Page 81 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

Theo

Two Years Ago — Theo’s Senior Year of High School

I take a deep breath and turn my car off. Caleb has tasked me with getting information out of Amelie—and I’m almost positive that will be a dead end. She’s been on a wild streak for over a year now. Something happened to Margo. He’s been talking about her for years, and her appearance in school… she’s caused waves.

And now she’s gone, apparently.

Still, it isn’t like Caleb to ask for favors like this, even if he puts it in the form of doing me a favor. Like I need a reason to approach the Pages.

I climb out of the car and cast a glance up at the house. It would only be a stroke of luck that Lux is here—she’s still living with her grandparents in Beacon Hill. Still serving time for terrible luck and a bad temper.

The door opens before I can even get to the porch, and Amelie steps out. It’s midday, and the sun is high. She raises her hand to block it from her vision.

“What are you doing here?” she snaps.

I stuff my hands into my pockets. “I was told to interrogate you about Margo.”

She scoffs and looks away. “Why the fuck? Caleb?”

“You’ve got a soft spot for the girl, don’t you? Maybe she’s upstairs in your bedroom, hiding from the big bad—”

“Don’t say wolf,” she drolls. “Isn’t Margo supposed to be the wolf? Although, I didn’t expect you to be part of the pack. If we’re continuing the dog metaphors, I’d go so far as to say you reek of rotten loyalty.”

See, this is why I didn’t want to come here. She doesn’t make sense sometimes—and yet, for once, she wears a similar expression to the one often seen in Lux’s eyes: hunger for someone else to hurt.

“Maybe your sister will help me,” I say, taking a step back.

“I’d help if I could,” she says faintly. “Tell Caleb he was a great distraction while it lasted.”

I pause. “What?”

To my surprise, she sinks down on the front step and sighs. “Nothing is as it seems, Theodore. Especially my family.”

I grunt. This has been just as I suspected: fruitless. I turn to head back to my car, sick of wasting time. I’m exhausted by the way Amelie acts. Tired of being angry all the damn time. Sometimes it’s a lot to be tormented, and I vaguely register the worry laced in my chest.

“She’s out back,” she calls.

I freeze.

“Lucy’s in the backyard, staring up at the sky like a lunatic,” she continues. The step creaks. “She doesn’t know anything, but obviously that’s why you’re here. To see her.”

It’s not, I almost say. But isn’t that the reason Caleb set me on this task?

I find myself following the path around their house, to the fence gate. Amelie just watches me go, unmoving from her new position in the doorway. I slip through and skirt the in-ground pool, heading for the grassy area beyond. There used to be a big tree in the corner, planks nailed into the trunk as a sort of ladder to the sturdy branches just out of reach.

It’s still there, but half the planks are missing, and the rest are cockeyed or hanging at an angle. It just goes to show how much it’s grown since the Pages first put them there… ten years ago. Maybe more.

Lux is still flat on her back, as her sister said, her gaze fixated straight up. If her chest wasn’t moving, I’d assume she was dead. My shadow seems to race ahead of me, and it touches her face before I can.

She flinches, and her eyes snap to mine. “Ah.”

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Contemplating the next way to make you suffer,” she replies, grinning. “Here to kick me while I’m down?”

“Are you down?”

She sniffs. “I don’t know what a girl has to do to get a guy to ask her to prom, Theo, but apparently I missed that ship.”

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