was the animalistic urge to protect, take care of, be gentle…love—fuck.

I shoot back my whiskey. I’m not a sociopath. I just need her.

She lowers herself at the end of the table, directly opposite me. It’s long and far, enough to sit fifteen people, but with most of us here, there’s an obvious space between me and…her.

“So.” She claps as the first waitress enters behind her, placing crisped carved meat onto her plate with a trembling hand. Her face is pale, the rings around her eyes dark.

It’s not until she turns to leave that I blood drips down her cheek. Layers of her skin are peeled back, exposing her cheekbone. Blood fills the fat in her muscle before her knees buckle and she slowly crumples to the floor. Plates crash with her, but no one moves. Not an inch.

She shifts forward, biting into the slice of ham while discarding the dead waitress bleeding out on the floor.

“Oops.”

“Oops?” I chuckle, my brows lifting. “The fuck you meanoops?” The more time that passes, the more I’m asking myself what I saw in her.

Her chewing slows as her eyes rest on mine. In this moment, we’re back to that time I led her through the maze while Halenand War tried to find us. Did she remember? Or had she forgotten?

“Okay, I can’t lie, I’m somewhat impressed by your creativity, but here’s the thing…” Stella eases in. She had an uncanny ability to hold a room’s conversation, whether that be by her looks or her charm. Or…her intelligence.

Everyone takes one look at Stella and thinks shallow. A girl who looks like that has never needed to be anything more than hot to get what she wants. So our Stella learned every word in the dictionary before age ten and sits the LSATs for shits and giggles when she’s bored. Her IQ is off the charts. She’s a total waste doing what she’s doing, we all know it.

I need to bring her into The Echelon of the Fallen. She’s wasted not being there. I’d have to figure out a way to have Archer Thorn tolerate her for longer than his patience allows, since she’s a walking nightmare for him.

“It’s too, hmmm…” Stella pretends to think over her words, clicking her fingers together when they don’t come to her. They do. She knew the word she wanted to use and all fifteen of the synonyms before we took our next breath.

“Predictable?” her brother finishes, and Stella’s eyes light up. That’s saying something since Stella’s everything never lights up.

She stabs a fork into meat, chewing slowly. “Predictable.”

My phone vibrates, and I roll my eyes when Eli’s name flashes over the screen. My chair scrapes against the ground as I swipe it unlocked, heading toward the patio. I thought I could exist in this house after Luna got back. Maybe find some reverence for what happened. Turns out all it is, is a reminder of what I lost.

I should have stayed in the Castle.

“Priest, I’m all for allowing you to handle business as you see fit, but if you don’t tell me where my daughter is, that gavel is the last thing you should be worried about.”

I’d stood in this exact place many times over the years and felt a sense of peace. The ocean was infinite. Expendable. Unforgiving. Tonight, everything would change.

“She’s gone.”

The line goes dead.

“Priest…” Nate’s voice interrupts my thoughts, and I turn over my shoulder to see him drawing closer. “It’s time we have this chat.”

My thumb grazes my lip. “She’s gone. All this time, we were careful. Did things to accommodate her the second we knew what she suffered with.”

“I know.” Nate doesn’t tiptoe around shit. It comes out quickly, like a slap in the face. He wanted it to be that way. “The question is, is are you going to fight for her?”

“I don’t know.” Fog fills my brain. “I don’t know what I want anymore or what’s left or right. All I know—” I look down at my hands, the pulse thumping beneath the surface. “Is to kill. Everyone.”

Nate’s arm brushes mine when he joins me on the patio. “I never talk about this, but I had another daughter once. She was the most perfect little girl I’d ever seen. Had a smile that could soften even you—” He pauses, side-eyeing me.

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