Page 14 of Priest and his Anarchist

He hides his expression behind his glass, but rests further into the high wings of his chair until the hood of his hoodie pools at the base of his neck. It does nothing to dull the allure of his charm.

He isn’t going to answer. Figures.

I should ask him if this drink is laced with poison. Perhaps this was the plan all along. To kill me in a way that wouldn’t make it look like it was them. Anyway, how do they take care of the people they no longer think serve them anymore?

After taking the first sip, the subtle aftertaste of lavender and honey seared down my throat. It isn’t terrible. I lift the cup for another taste before placing it back on my lap. With the heat from the alcohol melting all the ice that’s formed in my veins, I relax a little. Okay. I understand why people drink.

“She is a little mad, isn’t she?” Vaden muses and it’s the first time I’ve noticed the smudge lines in his face paint. Nowthat he’s spoken, I’d recognize his voice anywhere. That’s likely why he didn’t say anything before because, unlike Priest, he had spoken to me several times over the years.

Priest’s lip twitches, as if battling his own thoughts. I imagine his head to be a dark, lonely place.

“Do you know much about the Elite Kings Club? And by know, I mean did any of your three parents educate you on our lineage, history, and what is expected of us all once we ascend?”

“A little. Daddy did more than the other two.”

Vaden chokes on his drink before it turns into a chuckle. “Which one’s Daddy?”

Priest drags his eyes from mine and glares at Vaden.

I sip my whiskey, tracing the ornate patterns carved into the ivory porcelain.

He rests back on me. “How much did your parents tell you?”

The question rolls in my head. I want to move. Get up. Only the more I do, the heavier my limbs become.

I focus on the window opposite, where a beacon flashes in the distance, lost in the darkness of the night. My arm flops to the side. Dread crawls over my body, causing me to shuffle up the sofa.

“They didn’t tell me much.” I look to Priest when the flashing light becomes more of a nuisance. Dad is a King, but he isn’t one of the three, so he doesn’t exist full-time in Riverside and New York. He moved out and into the respective job of whatever he was told to do after Bishop took the gavel. I tend not to ask extensive questions since he made it clear early on that there was no point in asking questions in this world because if you were supposed to know, you would.

Vaden moves from his position opposite Priest. I don’t have much to do with the kids, but I like Vaden. He’d always ask me if I wanted to go and hang with them. I usually said no. He never took it to heart. He understood me more than the others.

“You’re a Vitiosis.” The pieces of the puzzle slip into place. Or I try to force them, since information over the years has been limited.

“Do you know what that means?” Vaden asks, his finger working his upper lip.

I sigh, squeezing the teacup as if it’s a lifeline. Maybe it is. “No. I didn’t learn about each family, only, well…Malum.”

“Malum or Riverside?” Vaden edges closer, but the room moves around me at a lumbering pace.

My thumb traces the lines around the edge of the cup. “Riverside.”

“Of course.” Priest retreats into the shadows when he leans back in his chair. I’d prefer he stay right there—with me—so that I can watch his reactions and try to decipher lies from the truth.

I reach up to the base of my throat when it itches, but my hands don’t move. “What’s happening?” It’s an odd sensation. As if your body doesn’t belong to you.

“I’ll give you some information that your daddy so gladly starved you of.” The distance in Priest’s voice echoes between each ear. “The Malum and Riverside families are split. Riverside maintains and runs the school in Riverside or during our parents’ ages, The Hamptons, but the Malum line?”

“What does this have to do with me…” I try to move in my chair again, but it’s pointless. My pulse slows, like pumping sludge instead of blood, and everything blurs whenever I try to focus on a single area.

“Nothing. It has nothing to do with you.” He’s louder this time. It’s not until a shadow looms over me in a whiff of cologne and tobacco that I realize I may just be in danger.

A hand touches the nape of my neck, sending that same feeling of ice through my veins. My eyes close as my teeth catch my bottom lip.

“Are you going to tell me why I’m here?”

“Maybe.” Vaden’s behind me, and like a survival response, the room stops spinning. Everything snaps back to reality, and whatever daze I was in evaporates, as if it had never been there.

“For now, you’re going to fall…” Priest’s lips curve against my neck, sending a shudder through my body. I grip the sofa again, but this time it feels different. Soft. The music gets louder as I try to shuffle from the grip behind me, but it’s useless.

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