Page 97 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

One year gone

Liam bounces across from me, his grin bloody through the mouthguard.

He talked me into fighting—the legal kind—and it’s good to expend energy. Nowadays, I barely sleep. I function just fine: classes, eating, football, fighting. My eyes barely close, and I pace. I’ve inherited Eli’s restlessness. It infected me.

Now I lunge toward my friend. The pain will keep me grounded.

But inevitably, my thoughts turn to Lux. Where she is. Why she left. Who she left with. There would only be a short list of reasons why she’d leave: because of her sister or because of me.

She’s not selfish.

She’s impulsive, but she’s not stupid.

Liam hits me, and I rock back.

“Pay attention,” he snarls. His foot shoots out and hooks around my ankle, pulling me off-balance. “I never should’ve got that in.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I escape before he can topple me and return a volley of my own hits.

“Enough,” Liam says.

We’re both panting. I’m pretty sure my nose is bleeding, but neither of us talk about that. Instead, he helps me pluck off my glove, and I return the favor. We duck under the ropes.

I stop outside the ring. A flash of blonde hair passing by the window catches my attention, and then everything stops.

Same shade.

Same build.

It’s Lux.

“Wait—”

I drop the gloves and race outside. She’s halfway down the block now, and I take in everything. Straightened shoulders, her hair in a braid down her back. Black windbreaker, jeans, sneakers.

I grab her shoulder and swing her around.

She gasps, cringing away, and then I see her face.

It isn’t her.

The stranger stares at me like I’m about to kill her—and maybe that’s on my face, because she turns and bolts.

I can’t even get the apology out past the lump in my throat. For a moment, a split second, every point in me was convinced Lux had found me. Those emotions crash down harder than I could’ve anticipated.

Disappointment, anger, regret. A hunger for the only girl I’ve been able to think about.

“Dude,” Liam shouts. He skids to a stop beside me. “It isn’t her. It won’t be her. Lucy is gone. You’ve been isolating from everyone for a fucking year now, and I get it.”

“You don’t. You stare at Sky when you think no one is watching. The only one keeping you from her is you. I… I can’t even find her.” My voice cracks, damn it. “How am I supposed to find her?”

He shakes his head and glances away.

We both don’t speak for a while.

“I don’t know,” he eventually says. “But you’re not living. You’ve got to try to do that, at least. Can you do that? You’re making us sick with worry.”

I scoff, ready to deny it. But then I stop. My friends have been more proactive around me. Caleb and Eli drive up to Boston on the weekends they can get away. It wasn’t just out of goodwill—it was concern.

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