Page 35 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

I rolled my eyes at the thought. “That sounds so overstimulating, I don’t know that I’d even be able to handle it.”

“Same,” Avery agreed. “Either one or the other. Not both.”

“Which would you prefer first?” Alistair asked with a sly smile on his face.

If it was his idea of a funny joke, I didn’t appreciate it, but I chose to ignore the jab and just answer the question. “Well… I really do want to find Deon as soon as possible because I miss him so much, but I think it would be better if we could find himafterConnor, so that he can come back and be comfortable and get back to a normal life. I don’t want him to have to come home to a fucking fight.”

“That’s true, but I think Deon’s kind of our missing secret weapon,” Avery said. “Both you and Nathan are so much stronger when he’s around, and I think he’s got some pieces of the whole Connor puzzle that we’re missing.”

“I totally agree,” Alistair said. “I can’t shake the feeling that things would go better if Deon were here.”

“Hey, don’t get me wrong. If we came across Deon first, I wouldn’t complain. We got so little time together, that I don’t want to waste any more time. I just imagine things have already been so stressful for him, that it would be nice if he could just come home and not have to worry about any of that, you know?”

Avery nodded her head as she munched on a piece of cinnamon bread. “That makes sense.”

Still, what they said was a logical response as well. We still didn’t entirely know how wrapped up Deon was in Connor’s world, wherever he was, and he probably did have an entire safe of good information that we could use to track down Connor and hopefully stop him for good. If we did manage to find Deon first it’d be good, not just because I’d be over the moon to see him again, but because then he could help.

The kitchen slowly started to fill with the rest of The Royal Court, starting with Jaxon and Colette, then Nikita, Brayden and Kyle, and last, but not least, Nathan. The kitchen island over breakfast was fast becoming our official Royal Court meeting place. Once Nathan had gathered his plate, he looked over at Kyle and nodded.

“Your sleeping in is causing delays,” Kyle joked.

Nathan shrugged as he chuckled. “What do you want from me? I’m taking advantage of not having my kingly duties right now.”

“Wait,” I said. “What?”

Everyone turned to look at me, furrowing their brows in confusion, and it was Brayden out of everyone who seemed to get it first. “Oh, right, Cherri wasn’t there.” He set his hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “Kyle is king right now.”

I dropped my jaw. “What?”

“Yeah,” Nathan replied. “I was sort of losing my mind there for a while, and I wasn’t doing the best job leading. I handed King to Kyle and became Prince in Line.”

“I just automatically assumed that you were still King and Nikita had moved up to Queen,” I responded.

“Actually,” Colette said. “Nikki hasn’t moved up. Not officially anyway. She’s still a Knight. In fact, if we’re being themosttechnical, you’re still Queen, Cherri.”

For whatever reason, that made me really uncomfortable. I didn’t feel like I should have the weight of The Royal Court on my shoulders anymore. It wasn’t just because of all the things that I’d put them through, but they’d all changed and grown so much that it wasn’t fair for me to lead them anymore.

“I don’t think I should have that title anymore,” I said.

“You know, I don’t disagree,” Kyle said. “Honestly, I think there are many changes that have to take place. Maybe now’s as good a time as any to do it.”

“We’re still missing someone though,” Nathan said.

Almost as if he’d been summoned by the mention of his name, we heard the front door open and a few moments later, Sicily rounded the corner into the kitchen. “Hey hey!”

“Good morning, Sicily,” Colette greeted.

“There she is!” He held out his arms towards Colette. “You havenoidea how much of a whiz this chick is.” He walked over and stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “She figured out a way to check four times as many pings a day as we were checking. At this rate, we could get through the listwayfaster than we were planning on.”

Across from Colette, Jaxon silently picked up a butter knife off the island and held it out in Sicily’s direction. “Move.”

Sicily held up his hands and backed away. “Right. Sorry.”

“Knock it off,” Colette snipped at Jaxon, but he ignored her apart from setting the knife down on the counter and resuming his breakfast.

“I forget, I’m the lost, lonely single in this group.” Then he put his arms around Kyle and Brayden. “Well, I have these two at least. Just three single guys doing what we do, right?” Everyone went silent, and I actually had to fight back a laugh, but then I looked across the island and saw Brayden biting his lip to keep from laughing. Finally, Kyle broke and started snickering, which sucked in Brayden, and soon we all erupted with laughter. Sicily raised an eyebrow. “Ah, I missed something.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said.

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