Page 124 of Priest and his Anarchist

With her face paling and her lip trembling, tears slip when her eyes meet mine.Fuck.

I catch her in my arms when her legs give way. “Hey!” My fingers weave through her hair before I force her face to mine by the back of her neck. “We’re gonna figure this out.”

Footsteps pound outside the door and I spin around, pushing her body behind mine. She’d created more than enough enemies this round.

“You—“my jaw snaps closed, all softness gone. Evaporated.

“Save me, Priest…” she whispers, eyes wide and her lip trembling. It almost worked. “Please.”

My hand flies to her throat, forcing her against the wall so hard her head bounces. Life drains from her as her pupils dilate and the corner of her mouth curves up in a smirk.

“Well hello,Rabbit.”

I snarl, teeth bared. “How fucking long?”

“Oh…I don’t know.” She flicks the blood from beneath her nails, shrugging. “Maybe a few minutes?”

I throw her to the side, the annoyance grating on my last nerve. She moves around me like one would an exhibitionist.

“Or have I?” She blinks. “Maybe it was days…months…maybe it’s even beenyearssince Luna first came back into your life? Or maybe Luna isn’t real, and it’s all been an act on my part?”

She bats her lashes and tilts her head. “The tragedy of the Mad Prince falling in love with a girl who isn’t real.” Silence as she finally stands in front of me. “I think Slipknot wrote a song about that once. Ver…” She pretends to ponder before clicking her fingers. “Vermilion!”

“Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wanted you and not her, and if that was the case?” I snap my teeth in her face and she jumps. “You wouldn’t have taken so long to reappear.”

She nestles into the crook of my neck. “So you did miss me?”

I search her eyes when she peers up at me from below, so frantic and lost. The pain she’s always felt is too much. Too slow. Like a decaying body with years to live, it took its time with her. Ready to ease her into her coffin with carefully constructed steps.

“I knew you loved me,” She teases, dampening her bottom lip.

The footsteps return behind me, and she tilts to the side to address them. “But I know how you feel about me more, Vaden…”

My jaw tenses as she sidesteps away from me, but my arm flies out to stop her.

“Aw…” Her hand slips into mine, tucking herself beneath my arm. “I almost forgot what it felt like to be protected, since you know, you spent so much of your time hating Luna…”

Hating? Yeah. Fucking years ago. I spent the last few weeks fucking the shit out of her and falling so far in love that I’d fucking kill myself and everyone around me to ensure she was never harmed.

I turn over my shoulder as Vaden leans back against the wall, crossing his feet at his ankles. “Hmmm. Interesting. So, all it would have taken for us to bring her back, was for you to realize you were in love with Luna?”

She bounces past the both of us, patting Vaden on the arm. “I’ll meet you guys down there.”

She disappears before I can answer.

“You loved her once, you know.” He kicks the door closed and we both turn to face the window.

“I did.” I trace the lines carved into the desk. Luna marked every passing day that she was in here, until she didn’t.

Vaden sighs, his knuckles grazing my cheek. “She was the first person to ever make you feel love.”

“Fuck off.” I whack Vaden’s hand away.

He barks out a laugh loud enough to bring our ancestors back from the dead, before it slowly dies out in his throat. “So why do I get the feeling that things have…well…flipped?”

The tightness in my chest won’t fucking go away.

“This is what we wanted. All this time, this was the endgame, Priest.” Vaden leans against the desk. Probably to try to gauge what I’m feeling. He’s shit out of luck. I don’t even know.

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