Page 71 of Evil Queen

“Am I missing something? Why is that worth betting on?” I asked.

Avery smiled. “Because you’re still so convinced that everything is your fault and that you owe us the world and that you’re carrying everything on your shoulders. We could have left, you know? We’re still here. You said it yourself. We have to stick together.”

“Yeah. If you guys hadn’t hitched your horses to my wagon—”

“Yeah, but we did,” Kyle said. “None of us had to be in The Royal Court.”

Alistair raised his hand. “I did.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Okay, none of us other than Alistair had to be in The Royal Court. Then you gave us all a free pass to go, but we stayed. We’re all here. We’re part of this. We know what it means, and we’re part of it anyway.”

“Yeah, Nathan. You disappeared last semester,” Colette said. “The second we heard that you disappeared and that your mom died, we panicked, and then when Nikki tracked you down, we got together with Cherri and Deon and came to find you. Even the two people who liked you the least at that time broke their backs to get to you. You think that we were all tied to you for the perks or out of obligation, but maybe, just maybe we like you a little.”

That was true. When my dad took me and drove me up to our cabin, the entire Royal Court plus Deon showed up to save me. They rushed in and fought with my dad, risking their lives to fight for me. People who hated you didn’t do that kind of thing.

“I’m so dumb,” I said. “Friendship has never really been like this for me. Well, I never really had friends. I made a bunch when Deon lived with my family, but when he left, all of them left except for Kyle, and of course, Nikki has always been by my side.”

“Wait,” Colette said. “You’ve been comparing us to those shitty friends this entire time? Kyle! Hit him for me!”

Kyle didn’t hesitate. He reached over and whacked me across the arm. Though he put some force behind it, and though it hurt a little bit, all I could do was smile. “I love you guys,” I said.

“I am not telling you I love you back,” Alistair replied, and the table laughed. I could feel it in the unspoken. I was loved by my friends. It made me think of what Nicole said to me about forgiveness. I could give as much as I wanted, but it would only be when they truly wanted to forgive me that it made any difference.

“Do you guys wanna get out of here?” I asked. “We can all crash at my place if we want to stick together, or I can call us a limo to get us home.”

“No offense, but I kind of want to be in my own bed tonight,” Kyle said.

“Me too,” Alistair said, and Avery nodded with him.

“Besides,” Nikita said, side-eyeing me. “It’s better if we have no visitors.”

My entire lower half tingled at the look in her eyes, and I turned to face everyone else. “Oh, never mind. Invitation rescinded. Go home or wherever you want. I don’t care. You just can’t come to my house.”

“Perverts,” Kyle huffed.

“Where is Cherri?” Colette suddenly asked.

“Huh?” I replied. “I mean, feel free to invite her if you want, but talking to her hasn’t gone well for us as a group.”

“Went fine for me,” Nikita huffed under her breath, and I glared at her before snickering. I may have stuck up for her, but Cherri lost that fight.

“No!” Colette yelped, pointing across the room. “There’s Sicily, but where is Cherri?”

I looked over, and Sicily was looking down at his phone. Cherri was nowhere in the vicinity. He seemed unaware that she wasn’t there. He looked up in the direction of where the men stood against the wall, but when he did, he looked slightly panicked. I looked over and realized that they weren’t there anymore. Sicily jumped up and looked over in our direction. Our eyes locked, and we realized that we’d gotten too distracted and made a terrible mistake.

“Shit!” I yelled, jumping up. “Outside!” No one asked why, and we rushed away from our table, rattling it as we moved. “What happened?” I barked at Sicily as he ran up beside us.

“I think she gave me the slip on purpose. She knew that I was keeping her close, but I wouldn’t tell her why,” Sicily snapped back. “I was just talking to her, though. She couldn’t have been gone longer than thirty seconds.”

That was all it took. We rushed out through the front doors and didn’t see anything. I was terrified that we were too late and terrified that I was going to have to tell Deon that I let Cherri slip through my fingers, but then we heard screaming. It sounded like it was coming from the back of the building, so we bolted around to the back just in time to see Cherri entangled with the two men as they attempted to drag her off. Cherri was a small girl, but she was putting up quite a fight, and she had a small blade in her hand that she was swinging wildly, keeping the men from getting too much of a hold on her.

“Cherri!” I screeched.

The men saw us running over and tried their best to drag Cherri toward an unmarked black SUV parked a little bit away, but her fighting was enough to give us time to catch up. Nikita had a knife out in five seconds and jumped in swinging, but it seemed like the men were going to try to take the opportunity to snatch her too. One abandoned Cherri and started trying to wrap around Nikita, but it turned out to be a grave mistake. The second he wrapped his arms around her, she sliced him across the arm, cutting straight through his suit. Then she flipped around and clocked him right in his nose. He fell backward, and Nikita turned on the other guy, who Jaxon was already pulling off of Cherri.

Jaxon shoved Cherri away, and Sicily and I took each of her arms to pull her back as she tried to jump back in. She was swearing like crazy and trying to fight her way out of our grip, but we held position. Jaxon headbutted the guy that grabbed Cherri in the face, and the guy, too, fell backward. At that moment, the person who was meant to be driving the car climbed out with a gun brandished. He pointed it at Jaxon and Nikita, who both stopped advancing.

“Get in the car, you fucking idiots. They’re kids,” he huffed.

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