Her expression hardened into steel. The man shifted, as if ready to step around her, but she blocked his path effortlessly, her stance unyielding.
“Go inside,” Astoria commanded. “Now.”
I was frozen, unable to run. My hands clenched around the cardboard box, pulling it closer to my chest. She took a step toward me, her heels clicking sharply against the pavement. The scent of her heavy perfume washed over me, suffocating and intoxicating all at once.
“Acelynn…” Astoria shot me a sickening smile. Voice smooth, but there was a thread of a threat mixed within. “You didn’t see anything. You didn’t hear anything. And you are not going to mention this to my brother or Nolan.”
I raised an eyebrow, daring her. “Or what?”
A slow, cruel smile curved at her lips, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Her breath was warm against my cheek as she leaned in closer to speak. “Or I will tell Kaius about the Polaroid I found under your driver’s seat.”
My stomach tightened, a cold twist coiling inside me. But I forced my face to stay calm, refusing to give anything away. Astoria watched me like a predator sizing up her prey. Then she stepped back, brushing past me toward the door.
She tossed a dark look over her shoulder. “Such a good girl for her Knight. Wouldn’t want to ruin that with our little secret.”
Then she disappeared through the back door. I clutched the package tighter, its weight suddenly unbearable, as if it contained something nefarious. And honestly, it might.
The night had shifted, darker and heavier now. And I was caught in the middle of something far bigger than was brewing in the shadows of the night.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
acelynn
The strong stenchof gasoline filled the inside of my nostrils. I continued my methodical task of pouring another gallon of gas through the home I grew up in. The liquid sloshed across the tile floor, leaving deadly puddles in its wake. Every inch of this place had to be saturated if I had any chance of it burning to the ground like Alec wanted. I stepped into the main kitchen, letting the red container slam onto the ground as I dropped it. My hands dug in my pocket for the box of matches I had found in the drawer of my father’s desk, right next to his favorite lighter and pack of cigars in his study. There was a single match in the box.
One chance to light up the Spade legacy. One chance to change both Alec and my entire lives. I couldn’t fuck this up. Pulling open the matchbox, the cardboard creaked as it went, and I came upon my one chance. Striking down hard on the ignition pad, the flame burned quickly. I drew the match up toeye level with me, staring it down as I debated my decision. The heat of the flame began to lick the pads of my fingers, and I sucked in at the sting, drinking in pain as it grew. A single gunshot rang out in the yard behind me as I flicked the match into the gasoline-covered room.
Quickly, I turned, my feet carrying me out the kitchen’s back door and into the desert. When I was a good distance away from the house, I turned over my shoulder to watch the fire grow higher and higher as it caught on the accelerant. Then the screaming began.
The little brown package in the passenger seat of Nolan’s car felt like a bomb just waiting to be set off. When I was a few blocks away from the nightclub, I veered off into a church parking lot and killed the car’s headlights. My fingers brushed against the cardboard as I picked it up and set the box on my lap.
Kaius would know if I opened it, but I honestly didn’t care very much. I wanted to know what I was carrying around. The way Pierce hadn’t wanted me to linger made me think this wasn’t just paperwork left behind.
The rip of the tape coming off the box had my heart skipping a beat. I tossed it aside, peeling back the lid from the box. Inside were the golden gems of Muze. Their almost iridescent coloring seemed to sparkle in the dim streetlights. I reached down, plucking one pill from the container. There must have been hundreds in this tiny box.
I had never done drugs recreationally, not when I knew that addiction ran in my family. Though some may say dosing myself with hemlock could turn into needing to chase that high. But for now, that wasn’t a problem. I knew girls who had done Muze incollege. They said it made parties more fun as it held them in a euphoric state where everything was neon colors and bubbly personalities. It was why the drug was so popular on the club scene, and when something was popular, it made it lucrative. Kaius knew this. That was why he made sure the Knights were the only ones bringing in Muze, the only ones distributing it.
The pill fell from my hand, landing in the center of the pile. I closed my eyes, took in a shaky breath, and tried to calm myself. Alec had been strung out the night of the fire. I could see it in his dilated pupils and erratic behavior. He had been acting strangely my last few visits, and I had caught him taking something at the auto body shop, but I didn’t dare question him. What if that was the reason this all happened? What if Kaius wasn’t to blame but Alec in his crusade to get that next high? I couldn’t help but feel like I hadn’t gotten the full truth from him in the hall.
Maybe my brother had played his final ace that night, and it had burned any answers without hesitation.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
kaius
The roadto Alaric Camberly’s property cut through the part of Lovelen where the shadows clung to the ground thicker than fog. Old, abandoned brick buildings leaned like weary statues, their doorways sealed shut for decades with large planks of wood nailed into the surfaces to keep out the locals. So far, no one had been dumb enough to go searching in them, not that they would find anything truly disturbing on the surface. The real horrors lay in the chambers below, which all led back to the main house.
By the time I reached the iron gates, I could already feel the weight of the man’s presence behind them pressing against me. His reputation wasn’t a thing of the past. It breathed, like an animal that had never been uncaged, into the cracks of the Knights’ every choice.
The gates opened without a sound. He had been watching me from the moment I entered onto the dirt road leading to the house. The drive was long, dotted with random cactiand overgrown brittle bush that bent and twisted like gnarled fingers. At the end stood the main house, three stories of gray stone, its high roof pitched like the blade of a spear.
Heavy oak doors swung inward before I could knock. Maia opened the door, her dark hair perfectly slicked back into a tight bun as always. I smiled down at the live-in nurse. Maia had been around since before I could remember. She was the one who had patched up wounds, fed us just because she knew we wouldn’t do it for ourselves, and had been the motherly figure I needed when my own mother had fled from Lovelen, leaving behind her two young children.
When the doctors had told us we needed to keep Alaric comfortable, she had stepped up there too. We all thought he had months to live, but it turns out the old man was even more stubborn than we all anticipated.
I think Maia was the only person in this world who was brave enough to stay and put up with Alaric’s shit. She never backed down to his violent outbursts. She just sat there and waited for him to be done with his tantrums. I admired her for that.
“Hello, Maia.” I smiled at the woman.
