“You better believe it!” She thumps him in the arm.
“Oi! Carter.” Ares hollers over our heads. “Come and claim your woman before I throw her out the nearest window.”
“Fuck off, Ares,” Bree hisses, shoving his chest before storming off.
Knight glowers at Ares before disappearing onto the dance floor with his date. I don’t know who she is. Some unlucky substitute he chose to make Bree jealous, most likely. Since Bree broke things off with my brother, he has shown up all over town with different girls on his arm.
“You’re such a dick.” I shake my head at my new husband.
“How is it Bree cruelly dumps your brother, breaking his heart, and I’m a dick for calling her out on her shit?”
“Because it’s not that cut-and-dried, and you know it.” I have my own assumptions as to what went down. I don’t know for sure because, when Bree and Knight first started dating, we made a rule we wouldn’t discuss him or her relationship with him so it wouldn’t impact our friendship if it didn’t work out. I made the same pact with Knight, so I’m largely in the dark as to why they broke up when they seemed so good together.
I think Bree is running scared from the first real connection she’s ever felt. And I believe Knight’s pride is hurt so he’s refusing to fight for her.
I’m not getting involved.
That shit never ends well.
But I’m rooting for them to get their act together.
I’m super close now with Knight and Paisley, but Daria and Kylo have consistently refused to have anything to do with me. It hurt at the start, but after months of therapy, I no longer care. It’s their loss.
I think I’ll be attending monthly therapy sessions for some time to come. Dealing with the loss of my dad and the manner in which my bio parents died hasn’t been easy. I wish I didn’t care about Pamela. She never cared about me, and she was going to kill me or let her lover do it, so why do I have nightmares about killing her? She would not have lost any sleep if it was the other way around.
Hera has been great, helping me to deal with the fallout, and we are closer than ever. Lili too. I love Ares’s sister as if she’s my own.
And speaking of little sisters, Emilie’s adoption paperwork went through yesterday. Richard Stewart is now her official dad. It hurt him to discover Pamela’s betrayal was true, but he begged me to approve his adoption plans. He genuinely loved Pamela, and Emilie is a piece of her. Plus, he loves Emilie like a daughter, in the same way Doug loved me. I would never stand in the way of their bond, and I readily gave my permission as did Knight.
“Bree should be grateful our marriage was annulled and no one is forcing anyone into arranged marriages anymore,” Ares says, thrusting his hips at me and reminding me he’s still horny. “Otherwise, she could’ve ended up with that snake Toby.”
“Do you regret freeing him?” I ask.
Tobyisa snake, and it’s no secret he resents Ares and all of us for the part he considers we played in his father’s death. Pity he didn’t cast that lens on himself. We are pretty sure he was aware his father conspired with Carter to kill Clinton Salinger. Toby knows he has no rightful claim to the Pride & Wrath Luminary, and he should be grateful Ares pardoned him with no punishment.
But he’s a fucking jerk. Stomping around the place with a giant chip on his shoulder. He’ll probably try something at some point and end up dead. Ares has people watching him and his family, and if they make a move, we’ll know about it.
“It was the right thing to do. What kind of Luminary would I be if my first official act was to kill my uncle’s wife and kids? I would be no better than him, and we’re trying to prove we’re different.”
“Trying being the operative word,” Jase says, coming up behind me and pressing his hot body into mine.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” I remind them. “And look at everything we’ve achieved so far.”
Jase dropped out of college to give the Sloth Luminary role his full focus. Knight did the same with his Greed & Gluttony responsibility. He has his hands full with that and his siblings. Daria and Kylo have too much of Rhett’s DNA in them, and they love causing problems for the sake of it. Knight loves them, but he’s no idiot. He has them on a tight leash, and he is watching them in case they try anything. It seems unlikely they were privy to their father’s plans, but we can’t rule it out.
Ares is also very committed to Pride & Wrath in a way I wasn’t expecting. He has stepped up and given it his focus. When he got access to the considerable inheritance his father, Clinton, left for him, he opened his own garage, and he loves nothing more than tinkering under the engine of a car or bike a few hours a week. I think it helps to keep him sane and remind him he’s still the same person.
Eric survived Carter’s attempt to kill him, but he ended up in a wheelchair. He is gradually handing the wheels to Baz, who will be anointed as the Lust & Envy Luminary next year. Eric has been a huge help to all of us as we have transitioned into our roles.
Bree and I were able to stay in college—we are sophomores now—though we are both heavily committed to our Luminary responsibilities in our free time. It no longer involves the demeaning tasks we were charged with before. Victor is now the CEO of Manford Media, and when I graduate, I will take a more active role, working alongside him until he retires or I’m ready to take over, whichever happens first.
This is the youngest Luminary board in our history, and though we have made some progressive changes, there are a lot more to make. We must be careful not to change too much and make more enemies. The one change we were adamant about from the beginning was raising the age of initiation to sixteen and abolishing the sexual part of the ritual.
Surprisingly, we met minimal opposition. Most families welcomed the changes and the opportunity it now affords their children to remain children for longer.
While we have dedicated teams solely focused on weeding out Rhett Carter’s supporters and putting an end to the separatist movement he set up, we know there is a big group of people who don’t support us.
Carter’s dying words still linger in all our minds.
