Lucia’s eyes light up. “Hey, did you guys hear about Velvet Villainess?!”
Galina almost breaks her neck whipping her head around to Lucia. “What?!”
I hold back an eye roll. Galina iswaytoo invested in all these "dark BookTok" accounts. Velvet Villainess is a female BookTokker with a crazy huge number of followers—maybe overa million by now—who posts thirst-trappy content that almost rivals the “your hair x my fist” type stuff the guys post.
No one knows who she is because she’s always masked. She’s also usually rocking someseriouslyscandalous outfits, if not outright lingerie. She doesn’t speak in her videos, but her written reviews of the dark romance books she reads are allverywell done.
“What about her?” Galina chokes out breathlessly. Jesus, it’s like men with their favorite sports dudes.
Lucia’s jaw drops. “I can’t believe you haven’t heard! Okay, get this: apparently she might be a fucking student here.”
Even Ari, who studiously avoids our “horny book stuff”, looks up at that.
“Whoa,what?!” Wren blurts.
“Bullshit,” Ari giggles, rolling her eyes.
“No, seriously!” Lucia nods eagerly. “You know Mariana Guzman? In The Reckless, posts romance book content?”
The rest of us nod.
“Okay, check out her latest video. It’swild. She thinks a video Velvet Villainess uploaded a week ago was filmed in Ravencroft Library. How crazy is that?!”
For once, Galina is at a loss for words. Wren whistles under her breath and drains her mug. Ari’s brows arch as high as mine.
“Does Mariana know who she is?”
Lucia shakes her head. “Nope. Just said that she must be a Knightsblood student, otherwise how would she have been able to film inside Ravencroft?”
“Wow, so crazy,” Galina murmurs, shaking her head. She glances at the clock on the wall and clucks her tongue against her teeth. “Okay, bitches, ready to roll?”
Wren springs up and grins. “Hell yes!”
Galina beams. “Attagirl! Let’s go get some Para Bellum boys to flirt with you. PS, survey says The Untouchables are all stillsiiing-gle,” she adds.
In a school of future kings, the four that everyone at Knightsblood calls “The Untouchables” are on another level. They’re not just future heads of hugely powerful mafia families, and obviously all in Para Bellum. They’regodswalking amongst us mere mortals here.
Lochlan Kildare, future head of the Kildare Irish Mafia family, plus his younger brother, Ronan. Drago Krylov, who could either be the king of the Krylov Bratva or a senior partner at the most powerful law firm in New York, depending on which of his parents he takes after.
And lastly, the president of Para Bellum: Achilles Drakos. He’s the one member of The Untouchables who doesn’t outright terrify me. We’ve never spoken, but unlike Drago, who prowls around campus like a dark nightmare, or the Kildare brothers who look like pure trouble, Achilles is the golden boy of Knightsblood and a poster child for “magnanimous future king”.
He’s built like a god, with looks and a smile that would make legit deities jealous, and has just about everyone at school eating out of his palm. Faculty included.
Wren frowns as she tucks a loose wave of buttery-blonde behind her ear. “Passon the walking red flag parade, sorry.”
Galina rolls her eyes. “You’re seriously telling me you don’t think they’re hot?”
Wren shoots me a “save me from her” look and sighs. “Girl, you do realize that your fictional boyfriends would be restraining order nightmares in real life, right?”
Galina giggles. “Okay, I’ll grant you that someone like Drago is scary as shit.”
“Fuckingnightmarefuel,” Arianna shivers.
“But Achilles Drakos?” Galina’s brows lift. “I mean, are you joking? Not one of you would say no to allthat. And if you say you would… You’re lying.”
Wren shakes her head. “Nope, not interested. Sorry.”
Galina groans. “I’m just saying, we need to get you back on the horse.”
