Page 87 of Spearcrest Knight

“I’d rather lie to myself than to everybody I meet," I snap.

He snickers, a cold, derisive sound. “The reason you see liars everywhere, Sutton, is because you wouldn’t know the fucking truth if it hit you in the face.”

The conversation is not at all going the way I wanted. Evan is making me defend myself when he’s the one who’s wronged me—and I’m letting him.

“Thetruth,” I say between clenched teeth, “is that I trusted you with one single thing, and you still managed to fuck me over.”

He shrugs. “You left me no choice. You’re the one who broke school rules, not me.”

“You knew I needed that job!” I cry out in an explosion of anger and frustration.

“So what?” he sneers. “It’s not my fault you’re poor, is it?”

He throws his insult at my face like a slap—it hits me like a slap. The moment is suspended in time.

Nothing seems to exist but Evan and me and the blows we’re trading.

I shake my head and my voice comes out strangled with a mixture of shock and disgust. “You really are one worthless, despicable piece of shit. You make me sick to my stomach.”

If my words hurt Evan, he doesn’t show it. But his retaliation is swift and sharp. “Clearly not sick enough to stop you from fucking me, though.”

Surprised gasps and sputtered laughter yank me back to reality. We’re in the middle of the rec room, and everyone is staring. All the Young Kings are there: Luca, with some girl draped to his side, Zachary Blackwood with a book on his lap and his eyebrow tilted in surprise, Iakov and Séverin standing in the doorway with their mouths fallen open.

Not just the Young Kings, but their retinues: the richest and most beautiful Spearcrest have to offer. Giselle, Camille, Seraphina Rosenthal. Girls who have been mocking me my entire time here—girls I always maintained some sort of moral victory over. Now, they are all staring at me with mingled shock and amusement and satisfaction.

Because now, they all know I’m no better than anybody else in Speacrest: another notch on a Young King’s bedpost.

Their eyes pierce me from every angle. I feel so exposed and vulnerable and humiliated I might as well be naked. No words come to my mouth, no smart, sarcastic reply to help me hold on to a final shred of dignity. To my complete and utter despair, tears well up in my eyes before I can stop them. They drop from my eyelashes, rolling down my cheeks.

When I arrived in Spearcrest, I promised myself one thing. To never let them see me cry. It was a promise I never broke. The one thing I could always pride myself on no matter what.

And now, it’s just another thing that’s been taken from me.

Without another word, without even one last glance at Evan, I spin around and walk away to the sound of laughter.

27

Scathed

Evan

TheexpressiononSophie’sface is burned into my retinas. An expression like I’ve never seen before: shock, hurt, disbelief, betrayal, humiliation, all mingled together in those dark, shining eyes.

Her eyes fill with tears and my heart sinks.

I’ve never seen Sophie cry before.

She offers no repartee, no comeback—nothing. She simply turns around and leaves without another word. I’m left feeling like I just knocked her down with a punch to the face, and instead of getting up and punching me right back, she just stayed down, bleeding at my feet.

It’s not how I wanted to feel. There’s no sense of victory or revenge.

I just stand there, fists clenched, bile burning in my throat.

“What wasthatall about?” Luca asks, raising an eyebrow.

I shrug and run my hand through my hair distractedly, still staring after Sophie. “Nothing.”

“It didn’t look likenothing.” Luca’s voice quivers with barely repressed amusement. “You fucked Sophie Sutton? You must really be taking the bet seriously.”

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