Awful Intentions: Friends-to-Lovers Romance (The Celestial Bodies Series Book 2)

by Elena Monroe

  I watched him pull away from me, feeling empty without him between my legs, as his hands twisted me over and yanked my hips up, putting my ass in the air. I wasn’t going to argue. He needed healing, and I wasn’t about to tell him which part of my body was best for that, for him.

  A shaky yes escaped my mouth, and my fists closed around the sheets, needing something to grab while he was behind me.

  I felt something wet up my spine, and I knew it was his tongue again, licking up me like he needed to claim more than my heart and pussy, but even my backbone.

  He could have it. All of it.

  I was his.

  Luna

  T he next day felt like we had missed it.

  I was used to the light of the morning pouring through my barely-there curtains, not here. Nyx’s room was completely black, and heavy black-out curtains didn’t help.

  As soon as I stirred, so did Nyx next to me. “What time is it?”

  Finding my phone in the dark was an accomplishment, while my eyes were still adjusting. 2:57 p.m.

  Nyx fucked me into a stay of exhaustion and didn’t stop until my legs were shaking violently. We both needed the extra hours of sleep after Dorian, Cotton Candy, and the stranger Nyx had killed with his dad.

  I wasn’t sure only sleep would recharge my soon-to-be king. He was cracking under all the death, and two of those were my fault. Feeling the guilt of my bad behavior I snuggled into his side.

  “Ready to be my queen?”

  “Always.”

  “It’s gonna piss a lot of people off. Bolton in particular…” He wanted to laugh, but didn’t. He simply smirked at the idea of pissing off the guy who already was stuck in a state of disappointment with everyone around him.

  “Arianna will take the throne eventually…”

  Holding me closer to him, I felt my body warm up. “Eventually, but not before I descend the throne. I’ll be the first king since the three we’ve known our whole lives, babe.”

  The weight of his words made me nervously swallow at the realization that the girls may not be happy for me either. “When will the ritual be?”

  It was always a ritual: for going home, for new kings, for being bound in the way we were about to be.

  Always a ritual.

  “Soon. We can't avoid it too long. You'll have time to tell them, but not much.”

  It was like he was reading my mind, knowing I wanted to tell the girls, but equal parts afraid of their reactions.

  Prying myself from his arms, I reached for my phone again and pulled up my text messages, when my stomach growled, begging for food.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I ate or drank any water. Death was distracting.

  Pulling Nyx’s shirt over my head, I peered behind me. There was slight snoring vibrating the air; he had fallen back to sleep at a weird angle. Half on the pillows, diagonally, his arm was over his eyes, as if any light could bleed through his curtains.

  Laser focused on closing the door softly behind me, I didn’t hear anything coming my way, until I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “Kate? What are you doing here?”

  She didn’t look as polished as normal. I could see her makeup smeared off, lipstick faded, but still staining her lips, and her outfit completely out of sorts. It made me take a longer, harder look at Kate—something I never thought I needed to do.

  She was perfect.

  Always perfect.

  “Well, I’m here to check on you, silly…” She linked arms with me and forced me to move along with her down the hallway.

  I had been so caught up with Dorian, sneaking around with Nyx, and trying to fit myself into being good, when that’s not all I am, that I forgot to look past Arianna’s sassy comments or Kate’s sexual appetite to make sure they were okay.

  Were they okay?

  Was I a shitty person for putting myself first before I investigated?

  How could I be okay if my friends weren’t?

  I smiled slowly, carefully. We were both aware of where she was, but neither of us wanted to admit it. It felt fake to smile, when really I was worried about her more than myself now.

  Kate stopped her small talk suddenly, with a horrified look clinging to her bright features, as I moved around the kitchen gathering ingredients for scrambled eggs.

  “Hold on… What is that on your finger, Luna?” Kate snatched my hand into hers and examined the ring closely, before I could respond. “Wait… Is this Persephone’s ring? My sister’s?”

  I tried to take my hand back, while she examined it closer, not realizing that before now and mad at myself for it.

  Nyx’s mom, Persephone, was Kate’s sister… a messy web that left even the smartest with a headache.

  Everyone’s bloodline was muddled to some degree, and Zeus had so many children it was hard to think of yourself not as a child of his.

  “Hades gave it to me… Nyx’s ring didn’t fit...” I offered quietly to her as explanation.

  “When did this happen?” Kate was sassy in a playful way—a way that meant well, no matter what tone she used.

  “Last night… after everything…” Twisting the gas stove knob, I watched the fire crop up around the burner, and Dorian’s scream echoed in my mind.

  My heart started pounding, chest heaving, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the flames dancing around casually.

  “Earth to Luna? Hello?” Kate was sitting on the island with her legs crossed perfectly, unmatching her appearance altogether though.

  Snapping from the memories that weren’t even old enough to be classified as memories, I cracked the egg into the pan, not turning around to make eye contact.

  She’d know something was wrong, but she would politely smile the same way I did about knowing where she really came from.

  “Does Arianna know anything? She’s as temperamental as Bolton. I’ll text her. We need to fill her in.”

  How bad could it be? Kate knows, and it wasn’t that painful. Maybe I was stressed over nothing.

  Kate understood that Dorian wasn’t a good person and didn’t judge what I felt all along for Nyx…

  She couldn't really be handing out judgments when she was sneaking around with Hades.

  Just as I finished making breakfast for us all, Arianna stormed the castle in her infamous Doc Martens. Her purple hair was vibrant, and the tired eyes she used to sport had faded. She was feeling much more herself, and it showed, but I was still trying to look past her surface at the problems underneath.

  My guilt was working overtime to compensate by finding problems I could fix… or convince myself I could fix.

  Arianna had a shadow attached to her, larger than her, with messy blonde hair. Kate rolled her eyes, popping a cherry tomato in her mouth, as I looked her direction for answers.

  Why did she bring Bolton? How was I supposed to come clean to her without pissing off her boyfriend?

  Sliding a plate in front of the barstool, I stayed firm on the other side. “I didn’t know you were coming too. I can make more?”

  Bolton chuckled, like it was a dumb idea. “I’m not here for girl time. Where’s Caellum?”

  I heard Kate and I both let out a sigh at the same time in relief that he wasn’t staying so that we could fill Arianna in.

  Before I could tell him where his room was, Kate was opening her mouth to respond, “Up the stairs, first door on the right. If you get to the end of the hall near the second staircase, then you went too far.”

  Squinting at her and pursing my lips, I wanted to scold her for knowing things she shouldn’t. Remembering she came home with us last night had my mind reeling to know what happened that she ended up one floor up than originally planned.

  I waited for Bolton to be out of ear shot. “I didn’t know you were bringing him…” I was trying to not sound judgmental, but I could hear it in my own voice.

  “He’s clingy AF,” Kate chimed in. “We really need you to focus, honey. I know it’s hard when he’s that close, but this is
important.” Her two fingers moved from her eyes to Arianna’s, making sure there was a string of eye contact.

  I felt the nerves vibrate inside my rib cage, trying to escape. I felt like I was gonna throw up in my mouth. I didn’t know how to even start to form sentences that could explain this.

  With a loud huff and an eye roll, Kate took over: “Okay, so… Dorian hit Luna, so now he’s dead. Cotton Candy fucked Nyx, which is Luna’s man, so now she’s dead. Oh, and Luna is engaged to Nyx, which makes her the new soon-to-be queen.” Kate exhaled. “I think we covered it all… Thank god! I am so hungry.”

  Arianna’s eyes widened, I could tell she was even more confused than Kate. She was still in her honeymoon stage with Bolton and her memories. “Wait, you’re engaged to Nyx… and not Dorian? Did I miss something? Aren’t we too young to be marrying off?”

  “Speak for yourself, Ari. We’re immortals. We’re thousands of years old. You just feel young, because you forgot what it’s like to live forever.” Kate’s snark could rival Arianna’s sass any day.

  Arianna’s brows furrowed, and she stared at us like we robbed a bank and didn’t invite her along. I was worried about her telling Bolton or realizing what being queen truly meant, but she was focused on the fear of missing out.

  Leave it to Arianna to ditch the cold hard facts just to hone in on being left out, not that I killed people. I just admitted to it… well, indirectly admitted.

  Kate left out that part, thankfully. Arianna was smart; she would figure it out eventually.

  “How do you know already?” She turned to Kate with a hard gaze in her eyes.

  Kate threw up her hands in a response instead of her words. That was news she wasn’t going to break to Arianna; it would send her backwards in the progress she made since being catatonic.

  Caellum rounded the corner and walked past the kitchen island, stealing a tomato from Kate’s plate and giving her a smirk. “Hungry, huh? Worn out?”

  I was listening closely as I ate my eggs, waiting for Arianna to spill the news to Bolton, who came in behind Caellum. Glancing at Kate, she avoided eye contact. I was watching Arianna like a hawk, silently begging her to keep this to herself.

  The guys could handle telling Bolton. That wasn’t my problem.

  Kate was scolding Caellum for taking food from her plate silently, just before she blurted out, “When is the ritual happening? I need to go shopping.”

  Bolton’s eyes followed me around the kitchen, analyzing every nerve rising to my surface. “What ritual?”

  Caellum’s arms wrapped around my shoulders, squeezing, “Our Little Luna is getting hitched to Nyx… Ain't that right?” I felt his cheek flush against mine, as Bolton’s stand got even more tense.

  “Excuse me…?”

  Swallowing down the rage I could feel flying off him onto me, I didn’t want to wake up the parts of me that were okay with taking the bread knife and seeing if the serrated edge would leave a pattern across his neck.

  He was more than a bother lately.

  He was a nuisance that I happily killed in my mind over and over again, just so I wouldn’t have to listen to him whine.

  Caellum tossed him an orange, and he caught it without even trying. “Watch the tone, buddy. She’s the new queen… tomorrow?” He turned to me to confirm, and I nodded my head yes in agreeance.

  Tomorrow under the cloak of the night sky, I would lay my hand over Nyx’s, and entwine binding more than our bodies—our souls, our reign, our fate. The bell would ring out in celebration once the ceremony was over. The candles would stay lit until there was no more wax, and the cup filled with the air we would share from now on.

  Bound for eternity.

  Immortal.

  No undoing this.

  No death to do us part.

  Luna

  I thought I would be nervous or at least a good kind of nervous.

  I was throwing myself into another ritual and hoping neither side of my personality would ruin it this time.

  If I could just stay bad all the time, things would be easier.

  Standing in the front of the floor-length mirror, I looked at my black, floor-length, lace dress. I was ready to be bound to Nyx forever as his queen. His mother’s ring glimmered against the romantic lighting, and I spotted Hades in the mirror’s reflection. He was standing in the doorway and dressed all in black velvet.

  “Little Lamb, just came to make sure you’re still sure.”

  He closed the gap and stood behind me, looking at me in the mirror with his hands gently on my shoulders. “I’ve never been more sure about anything but Nyx. Even when I told myself I wasn’t sure.”

  His thumb caught my chin, twisting me to look at him, like this required eye-to-eye contact and not some reflection. “You know what this means, Little Lamb? It just isn’t any crown. It’s—”

  Cutting him off, I knew the warning coming, “I know. It’s dark, it's painful, and it's even hard to swallow for Nyx—someone who has prepared his whole life for this role to eventually come. I’ve killed… I’m more ready than he is for this.”

  He playfully tugged the tentacles of curls cascading over my shoulders, with the black headpiece not doing anything to hold them back. “You remind me of his mom, Little Lamb—a dark soul, wrapped in deceiving wrapping paper.”

  I digested what he said and smiled at how true it was.

  “I’ll meet you downstairs. Little Lamb? He’s going to die a thousand deaths when he sees you in this dress.”

  Kate picked it out. All black lace seemed appropriate for someone taking a throne of the Underworld.

  Kate did a lot of the decorating, closely with Hades, to make sure it was all up to standards of the ritual. It made me wonder if Nyx’s dad was the reason she had been smiling more. Her and Austin’s relationship wasn’t exactly a secret, yet no one said a word about how out of it he seemed and how sexually charged Kate was lately.

  I wasn’t supposed to see anything, including Nyx, per demands of Kate. She jumped into this engagement and wedding a few days later, while Arianna felt differently.

  She was happy at first, but I’m sure Bolton connected the dots for her. She wasn’t ready to be bound for him, to take her father’s power or the throne. Arianna wasn’t going to admit that, so she was forced to take the same stance as her boyfriend.

  Descending the stairs, I saw Nectar of the God’s completely transformed with flowers, candles, and an altar, with everything needed to complete the ceremony. It wasn’t as simple as the ritual where we go home after stabbing someone as a sacrifice.

  No, this ritual was something you couldn’t take back. It was a crossing of threads in the fabric of fate.

  I mentally tallied everything needed from what I had read. Nyx was virtually no help. He shrugged every time I had asked.

  Since Nyx had killed someone, who he didn’t truly know deserved it, it really messed him up. If you thought he was silent before, then buckle up, because his mouth was practically sewn shut.

  Kate liked the details. I knew it would all be there, but at least this was taking up time until the ritual started.

  Caellum was sitting in one of the booths, suit jacket on with no shirt, ripped jeans, suspenders, and his bow tie undone, with his feet up on the table in front of him. “You know you aren’t allowed down here ‘til Kate says so.”

  He was taunting me.

  “I don’t see Kate down here to bust me.”

  His finger pointed towards the sky. “Pretty sure she’s busy with your man’s dad.”

  My mouth fell open at his assumption matching mine. I wasn’t the only one thinking that. The fact that Caellum was thinking the same thing made me feel pretty smart.

  “That’s gonna be a problem later on, huh?” I was fast-forwarding through the events that could lead to Austin, Kate, and Hades imploding all over the rest of us.

  Caellum knew her best. They even dated; his opinion would be as factual as we’d get.

  “She’s a big girl. She
can look for love in all the wrong places, while I sit here pretty, mocking her final attempts.” His voice had a bite to it, and I couldn’t figure out why.

  “Well, that’s a lot I can’t unpack right now. I’m gonna find Nyx…” I moved past him and his dark cloud of truth towards the hallways that branch off the main large room of the bar.

  The hallways were almost black, apart from the dim lights embedded in the wood floors and the doors blending in with the black walls. Whisper-yelling his name, I was hoping he would hear me, but none of the doors opened. Going to the end of the hallway, I heard Bolton’s voice grit against my eardrums.

  His voice was low, but I could still hear the impact, as I tried to make out specific words.

  This is bullshit, and you know it.

  You aren't ready to be king.

  Do you think Luna's gonna ever be okay again after you throw her to the wolves?

  I wanted to bust through the door and tell him off. I wanted to make sure he wasn't pushing me into the category of weak, like Dorian did.

  As my hand touched the doorknob, I heard another voice, unmistakable—one I hadn’t heard since in the woods at Arcadia: Omari.

  No. My mind was playing tricks on me. The guilt grabbed onto Bolton’s words and taunted me.

  Listening for more of that voice I swore was Omari’s, I pressed my ear to the door carefully, quietly. I didn't expect for the door to pull open to the guys staring at me, lost. I lost my mind.

  Looking around them, I tried to find Omari, but Nyx and Bolton were the only two standing in the room.

  Was this Omari breaking free of the shadows and being trapped in my dreams? Was I just so guilt ridden that I was imagining him?

  “But I heard...” My burrows furrowed so hard that I felt like I was creating a headache as my voice whimpered out.

  Nyx was staring at me, silently. “Luna. You. Wow.”

  “Died a thousand deaths?” My features melted under his gaze, and his arms wrapped around me as Bolton stormed out.

  “Not happy, huh?”

  “Never. Surprised Arianna cracked through to the other side of him.”

  The silence swelled, and we just took each other in before we needed to make our way to the altar. I checked my phone quietly, and it was almost midnight. Rituals were very dependent on a lot of facts: the time, the people, the objects, and the intentions.