Page 44 of Kings & Chaos

“But it’s fucked up,” I said.

Claire laughed. “Well, yeah. Our whole way of life is fucked up, but it’s ours, and we have to live in it. We have to survive in it."

Not me,I thought.Count me out.

Except I had to find out what happened to Emma. The rot that had taken her from us had started at Aventine. I could feel it. And that meant staying.

For now.

I took a deep breath, giving myself an internal pep talk while the other houses picked their teams. This was fucked, but I didn’t have to do anything this time. It didn’t make me blameless, but it was one degree removed from the people actually doing the harm, and right now, I would fucking take it.

“Last but definitely not least,” Neo said, “the Kings’ house.”

“He’ll choose himself for this one,” I said. Rage was a default for Neo. What better excuse to get some of it out of his system than the game?

He waited for the crowd to grow quiet again.

“The Kings choose Oscar.” He searched the crowd, his gaze coming to rest on me. “And Willa.”

Chapter16

Willa

Ispent the rest of the party fuming and listening to Claire strategize the Queens’ game with Quinn and Erin. It technically wasn’t allowed — collegiate espionage, I guess — but their conversation was vague enough that no one bothered to tell me to leave.

Besides, I was too pissed to pay much attention. Pissed and freaked, because no fucking way was I hurting someone just to win the stupid game.

It took a lot of self-control not to march up to the Kings and tell them where to go. I sat with the girls around the bonfire and glared at the Kings instead, hating the way they continued to nurse drinks in red plastic cups while talking to everyone from the other houses like they hadn’t just fucked me over.

It would be dumb to confront them here. For me, not them. I’d worked for the street cred I’d earned in the first game. I’d pushed down my own panic, had risked my place at Aventine.

Acting like a delicate flower in front of everyone now would undo all of that, make them question my place here.

Make them question whether they could trust me.

And I needed them to trust me, because one thing I was absolutely sure of was that Dean Giordana hadn’t been the only one at Aventine involved in Emma’s disappearance.

The cabin had been too close to campus, and Dean Giordana had been too unsettled by what he and the other man were doing.

He was sleazy, but he was no ringleader.

“I’m so sorry,” Claire said, turning to me.

I blinked. “What?”

“About the game,” she said. “I can’t believe they chose you again.”

“Yeah, that’s fucked up,” Quinn said.

“They’resuchassholes,” I muttered.

Quinn raised a perfectly arched brow. “Looks like those assholes are coming for you. One of them anyway.”

I looked up to see Neo making his way toward us. Behind him, Rock and Oscar were packing up the cooler, chairs, and blankets we’d brought from the Kings’ house.

“Let’s go, Jezebel,” Neo ordered.

My rage ticked up a notch when he turned around and walked away, like I was a dog he could order around.

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