Page 35 of War and his Queen

“Aye!” Priest charges, but whoever it is winds their window up and drives forward, leaving dust and gravel behind.

I pause, looking between Priest and the disappearing car. “You’ve seen it before?”

Priest bares his teeth, turning back around. “Yeah. But only the other day.” I watch as his eyes move around the place, never pausing on one spot for longer than a second. “They’re getting bold, and I’m losing patience.”

Vaden looks between him and I. “You keep saying that but not doing anything about it.”

I lean back on a tree trunk, crossing my ankles at my feet. The night is gristly and bleak, the crescent moon luminescent.Rolling my bottom lip beneath my teeth, I nudge my head. “Let’s play a game.”

Halen

Slidingup the hood of my car, I let my feet dangle over the edge while pulling up my thigh-high leather boots.

“This is creepy…”

“What is?” I breathe out a sigh, lying back and glaring up at the dark sky. Around the loud music and laughter, there’s the celestial sound of squealing tires and hot engines redlining. I could not be in a better place. Despite the hangover from last night.

“You smiling like that…” River tilts her head to the side, standing right beside the car.

I turn my head slowly to her. “Well, I’m happy. For one, my brother has let go of his obsession with keeping me under his thumb, and two? I don’t know. Everything is good and as it should be.”

River rounds the car, her high heels crunching over the gravel.Wait.I push myself up to check—yes.HerValentinos. She slips up beside me, her perfectly styled blonde hair rippling in the wind.

“Have you seen the boys?” she asks but keeps her focus to the front. It wasn’t so much a question more than it was a statement.

Or a warning.

I scan the area, but my brain is too slow to keep up with my eyes. Or the other way around. Everything tilts to the side the more I try to strain my eyes. Damn. I only had a hit of a blunt.

“No. Not since they were up there—” I wave my hand at the small stage that’s built to the side, where couches and beer bottles are all littered. “—doing whatever!”

“Speaking of…” Evie takes my hand and my skin clings to the hood of the car. “I’m going to go steal their coke.”

“Evie.” I glare at her, but I’m pretty sure my eyes are over her shoulder and not actually making eye contact. “You don’t do coke.”

She blinks. “Okay, fine. I just want to piss off Priest.”

“You won’t piss him off.” I let her pull me off the car, reaching backward and hooking my fingers into River’s. Part of me is glad Stella didn’t come out tonight, but then she doesn’t usually. “He doesn’t care enough about anything.”

“Vaden will…” Evie grabs me by the hand and we all start making our way through the sea of people. They move the closer we get to them. It has always worked for us, until it didn’t. Until it became annoying and to the point where we had to leave the town to have any fun.

I jog up the steps, dropping down onto the sofa and placing my heels against the coffee table. I don’t think I’ll be drinking ever again after last night.

“How was the first week?” Evie asks us both when she sits at Priest’s spot. After the last incident, I told her a little more about us… without telling her too much.

A car fires up in the background. I should be wondering where they are, but I’m too focused on Evie to care.

“Fine.” That was putting it lightly. Whatever is going on, on this side, I am almost certain they’re hiding it from me. I justhave to figure out why they’re doing it and if it’s to protect me, or for another reason.

The music lulls me into a relaxed state as I take a sip of water.

Maybe I shouldn’t ignore it the way we have always ignored it…

“Don’t you think it’s a little fucking sexist that you guys don’t have to go to school?” River glares across the room at the boys, twirling her long blonde hair around her finger. “I mean, I’m all for tradition, but I think I’d rather just go back to being a Swan.”

Vaden watches River closely, running his finger over his upper lip.

I know he wants to say something to her, tell her she’s being annoying. Out of all of us, he and River have the closest brother-sister friendship. Even though she and War are siblings, War is too hard on her. Vaden is the one she calls when she’s in trouble because she knows that he isn’t going to yell at her and pull the daddy card. Vaden is the calm one. The one we all can count on but the one we also know has hidden demons.

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