Page 178 of Priest and his Anarchist

“Not sure if that’s what this is.”

Halen rolls her eyes and mumbles something that sounds strangely similar to “You’re fucking lying” under her breath when bright red nails are around her stomach, and she’s being pulled backward and thrown onto the sofa.

I quickly take this moment to slip back out, the stench of death still fresh on my skin. My fingers trail the swirls and lines of frames as I make my way further down the hallway.

“I drew everything that held your attention for longer than a few seconds.”

“You’re really talented. Who knew…” I joke, and when his arms lock around my waist and he pulls me into his chest, I allow myself to relax into him. As if his existence puts mine to purpose.My laughter dies as I continue down, his arms still around my waist.

The sunflower.

“Black Beauty.” I look up at him, the sharp lines of his jaw tight. “When I was little, my mom took me to buy flowers for her new garden. I remember seeing these among the ray of bright yellow. Just…existing. I realized how much they reminded me of you. Luna, the opposite to the sun. Fitting.”

My heart pounds in my chest. “How old were you?”

He kisses my head. “Nine or ten.” It was after he met me.

Over the time, my heart has become a force that won’t stop in my chest. Every passing moment, every touch. I can’t escape the suffocating sensation that never fades, always sharp in my chest.

We stop at the final one. A black hole, the silhouette of a woman falling. It comes to me instantly. “When I thought I lost you.”

Turning in his grip, I search his eyes. “I’ve spent longer loving you than I have been alive, Priest. You’ll never lose me. Ever. I’m prepared to die before I’d walk away from you.”

He catches my lips with his, deepening the kiss while walking me backward. His knuckles graze my back when he lifts my shirt, before he shoves his bedroom door open and pushes me inside.

“Are we going to make them wait?” I ask, hiding behind my laugh.

“Do you even have to ask?”

Evie takes my hand gently, and I follow behind her as she leads me to the other side of the room, closest to where Madison is. There are too many things I want to say to her, to ask her, and I fear if I do it now, I won’t know when to stop.

When Evie walks, she does so with a confidence only she can carry. We both lower to a double sofa, and I tuck my fuzzy socksbeneath my butt. Thankfully, I still fit the clothes I used to when I was a teenager and Priest still had them.

“When I was nine years old, I watched Priest kill someone.”

I reach for the cheese platter on the coffee table in front of us, rolling up a pinwheel of salami and cheese, I bite into it quickly before I say something I shouldn’t. “That must have sucked.”

God, Luna. Out of all the things to say. She’ll definitely hate me now if she didn’t already.

She bursts out a laugh, relaxing into the sofa and resting her hand over her belly. Her nails a contrast to her white top. Sighing, she swipes the tears from beneath her eyes.

“Man. You guys really are perfect for one another.”

Heat radiates over my left cheek and suddenly her presence becomes so obvious that I know she’s listening to us.

“Yes, it did suck. But I learned a very valuable lesson that day!” She pushes up and reaches for the grapes, popping one into her mouth. “That love had no currency. I loved him the same way I did before I saw that poor man get gutted from his belly to his throat.” Her words die on the end and her smile falls a little. “He doesn’t know that I saw him. I hid behind the trunk of a tree and cried. I don’t think I left until the sun was starting to rise that next morning. Something about me staying there made me think that if I just…if I didn’t leave, then I didn’t have to act as if I didn’t just see my best friend take a man’s life as if it was nothing. As if it was less than nothing.”

She shakes her head, and her long waves bounce over her shoulders. “The next morning, I walked home, and my father and mother were distraught. Bishop had put out an alert to find me and already had the better half of hisfriendsout looking. Priest was there. I wondered how I would act, ya know, seeing him after witnessing that, but it all just felt insignificant because, well…love.”

I try to repeat the words she just said over in my head for them to absorb. “I wish I looked at love that way.”

“You don’t?” Evie asks, her head tilting. She leans up again. “But you love him, so you must.” Her eyes plead with mine as if searching for an answer.

Does she need an answer as to how someone could love Priest? Surely not.

I suck the salted meat off my thumb. Her eyes fall to the movement, but pause at something she notices on my hand before her brows pull in.

“I don’t think of love when I look at him.”

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