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Right—that’s another thing about Knightsblood. This schoollovesits semi-secret student clubs. Which are really more like factions, or tribes, or gangs. There are four of them: Para Bellum, The Order, Ouroboros Society, and The Reckless. And considering that Chase is the head of the numero uno club on campus, the star quarterback,andthe student body president, the fact that he seems to be activelycourtingme—taking me out to lunch, texting me, going out of his way to cross paths with me—is…odd, to say the least.
I mean, I’mme. Weird. Shy. Unpopular. Quirky. Shitty backstory. Chase is the Jake Ryan to my Samantha Baker. But real life isn’t a John Hughes movie. The popular jock doesn’t actually ever fall for the weird nerd. There aren’t any improbable happy endings, comic sidekicks, or heroes.
I swallow, shivering a little as something electric prickles up my spine.
There’s no heroes. But therearevillains.
My cheeks flush as my thoughts drift all the way to the other end of the spectrum from Chase Cavendish. You see, as popular and loved as he is, Chase isn’t the only prince at this school.
There are two of them, one a golden prince of light—that would be Chase—and another one, the exact opposite of him.
A prince of darkness.
A dark, swirling, malevolent force of nature that I’ve tried to stay away from ever since the day school started. Not just because almosteveryoneon campus seems to be scared of him, which by extension, makesmea little scared of him, too.
But because he doesn’t quite scare me as much as I know heshould. And because even when he does scare me, he also excites me, in traitorous, dangerous ways.
Deimos Drakos.
He’s the polar opposite of Chase. Dark and gloomy, cold and malicious. Where Chase is the charming, smiling quarterback, Deimos is the snarling, chilling antisocial shadow who eschews sports and other student organizations, though it’s rumored that he’s the undisputed king of the “alleged” underground fights that happen on the occasional weekend night.
Chase’s family is only loosely connected to the mafia in that his father runs a hedge fund that happens to invest and move a lot of money for the Mexican Cartels and the Italian mafia. But Deimos’ family literallyisthe mafia—Greek, specifically, and powerful at that.
Where Chase is the president of Para Bellum, Deimos is the ruling mad king of The Reckless, the club most fundamentally opposite Para Bellum. Para Bellum is full of the golden and gilded stars of the school—sports team captains, oldest heirs to powerful families, top students. The Reckless is where the damned and the devious end up.
Two princes: one light, one dark. With absolutely nothing in common…except one thing.
It’s nothing I can prove; nothing I know for an absolute fact. But deep down in the throb of my pulse and the pit of my gut,I know.
What they have in common is an interest inme.
Chase is overt about it. Meanwhile, Deimos has never once spoken to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him even looking in my direction.
But somehow, I know he’s interested. I can sense it. Like claws dragging down your window at night, that are gone when you go to look. Like the creak of a floorboard behind you, which is only a shadow when you whirl with a gasp.
With a sigh, I sink onto one of the stone benches in the rose garden. I drop my head back against the ivy-covered stone wall at my back and close my eyes, grateful for a moment of peace finally. Which is, of course, when my phone dings.
Raphael:
Fuck, I’m so sorry, Dahlia
My brows furrow.
Me:
For?
Raphael:
Shit. don’t go on KnightNet
Almost all social media is blocked on campus, for the security of the students who go here. Instead, the school has a somewhat lame, dated message-board style “social” site accessible only to students.
Which, of course, I immediately log onto.
…Andinstantlyregret.
It’s the top post, right at the very top of my screen, and my heart stops. It’s a picture from some porn site of a woman in a hijab, on her knees with her boobs out, holding a monstrously large dick in each of her hands.
