Page 14 of A Wild Darkness

CHAPTER FOUR

SEBASTIAN

Acouple of days after we kill Hank in the abandoned art studio downtown, our focus is back on the Black Veil Society project, and that means making contact with them.

I round the corner into the kitchen right as orange hues of dusk shine through the open windows meeting my gaze. My eyes land on River and Lux eating breakfast at the large island. With her head resting on his shoulder, she giggles as he spoon-feeds her a bite from his plate.

I grimace, taking a seat at the opposite end of the island. “Get a fucking room.”

“Breakfast, Sebastian?” Ben, our personal chef, asks with his back toward me. He has a towel draped over his shoulder and steam from the food cooking taking up the space around him.

River shoots me a glare, then returns to obsessively staring at Lux.

“Whatever you’re making,” I reply.

“Breakfast burrito?”

“Sounds great.”

“Good evening, Sebastian.” Lux turns her head to me with a soft smile.

Lux and I didn’t start out on the best of terms, but she quickly proved herself to be as fucked up as the rest of us, so I reluctantly accepted her into the family.

“Evening. You look happy.”

River leans in front of Lux with a wide smile, blocking my view. “Because we’re leaving on Friday for the South of France.”

Although I am happy for my cousin to get a little time off from our nightlife, it means this will be the first time we’ve been away from each other since we were kids. He’s a pain in my ass and we fight constantly, but River is my brother, and it’s hard to imagine taking on the new project of the magnitude of the Black Veil Society without him.

“That’s where you guys decided to go?” Ben places a plate in front of me with a breakfast burrito and some greens.

“Yeah. It’s far enough away to give us both a break and to clear our heads,” Lux replies. “But close enough that we can come back if things take a turn upside down with the Society project.”

River’s head cocks to the side with a slight smirk, but behind the expression there’s a light streak of encouragement. “With help from Christian and Hayden, Sebastian has this under control.”

I appreciate the confidence, but I know I can handle everything. However, I’d be lying to myself if there wasn’t a slight apprehension settling in my bones. I can’t let River know that because Lux is his priority now, and if he thinks I need help, he’ll force himself to stay. I give him shit about their nauseating obsession with one another, but I am deeply happy for him.

Picking up my burrito with one hand, I wave him off with the other. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not as needed as you think you are.”

Lux laughs and hops off her high-top chair. “I think you two are more alike than either of you want to admit.” She kisses River and skips out of the kitchen.

A grumble from the pantry is Ben agreeing with her.

“I’m not as much of a control freak. And I also don’t have that big an ego where I think things can’t run perfectly fine without me.”

River spits his water out in shock—or for dramatic effect. Who knows with him? “Really?”

I rip a bite off my food and stare him down. “Yeah. I’m way more go-with-the-flow than you are.”

“We’ll see about that.” A smug smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you haven’t yet faced a situation where someone has taken away the control you believe you have.” River stacks his plate on top of Lux’s and walks around to the sink.

He’s referring to when Lux was taken by Andrew Hughes, the hotel heir.

“I get it,” I say. “But I always keep in mind that sometimes we simply have to adapt to our surroundings—to be prepared to act in the moment. And then not to be surprised when the plans don’t go the way we were expecting.”