by Elle East
“Are you sure, Maddy?” he asked in concern as he watched my face.
He knew me, and he knew how much pain I was in. It had always been so hard to hide anything from him.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine… But could you help me back to my room?”
I didn’t want to ask, but I knew it was going to be almost impossible for me to get back there on my own.
“Of course,” he said and then shifted over to my side.
He gently wrapped one of his tattooed arms around my back and placed his hand on my waist. Despite the pain, I felt the same electricity between the two of us that I always did when we were close. Sparks flared where his arm touched my body.
I could tell he felt it too because he gave me a look with dark, hooded eyes.
I cleared my throat. “Let’s go.”
We started walking slowly. The school was silent except for the sounds of our Oxfords against the hard marble.
When we made it to the Bell Tower, I looked at all those stairs. I sighed deeply—then let out a yelp of pain as the added air in my lungs caused my ribs to move.
He pulled me closer, and I leaned heavily on his hard body. We started climbing the stairs. It took us way longer than it had ever taken me before, and I was so relieved when we finally reached the top floor.
“Thanks,” I said as I pulled away from him.
I was thanking him for helping me back to my room, but then I realized that if he hadn’t found me when he did, it could have gotten really bad. If it hadn’t been for him, I may have ended up with way more than a broken rib and some bruises. Those girls didn’t seem like they were about to stop anytime soon until he came along and scared them off.
“And thanks for saving me,” I added reluctantly.
“Always,” he answered with a tense smile.
He then leaned forward and kissed me. The electric sparks I felt when his arm was around me were nothing compared to the ones that took over my lips. I breathed in deep the smell of moss and cloves.
And then I pushed him away.
“Grayson, don’t,” I whispered.
I tried to sound firm, but it came out as a breathy plead.
He hung his head in disappointment and frustration. His thick, wavy hair fell back down to cover his forehead.
I had to reach out behind me to hold on to the door. I felt like my legs were about to give out at any moment—more from the kiss than from the beating.
He finally nodded once like he’d decided something and then turned to leave.
“Goodnight, Maddy,” he called over his shoulder.
“Night, Grayson.”
When he’d disappeared down the stairs, I turned and went into my room.
“Make sure you lock the door,” I heard him call up to me.
I shivered.
Chapter 22
The next day I woke up extra early to cover the bruises on my face with makeup. I had a mild black eye that was still developing. I also had a bruise on my cheek and a smaller one on my jaw. My makeup job didn’t look perfect, you could tell there was something weird on my face if you were close to me, but it was the best I could do.
I skipped breakfast and headed straight to class. I didn’t get Dean because I hadn’t decided what I was going to do yet. I was pretty sure Victoria was the ringleader of the group that attacked me—I was almost certain that had been her voice I heard, despite how she’d tried to change it—but I didn’t have any proof. All of them had their faces covered, and were wearing long robes and identical Oxford shoes, so there was no way for me to tell who they actually were.
I didn’t know if I wanted to report the incident to school authorities or not. Dean and I had a mission to do and added scrutiny from the school administration would make that harder. I also had no proof. The school didn’t have security cameras in the hall as far as I knew. It would just be my word against theirs, and I hadn’t even seen their faces. I was 99.9 percent sure who it was, but not a hundred.
I wanted a bit more time to think about it all before I got Dean involved, so I walked through the halls alone. I didn’t feel unsafe because the school at this time of day was packed with students all rushing to class.
I turned a corner and spotted three familiar figures coming towards me. I groaned and tried to turn around and walk away, but they were too fast. Almost instantly, the three large guys surrounded me. I looked up into their faces and saw their serious expressions.
“Come on, guys, it’s too early for this. I’ve had a rough night so could you just give me a break?” I asked in exasperation.
“We heard,” Brett said.
“Maddy,” Archer started, and I looked up into his gray-blue eyes. “This is getting serious. You need to leave.”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Why?” Archer asked.
Individually they were all intimidating, but when they were in a group together, they became a force to be reckoned with. I could see why everyone was scared of them. But I made sure to look each one of them in the eye when I said, “Because I haven’t finished what I came here to do. I haven’t gotten my revenge yet.”
Archer and Grayson threw up their hands and shook their heads in disbelief, while Brett continued to stare at me.
“Maddy, this is serious,” Grayson said.
“I am being serious. I’m not letting you get away with what you did to me last year.”
“We’ll pay for you to live somewhere else,” Brett added, and I turned to him in surprise.
“It’s not about the money,” I said. But he was right. Even if I wanted to leave, I had no money to go anywhere else. “Also, are you kidding me? I don’t trust you guys at all to begin with, I’m not going to live somewhere that you’re paying for. I wouldn’t give you that kind of control over me.”
“You can choose where you want to go. You don’t even have to tell us,” said Brett. “We’ll just give you the money to leave.”
I shook my head. “This is insane. There’s no way I’m even going to consider it. I worked hard here, and I’m not giving up this opportunity—I’m not giving up on my mom.”
I’m not giving up on my revenge.
I couldn’t believe we were even talking about this. As if they thought I’d ever take this kind of deal from them. They had to be out of their minds.
“At least let us protect you,” Archer said.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Are you serious? How would you ever protect me? You’re the people I’m most suspicious of!”
“Let us walk you to your classes,” he added. “We don’t want you alone with Dean.”
“Dean? What’s wrong with him?”
“Notice how your boyfriend is never there to protect you when things go wrong?” he asked with raised eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t entertaining their stupid insinuations. Still… they weren’t wrong. It was a bit suspicious how he was never there when I really needed him, despite being by my side almost constantl—No.
They were just trying to get into my head and make me question everything. I couldn’t let them play their mind games on me again.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said.
“Good. Then it’ll be easier for you to agree to let us accompany you to your classes,” Archer said with a small smirk.
I looked at the other two Kings in exasperation.
“No,” I said firmly.
“Look, we’re sorry about what happened last year. We didn’t want to,” Grayson said.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Brett added.
I rolled my eyes so hard I was scared they’d get stuck in the back of my head. “Bullshit. Do you guys really expect me to believe that?”
“What do we have to do to prove it?” Archer asked with a weary sigh.
I thought about it for a moment.
“Sit at the charity table today for lunch,” I finally said.
Based on the stunned and horrified looks on all of their faces, you would have
thought I’d asked them to jump into a vat of acid.
“We can’t do that,” Archer said in alarm. “We’d be risking our reputation. Something like that could get us kicked out of the Royalty.”
“I don’t give a fuck about your reputation. Did you guys care at all when you destroyed mine? This is nothing compared to what you put me through. Do this or we don’t have a deal.”
“You don’t underst—” Grayson started, but I cut him off.
“Do it or we don’t have a deal.”
They all looked at each other and did that thing where they communicated without words. They finally reluctantly agreed.
“Fine,” I said suddenly, surprising even myself. “I have to get to class.”
I pushed my way out of the circle they’d formed around me. Their hard bodies yielding reluctantly. I took off without a look back. A couple of seconds later, I heard quick footsteps and then Brett was at my side.
I was about to tell him to get lost, but then realized that this was exactly what I’d just agreed to. We had first period together so I guess he had “Maddy Duty” first.
I’d agreed to their stupid deal because I was pretty sure the Queens were behind all the attacks on me. I knew the Royalty worked as one, so the Kings were in on Victoria’s plans as well. What I hadn’t figured out yet was why they kept saving me. It was either because they felt Victoria was going too far, or they were playing the ultimate mind game. They kept saving me so I wouldn’t suspect them, while building up to some ultimate betrayal that was significantly worse than anything they’d done so far.
Either way, having them around would give me a better idea of what was coming.
I had already decided that for my own safety I was going to be more careful of where I went—and with whom. So I was never going to let myself be alone with any of the Kings. I would just let them walk me through the crowded halls to class and that was it.
The charity table thing was just something I came up with on the spot. It didn’t seem like a suitable punishment for what they’d done—it was just sitting at a table after all—but I knew that because of Crestmoore’s strict traditions, it would be absolutely humiliating for them. And besides, it was only a minuscule fraction of the revenge I had planned for them.
I looked over at Brett. His jaw was clenched, and I could see the muscles stretched tight like elastic bands under the skin.
As far as revenge went, we’d start small and work our way up to the big, empire-destroying stuff later on. There was time… right?
Chapter 23
Dean wasn’t in second period. I asked the teacher about it, and she told me he wasn’t feeling well and was taking the morning off. I was a bit worried, but I didn’t have time to run back to the Bell Tower before my third class.
At lunch, I went to check on him. I knocked on his door, but there was no answer. Frowning, I knocked again. I pressed my ear against the door and listened. Silence. I was starting to get worried. What if something had happened to him? The worst possible scenarios started running through my mind.
I decided to head to the dining hall to see if he’d gone there. As I walked, anxiety was flowing through me, but I tried to calm myself down. He was probably fine.
When I got to the dining hall, I found him sitting at our usual loser table in the corner. I breathed out a big sigh of relief.
“Hey,” I said as I sat down across from him. “You had me worried. How are you feeling? Our teacher said you were sick?”
He looked up at me, and I could tell he’d had a rough morning. There were dark bags under his eyes and lines of pain across his forehead.
“Yeah, I took the morning off because I had a bad headache. I get them sometimes—have ever since I was a kid.”
“I’m so sorry. That really sucks. Want me to get you something to eat?” The table in front of him was noticeably food-less.
“Just a coffee if you don’t mind.” He gave me a weak smile, and it tugged at my heart.
I hated seeing him in pain. He was so strong and to see him suffering was heartbreaking.
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
I went and got my lunch. I picked up a black coffee for Dean because I knew that was how he took it. When I handed him his drink, he took it gratefully. Just watching him made my heart hurt.
I started eating my ratatouille and didn’t ask him anymore questions. He didn’t seem like he was up for talking, so we sat in silence. He gripped his mug and stared at it. He looked worn out—but still handsome as hell.
The doors to the dining hall opened and the usual quiet murmur swept through the room, so I knew members of the Royalty had entered. I looked up to see all three Kings stride into the room. They caught my eye, and I noted that none of them looked happy—then I realized why. Our conversation this morning rushed back to me, and I was suddenly very excited to see what they were going to do.
I was practically giddy as I turned to watch them. They walked angrily up the aisle towards the head table which sat on a raised platform at the end of the room. At the halfway point, without hesitation, they quickly turned and took a seat with the scholarship students.
Dead silence.
You could have heard a pin drop in that gigantic room.
I couldn’t suppress the huge smile that took over my face. Dean noticed the change and looked up in confusion.
All at once, the room exploded in a flood of whispers. No one had ever seen anything like this before. Members of the Royalty sitting with charity cases? What was going on?
I looked over at the head table, where they should have been sitting, and saw the Queens’ expressions. They all looked absolutely shocked. Their mouths hung open comically—except for Victoria. She didn’t look shocked; she looked incensed. She was furious. There was fire in her blue eyes, and she looked like she wanted to strike the Kings down at that moment.
I looked back at the scholarship table and saw everyone sitting there looked painfully uncomfortable. I suddenly realized what I’d done wasn’t very nice to the scholarship students. All I had meant to do was humiliate the Kings, but I had put a big, unwanted spotlight on the entire table.
The Kings’ had their large shoulders rounded over and tense, and the tension was clearly visible on their faces. They looked so out of place and annoyed that they had to be there.
The Kings reactions were satisfying, but seeing the scholarship students’ faces made me feel bad. They were terrified. None of them were eating anything. Everyone at the table was just sitting in uncomfortable silence, both sides just waiting for whatever was happening to be over.
“What’s going on?” Dean asked. “Do you know what this is?”
“Yes, I did it.”
He looked at me sharply. “You did this?”
“Yes, I made them sit at the charity table.”
His eyes narrowed. “How? What did you give them in return?”
I shrugged.
“I’m letting them be my bodyguards,” I said as I started eating again.
“What?” he hissed.
The faraway look of pain in his eyes was gone and replaced with a blazing intensity as he stared at me. “Do you realize how insane that is? Even if you did need bodyguards, why the hell would you choose them??”
I suddenly realized I hadn’t told him about the girls in cloaks jumping me and beating me up last night yet.
“They volunteered for the job. Look, I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them—which is not very far because I couldn’t even push them over—but I’m giving them this one concession. I said that they can walk me to and from classes, that’s it. I won’t go anywhere alone with them. By giving them this small thing, we can start to get more from them.”
Dean just stared at me like he could see right through me. Like he could see how foolish I was being and I couldn’t. And I hated it.
“You’re losing track of the mission,” he said finally.
“The mission is to get close and get information
on them. That’s exactly what I’m doing,” I said defensively, even though I realized how dumb I sounded.
“You’re falling back into the same trap you fell for last year. They are tricking you.”
My mouth pressed into a hard line.
“I’m not. They are only walking with me when I’m in crowded halls—that’s all. I’m hardly giving them anything. And I don’t trust them. I’m not being an idiot about this, Dean. Besides, they were right about one thing. I shouldn’t be on my own when I’m out of my room from now on.”
“You’re not. I’m always with you. Maddy, we have to stick together or this whole thing will fall apart.”
“You weren’t the one who saved me from drowning—they were. You weren’t the one who saved me last night from getting even more of my ribs broken by that group of girls—Grayson was.”
He looked at me in confusion, his brow furrowed, and he suddenly noticed for the first time the bruises on my face under the makeup, and his eyes went wide.
“What happened?”
“A group of girls surrounded me and beat me up when I was walking back to the Bell Tower last night. I didn’t get a look at any of their faces because they were covered in black robes.”
“Holy shit,” he exclaimed. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I didn’t want to bother talking about the broken rib at the moment. “But they only stopped because Grayson came and chased them off.”
“Did you tell the school?”
“No. I don’t think it’s smart to get the school involved just yet. I couldn’t say who those girls were, so it would just be my word against theirs. But I’m pretty sure Victoria was the ringleader.”
He shook his head in frustration. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
I could hear the hurt in his voice, and I realized I wasn’t being entirely fair to him. He may not have been with me when those horrible things happened, but part of that reason was because I asked him not to be. The Kings may have put the idea in my head that I couldn’t trust him, but I was the one who told him I needed space when I went out onto the deck of the boat and was pushed overboard. I was the one who told him not to wait for me while I had my tutoring sessions with Grayson.