The Never King (Vicious Lost Boys #1)(15)

“What?” The question is another trill of laughter. “That can’t be true.”

“Well, it is.”

I am reminded of my mother suddenly. The cut of her wings, the glow of her skin.

“If you say those words, a fairy dies. It’s as simple as that. So promise me you won’t say it.”

She resettles on the bed. “I promise.”

I lie back down beside her.

“If you’re a fairy, where are your wings?”

“I lost them.” The admission is soaked in sorrow and filled with rage.

“What happened to them?”

I sigh. “That is a very long story.”

She regards me with a furrowed brow. I think she thought this conversation would go in a much different direction.

“You said that in my world, you’d be called a fairy. What do they call you here?”

“Fae is a better word.” We are not all creatures of stardust and light, not like my mother. The fae here are bathed in blood. But the fae have one rule: do not kill each other.

Bash and I broke that.

“And Pan?” the Darling asks.

“Is not fae.”

“So what is he?”

I’ve dug myself too far. The starlight on the ceiling flickers and fades.

“Not my story to tell, Darling.”

She huffs and readjusts beside me. The bed squeaks.

I like this Darling too much already. Maybe I don’t know what I’m doing after all.

She turns to her side and tucks her hands beneath her head.

Beyond the house, the waves crash against the shore. I can taste a summer storm on the air.

“What about your tattoos?” She reaches across the space between us and traces a finger down one of the curved lines of my markings. “Do they mean something?”

“They did, once.”

“And now?”

“Now they are just a reminder.”

I shiver as she follows a line down my neck to the collar of my shirt. To the fae, the tattoos are a mark of rank and order. Bash and I were supposed to be significant.

Now we’re a cautionary tale.

Her hand trails down my chest, down my stomach, and my abs constrict.

I’m suddenly fucking harder than stone.

Her hand sinks lower.

I snatch her wrist. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“I know what you’re doing.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’re trying to cause tension in the group. You’re not the first to think you’re smarter than us. You’re not, Darling. Whatever strategy you think you’re plotting, we’ve seen it before. We’ve watched every move play out, and all of the Darlings bend. Eventually.”

I want to fuck her just to teach her a lesson.

The tide comes in. My magic beats at my ribs.

We are all tied to the night in one way or another.

Dark creatures are best left to the dark nights.

“We don’t touch the Darlings,” I tell her and then get up.

“I wasn’t…I mean…”

“Good night, Darling,” I say and then leave the room, shut the door behind me.

When I readjust my cock, it almost hurts.

I need…something.

I go through the loft to the balcony. “Where are you going?” Bash calls.

“Out,” I say.

The rest of the Lost Boys are sitting around the bonfire and there are a dozen girls from town. They are always desperate for the attention of the King and his men.

I pick one out. Any will do.

“You,” I tell a girl with dark brown hair. “Get on your knees.”

Her eyes go wide and she looks past me to the others.

“On your knees or leave. You choose.”

She licks her lips then rises from the chair and sinks to the patio. She unzips my pants, pulls my cock out, strokes me in her hand.

Fuck.

The hair along the nape of my neck bristles as magic fills the air.

I can make anything appear real. Make any illusion real enough to touch.

But the one thing I can’t do?

I can’t pretend that I’m not as fucked up as the rest of them.

The girl takes me in her mouth. She’s slow and gentle and unsure and I fucking hate it.

I bury my hand in her hair and shove down her throat. She gags. Tears fill her eyes. The others watch as I fuck her mouth, brutally, mercilessly.

She takes it.

Every inch.

And the whole time, I can’t help but imagine it’s the Darling’s lips wrapped around my cock.

Maybe she knows what she’s doing after all.





10





WINNIE


The chain they cuffed me to is just long enough for me to leave the bed and reach the bank of windows. The shutters are still open so I can hear everything going on down there.

I hear Kas tell a girl to get on her knees and she does it without question and the rest of them hanging out by the fire watch as he takes her.

Some weird, foreign feeling fills my chest as I watch.

I’m buzzing between my legs, suddenly wet.

I was going to do that. That should be me. Except watching him…