Page 80 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

But… “Sebastian didn’t really cheat, though, did he?”

“No.” He closes his eyes, and I have to wonder if Sebastian didn’t kick him harder than he let on. “I got the needles from one of the pre-med students. She’s a TA in Sebastian’s history class.”

Well, damn.

“Will they talk?”

“No. They don’t particularly care for Sebastian…”

I don’t want to ask about why they don’t care for him, but something else occurs to me. “He has the Devereux family’s support. Even if his own family can’t just wave a hand and make it disappear, why wouldn’t Hale smooth things over?” That boy has more power at this school than I’d care to admit.

“Oh, right.” He opens his eyes and leans forward, releasing me to hunt for his phone.

He flashes me a picture—one of Sebastian and Ruby in the movie theater, their heads bent together. I’m not in the seat beside Sebastian, which means he caught them after I left.

“You followed me?”

“How do you know I didn’t follow Sebastian?”

I glare at him. The damn ticking of the hazard lights will drive me nuts. I hit the button and twist to face him fully, just trying to get an accurate read on him. It’s impossible—I have no more idea what he’s thinking than I could squeeze blood from a stone.

Sometime between them escorting him off the field and when Liam hauled me into the locker room, he had removed his uniform and padding, replacing it with jeans and a black long-sleeve t-shirt. Another thing that escaped my notice until now.

“I followed you,” he says eventually. “Your—”

“Phone,” I finish. “Tracking me is a bad habit.”

He smirks. “One day it’ll come in handy, and you won’t be able to say shit.”

“Fine. So, you had the boy with the steroids and the paper, and then the history TA replaced it. And she stole syringes…”

“Yep.”

“You turned yourself into a drug dealer to take down one guy?” I clarify. “Why?” I understand on some level why I might be tempted to do it. But Theo…?

“You can’t see why I would want to destroy him?”

My hand is still between us, and he snatches it up again. Any touch feels… off limits. We’ve gone years just glancing off each other, meteors moving too fast. All that stood between us venturing closer was destruction.

That’s still our final destination—just look at what happened at Amelie’s engagement party.

But at the same time, I can’t pull away.

“Lux, he didn’t just threaten me…” Theo laces his fingers with mine. “He threatened us.”

“There isn’t an us. There never has been.” I refuse to meet his gaze. “You and I hurt each other over and over again. If you wanted us to be a thing, then that would stop. But you can’t stop any more than I can.”

I yank my hand free now and put the car back in drive.

He doesn’t have an answer for me. No solution to our puzzle. Trauma tied us together. Our darkness, our possessiveness. All of that floats between us like butterfly wings. That dead motorcyclist, the car crash, the blood.

He can’t kiss me without being reminded of that day. That nightmare.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

“I’m taking you home, then I’m going home.” Well, as close to home as I can get. If I’m lucky, I can get into bed and pretend to be asleep long before Ruby returns from the game.

23

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