They can't be the Kings of Ruin.
My boys.
Chapter 12
KADE
The world tiltsoff its fucking axis.
Ellie Riggs stands in front of me, and I know it's her even before she lifts those green eyes that have haunted my every nightmare and fantasy for four fucking years.
I'd recognize her anywhere.
It's the way she holds herself like she's trying to take up less space, the nervous tap of her fingers against her thigh in that same five-count rhythm.
One, two, three, four, five.
Always five.
I know what she looks like now, of course. I've spent enough nights scrolling through her Instagram like the stalkers we hunt for sport, memorizing every fake smile at those charity galas, every designer dress that hugs her curves as tight as I grip her throat in my most twisted dreams.
Sometimes I even follow her in person, keeping to shadows like the ghost she's turned me into. Watch her walk across campus with that hollow look in her eyes that no amount of privilege can fill.
We all do it.
Tank, Cyrus, Jinx.
Every one of us has our own brand of obsession with the girl who ripped our hearts out and used them as stepping stones to her new life. But none of us calls the others on it. Don't ask, don't tell. Some wounds are too raw to acknowledge, even among brothers.
But I wasn't expectingthis.
Wasn't expecting her to walk into our throne room, our little corner of hell where we play gods. Wasn't expecting her to be even more beautiful than she is from a distance and in carefully curated photos. The pink streaks in her blonde hair catch the low light like rebellion against whatever gilded cage she's living in now.
And fuck me if the sight of her doesn't make my cold, dead heart stutter back to life before I remember why I killed it in the first place.
The love I had for her—that pure, desperate bullshit that kept me breathing through juvie, through the trailer park, througheverything—floods back for exactly three seconds before I drown it in the hate I've been nursing like a sick fuck ever since.
Had to turn all that love into something else to survive her rejection. Had to make it poison instead of medicine or it would've fucking killed me.
Tank shifts in his chair, and I know without looking that the big softie is about to run to her like a lost puppy finding its way home. His whole body leans toward her like she's magnetic north and he's a broken compass that only ever points to one thing.
Her.
I throw my hand up, sharp and commanding. "Don't."
For the first time in four years, Tank hesitates. He freezes mid-rise, his hands tightening on the armrests of his chair, torn between the girl who owns his soul and the brother who's kept him alive since she threw it away like it was worth nothing to her.
I'm not sure if he stops because of me or if it's because his own shock has him paralyzed.
Eleanor's eyes dart between us, confusion bleeding into horrified recognition that hasn't quite clicked. "You?—"
I rip the mask off my face and let it clatter to the floor. The voice modulator dies with it, leaving just me.
Just Kade.
Just one of the boys she left behind.
But we've both done a fuck ton of growing since the last time she saw me.
