Page 36 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

Sicily smiled over at me. “My best friend!” He walked around the island and I stood up to meet him in a hug. “I’ve missed you. I feel like we haven’t seen much of each other lately.”

“I expected you to be hanging around here more,” I responded.

“To be fair, we’ve been working him to the bone,” Alistair said. “When he’s here, we lock him up in his dungeon and make him work like Cinderella.”

“I think we’re circling the drain on backtracking to Connor through Brayden, so hopefully I’ll be able to join the tech side soon,” I said.

Sicily rubbed my back. “Aw, I’d love that. Just like old times.”

Back before I reconciled with The Royal Court, when we were still in high school, Sicily and I would hole up for entire weekends sometimes just grinding through the internet for any clue regarding Deon’s whereabouts. Though we didn’t find much, we would often catch streaks of information and would get excited following the trail to its end. Even if we were disappointed at the end of it when we didn’t find anything, there was something about plugging in and chasing a ghost together that was fun and exciting. Our friendship was built on that.

“Okay, well, grab a seat, Sicily, we have some things to go over this morning,” Kyle said.

“Oh. Okay.” Sicily took a seat on the stool that was empty next to me and started loading some of the breakfast food onto a plate. “Are you guys breaking up with me?”

Kyle and Nathan exchanged a look and then Kyle smiled at Sicily. “Quite the opposite, actually. I’m offering you an official role in The Royal Court. Baron.”

Sicily’s jaw dropped to the floor. He looked over at me and I nodded with a smile, then he looked back at Kyle. “Yeah? I get to be official?”

“If you accept,” Kyle said. “I’m not going to muscle you like Nathan did us.”

“Okay,” Nathan grumbled.

“Yeah, hell yeah! I get to be part of The Royal Court?” He looked at Jaxon and Nikita. “Does that mean these two won’t bully me anymore.”

“Oh calm down, you baby. We haven’t done that since first semester senior year,” Nikita hissed.

Sicily held out a hand towards Jaxon. “Hejustpointed a knife at me like five minutes ago.”

I giggled and shook my head. “Well, we can only do so much. Maybe just don’t touch Colette.”

“Hey,” Colette said. “He can do what he wants, and Jaxon will be fine.” Jaxon looked up and glared at her, and she glared back, totally unfazed. “Trust me,” she said directly to him, “He’ll be fine.”

A flash of excitement crossed through Jaxon’s eyes, then he smiled and returned to his food. They were such a unique couple. I was excited to see more of them together over the course of the summer.

“Is that a yes?” Kyle asked Sicily.

Sicily snapped his fingers and threw up finger guns. “Hell yeah that’s a yes.”

Kyle frowned. “Did you just throw finger guns at me?” He looked at Brayden. “Did he just throw finger guns at me?”

Brayden chuckled and looked at Sicily. “Don’t do that.”

Sicily put his hands down. “Right. The Royal Court is finger-gun-free. Got it.”

“Well then, with that matter sorted, I’m requesting to move Cherri down from Queen to Princess,” Kyle said. “Does anyone have any objections?”

No one said anything, least of all me, but then Colette raised her hand. “Who will be Queen?”

“Well, I suppose that goes part and parcel with my next request, which is that Nathan moves back up to King, and Nikita moves up to Queen with him, and I’ll of course move back down to Prince in Line for now.” Kyle explained. “No offense, you guys are fun, and I love you more than anything, but you stress me out. I’m going to relax, enjoy spending time with,” he gave Brayden a quick glance, “everyone, and bask in the glory ofnothaving all the responsibility.”

“Aw, but I like being retired,” Nathan whined.

“That’s too damn bad,” Kyle replied.

“I’m in,” Avery said.

Alistair nodded. “Yep. Me too.”

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