“Get back, all of you.” Vincent snarled, staggering to his feet. “We don’t want any trouble. All you have to do is give us Hazel Waite, and we’ll let the rest of you live. For now.”
The fire inside me raged with triumph. I’d worked so long, so hard, to win this school over. To win over my bullies. When faced with standing beside me and winning their freedom, and going with Vincent and the parents who betrayed them, I knew what their choice would be.
Trey and Quinn exchanged one of their secret glances.
They stepped aside.
As one, the students around me hurried back, leaving a wide circle on the grass. The flames licked the inside of my skin as a cold breeze blew across the field, widening the gap between us.
They left me alone, facing Vincent.
Theyleft me.
I glanced up at my Kings, at their faces turned hard and cold. “Trey? What’s going on?”
Trey shook his head, and in his ice eyes I read all the malice and arrogance of the bully who’d first greeted me at Derleth. A hint of sadness crept into his voice as he nodded to his father. “The gutter whore is all yours.”
What?
Vincent’s triumphant leer burned against my skin. “Son, get over here. You have done well. You’ve obeyed my plans perfectly. You’ve proven your loyalty and your leadership. I never doubted you.“
I never doubted you.
They’ve been… working together?
“Trey, please, tell me what’s going on.”
Trey’s features remained stoic, unmoved. He stepped forward and shoved me toward Vincent. “Take her,” he growled.
My legs turned to jelly as hands grabbed me, pressing a blade to my throat.What? How?
This can’t be real. It’s some trick, some part of the plan that he never told me about because… because…
But there was no reason for Trey to hide this from me. Unless he… unless they…
“Sorry, Hazy.” Quinn shrugged. “It’s been fun. We’ve let you plan and scheme for all these months, but we never intended to go through with this. You see, we don’t want to lose our power. We want to be the Children of the God.”
“Who wouldn’t want that?” Ayaz strode over on his long legs, his arm thrown around Courtney’s shoulders. “We will be the most powerful beings in this universe.”
“I may hate my dad, but we were never going to let you take away our immortality,” Trey said. “And thanks to you, we’re going to get the freedom we’ve craved. Our parents know all about what we are now, and they’ve decided it’s time we reveal ourselves to the world. Your life, for a permanent break of the seals. We each get something, don’t we, Dad?”
Vincent nodded, his wrinkled face gleaming with pride.
Courtney stepped forward, her feline eyes slitted with triumph. “I get to take over my mother’s clothing label.”
Amber joined Tillie’s side. “I’ll be reunited with my sisters, and my modeling contract.”
No… it can’t be.
“You really thought the three of us – the Kings – would share a gutter whore like you?” Trey spat. “You really thought this would be real?”
His words cut deeper than the knife pressed against my throat. Inside my head, the god screamed for vengeance – his cries a choir of desperate voices, of souls torn unfairly from bodies. And now, as I sank deeper into the blackness of their betrayal, I realized I was about to join them.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Take her into the gym, Vincent,” Ayaz said. “It has to be right over the sigil in the center of the court, where the first ceremony was performed. I’ve written the spell we need to transfer her fire-powers to the god.”
“Bind her hands.” Vincent tugged off his tie and tossed it to Tillie’s mother, who trussed my hands together and shoved me forward. I stumbled, digging the soles of my Docs into the grass. I tripped on the hem of my skirt and toppled forward.
