Page 28 of War and his Queen

“You always manage to squeeze your ass into the plane before we leave.” I reach into my pocket and open a new message.

“Yeah, and?” Baylee leans forward, tapping my phone away and forcing my eyes to his. “Why is the ice queen here?”

I shrug without looking at her. I’m done being the only one asking questions. Do I feel a certain way about her taking on more of a role within our world? Fuck yes. It has never been done in the history of the EKC ever, and I’m not so sure I want itto be her who is the one testing it out. Why couldn’t there have been a generation between ours and our parents?

“She’s a King, Baylee. You ain’t. So why are you here?”

He leans back against his chair, flashing another smile. “Well, I think you and I both know why I’m here.”

I tap out a message to River, reminding her to not throw any parties while we’re not there before turning my phone on airplane mode and shuffling my hoodie over my head. The plane takes off and I lean against the window, my knee jiggling beneath my weight.

Baylee has long since crashed, and when I look up to the seats in front of me, Vaden is asleep, his head tilted back and face like stone. I don’t even want to see what she’s doing. We both know that it’ll turn into an argument. Or it won’t, and I’ll just want to shove her up against a wall and squeeze the life out of her. Am I mad? Yeah, probably, but that doesn’t beat the fact that years ago… we were just a couple of kids who told each other secrets…

She grabs me by the hand and drags me toward the withered cathedral. With stained glass windows and a small bell hanging at the front, it was all rusted doom and gloom.

I know what she is doing, even if I pretend that I don’t.

“War!” she yells, and every hair on my body stands to life when I find her pulling open the large door. Not only is the church old, but it’s haunted. I could have sworn Mom said that it was newly built. Maybe they brought it over from somewhere else.

Probably from Perdita.

Then it would definitely be haunted.

I chase her through the doors, pausing when I see Hector standing at the end of the aisle, his hands in the pockets of hispants and his back turned to us. Halen doesn’t flinch, bouncing down the aisle with her leather dress in the breeze and her Docs tied at her feet. Her dark hair is braided into two, and I’m certain that she’ll always have her hair long enough to do braids.

“Princess…” Hector greets lowly, his eyes drifting up to meet mine.

The church smells musty. It smells exactly what it looks like.

He holds my stare. “What are you both doing?”

“Err…” Halen turns over her shoulder slightly, until I find my feet catching up to where he stands. “Just with War.” She bends to the side. “Is Priest here?”

Hector sits back, reaching inside his suit jacket and taking out a cigar. He places it into his mouth, and I watch as his eyes continue to bounce between Halen and I, almost as though he is trying to figure out what mischief we are up to.

Which is nothing. We aren’t doing anything. I am keeping her out of it.

I reach for Halen’s hand, and the second my palm meets hers, her little fingers close around me. She stands directly in front, even though I want to push her aside. It is subtle. Kind of like she knows, or has an inkling, that her pop is someone who should be feared. Or maybe everyone knows that. We sure as fuck do.

She wants to protect me anyway.

“Go back out to the car, Halo. I’ll be there soon.”

She turns, exhaling loudly as she crosses her little arms in front of herself. “But you said we were—"

I don’t take my eyes off Hector. “Now, Halo.”

She finally storms off, her little feet slapping against the wooden floors. It’s not until I hear the old church door slam closed that I finally break the silence.

“I guess I should ask why you’re here?”

“Hmm…” Hector pops the button off his coat, lowering himself down onto the pulpit. I want to distract myself some way, maybe the stained glass windows and how the afternoon sun bleeds through the Virgin Mary statue that stands as a reminder of why we should never set foot in the house of God.

It almost feels weird to be here.

“I want to ask you something, son, and I want you to be honest with me.” He gestures to the bench seat that was near, so I follow his silent order. My legs are tired anyway from all the fucking running Halen had me doing tonight. I mean for real… why was the girl obsessed with cemeteries? The one in Riverside is even more creepy than any of the ones I’d seen in movies too. What with all the family crypts. Doesn’t help that it is smack-dab in the middle of the forest either.

“Sure.” I kick my foot out and try to stop myself from thinking of all the reasons why he would want to ask me any questions. I was a King, but Priest was his grandson, and they were both close as hell. We all knew it. Even Bishop knew, and hated it a little, I think. Bishop wasn’t a saint, but he wasn’t the Devil.

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