Page 12 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

Would Amelie still marry Wilder if his brother killed me?

Blood for blood, right?

Dad disappears around the landing ahead of me, and I pause. I should’ve put shoes on, just in case. Or maybe it’s better to die barefoot?

After mass shootings, there are often shoes left behind, because people try to escape so quickly, so one-mindedly, that they just… run right out of them.

If I can say anything, it’s that I won’t run away from my death.

If Aiden is the one who waits for me downstairs with a gun in his hand… or even a knife. I can take it.

The sad part? My parents probably wouldn’t even be sorry for it. They’d mourn their second child in zero-point-two seconds, then go back to fawning over the favorite.

“She’s coming,” Dad says pointedly.

I jolt back into motion, swinging around the landing and managing to descend as gracefully as possible.

And who waits for me at the bottom of the stairs is not who I thought.

“Theo,” I blurt out. “Why—”

He twitches his head in the subtlest no, and I immediately clamp my mouth shut.

He’s not really at the bottom of the stairs, anyway. More off to the side, out of the way. It’s his mother I should’ve paid attention to when I first came down. She’s the one who seems to be in control—her and my parents.

“What is this?” I ask.

“You being here is too risky,” Mom says. “And you’ve involved Theo.”

I narrow my eyes. “I did not.”

“He involved himself,” his mother says. “Either way—you need to leave town. Immediately.”

“I don’t understand.” I had a plan. Community college. Work. Get into a better college in two years, move away. Never look back. That’s my plan. They can’t ship me off, not when my grandparents and guardians for most of my life have officially retired. “Where am I supposed to go?”

“With Theo,” Mom says.

I flinch. “No.”

“It wasn’t a question,” Dad snaps. “You fucked up, and now we all have to live with it.”

“He—”

“Lux,” Theo says quietly.

I wheel around. “No,” I repeat, glaring at him. “Not happening.”

“Already done.” His eyes glitter. “You’re starting at Lenox Bluff University in a week.”

His school, he means.

“Why?” I whisper and turn back to my parents. “No one—”

“You’re not an expert,” Mom says. “Even with the damage from the fire, we can’t rule out that there will be evidence against you. Unless you leave. Right now.”

I rub my eyes.

“Pack,” Mom continues. “You and Theo are leaving in fifteen minutes.”

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