Page 68 of War and his Queen

It’s because the boys handled that. Probably on top of all the above and then some.

My smile widens on Evie. It’s the kind that never fools her because she can see right through it.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.” I start my car and breathe out a sigh when the RB engine growls.

Evie reaches for her seat belt. “You know, I kind of didn’t think you’d be driving this tonight.”

I pump the clutch and move the gear stick into reverse. “I know. But I want todrivetonight.”

“Oh?” Evie raises a brow. “Maybe rebelling since the boys are away?”

I push it into drive. “Aren’t we always.”

Only this time Evie doesn’t know why. The true reason. Before, it was harmless pushing against the fold for shits and giggles. Now it’s not that. I know for a fact that whatever they’ve been doing all this time, it’s one hundred percent more than what we’ve been doing. Almost like the Fathers put us on this path to distract us so we’d stay out of their way. I shouldn’t be mad.I’m not mad.But so much for equal ground.

I should have known better.

I drive us forward and Evie plays with the radio until she stops on a song by Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj. She winds down her window and plays with her phone, snapping a few photos of us and a video, before turning the camera onto me. “Tell the people where to meet tonight, your majesty…”

A smirk touches the corner of my mouth. “Meet at the chapel.” I turn to face the camera, dropping it down a gear and flooring it. “Then follow me.” The force of power throws Evie back in her chair with a round of giggles.

She flips the camera to the back and keeps it recording as we drive through the opulent streets of Riverside. There were old tales that Dad told me as a child. I think all the dads told us the same story, and I think if I remember correctly, it came from one of our family grimoires.

Vitiosis, no doubt.

The tale spoke of a witch who put a hex on the men of Riverside because of all the trauma they inflicted on Swans. They had to restore the balance somehow. None of them told us what that hex included, but now that I’m older, I’m assuming it was making them all assholes.

I keep driving as Evie skips songs, dances in her chair while drinking from the bottle of Don Julio, and lip-syncs alone to the lyrics. I don’t bother telling her to stop the streaming, because now that we’re are all on the same page with the boys, I don’t have anything to hide.

Almost.

I pull down Main Street, bypassing the shops and town center, before turning down the back entrance of the chapel and park in an empty spot. I leave my headlights on as the car growls beneath the music.

Turning to Evie, I mouthmute itto her before she taps her screen.

The silence will be short-lived because within minutes, this car park will be thick with cars. On cue, cars roll through the entrance of the parking lot in a roll of color, pulsing engines, and boisterous music. Once everyone is here, I press the accelerator and double clutch until the blow-off valve whistles.

“Everything my dad told me growing up, wasn’t all of the truth.” I direct us back out the way we came.

Evie pauses, the long-neck bottle almost to her lips. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, the dark shit I was prepared for when it came to the EKC, Evie, doesn’t even touch the surface of the barbarous bullshit they’ve been toying with this whole time. It’s almost like they used us as a smoke screen.” I continue to drive us forward, through the streets of Riverside, and head north. Opposite of the way to New York and the Hamptons.

Streetlights whip past the deeper we are on the highway, until eventually it bleeds obsidian, with nothing but clusters of lights that line the center of the road.

“Bayonet Falls?” Evie pipes up, gawking out the window.

Goosebumps break out over my arms as I feel myself nearing the enemy’s territory. It’s like my body can feel Chevalier Hill looming closer and every instinct I have is saying to rip up the brakes and turn my ass around. But Bayonet Falls isn’t Gentlemen territory. It isn’t ours either, but if anyone knew that we were going there, it would have both sides prickling with tension.

The Gentlemen and the Elite Kings Club don’t have a superficial beef like our other rivals. No. This generational hatred is deep-rooted and dates back to our great-great-great—whatever—grandparents. It’s so volatile that even centuries later, there needs to be a damn treaty in place.

For years now, I’ve never heard anyone so much as whisper their existence. I don’t think we’d have an issue in Bayonet Falls. If anything, the ghoulish, abandoned township and ghosts who occupy it will love the company.

In the rearview mirror, the lines of headlights follow from behind as my phone starts blaring from the holster it’s connected to on the vent.

I swipe it unlocked when I see Stella’s face.

“Where are you?”

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