Page 42 of Feed Your Fiends

“Like a fucking rag doll?” I sneer. “I’m not your doll, Gant. Not any more. What about that, don’t you understand?”

“I’m not the one misunderstanding anything.” he turns back to Hale, squeezing me tighter. “I understand our relationship just fine. It’s Hale who's forgotten ours.”

“I’ve forgotten the horsemen?” Hale snorts. “The brotherhood? I’ve been here for weeks with no brothers in sight.” He points to me. “But then a sister came along.”

“She sure did.”

We all turn to Zedd, slinking through the crowd that parts easily for him.

Stassi wasn’t the only one who’d put thought into her outfit. Zedd’s pinstriped suit should be gaudy with the tiny trail of crystals along each pinstripe, and yet he complemented Stassi perfectly. Or he would have.

“You had them both here,” he hisses, shooting me a glance before glaring daggers at Hale again. “You knew Stassi planned an entrancewithoutme, and you said nothing.”

“Like I knew what the fuck she was up to,” Hale says, then his gaze darts over Zedd’s shoulder. “Your father isn’t here, is he?”

“Why would I invite him to a brothel?”

Hale’s expression turns stony, but I don’t miss the slight slump of his shoulders. “This isn’t Pierrot's.”

“Hard to tell,” Zedd says, eyeing a passing volunteer's corset. “I don’t know what I was thinking, giving you a chance to host—”

“You never gave me a chance!” Hale snaps. “I asked, no fuck that, pleaded for your help. For months”

“Your mother—”

“Your help!I wanted my brothers, and they abandoned me. For what? Mmm? What the fuck have you two been up to with Bae and Etienne?”

“Don’t change the fucking subject. Etienne isn’t even here,” Zedd snaps back. “If you checked the group chat for something more than a cash-out, maybe you would’ve known that.”

“Like you would’ve known where your sister was if you weren’t so busy cooking up shit no one wanted?Masala margaritas?Posting to your stories but can’t answer a single fucking text—”

“Shit no one wants? Is that why you asked me to cater my own party? Five thousand seasoned wings?”

“But it’s cool when you’re chefing it up for Gant’s pet, right? Who’s really the pet?”

“Fuck you.”

“Yeah, well, fuck you too!” Hale spits.

“That much is obvious,” Gant says, cradling my head tight against his neck. “You wanted to fuck me. Hurt me. I was going insane, and you kept her away from me.”

“I tried contacting you. Multiple times. You wouldn’t fucking answer.”

“You weren’t Elle.”

“Clearly. However, I get why you need her so badly. She’s a good girl.”

Gant’s eyes darken and bleed, the white vanishing beneath his narrowing lids.

“Elle was there for me when no one else was. All you fucking did was show up.” He glances at Zedd. “Oh, and happy birthday, bitch.”

“Happy birthday.” Aria sings songs as she appears beside Zedd with a raised champagne flute and a dress made of dripping diamonds that imitates fringe. Someone else is with her, or they were. Before I can get a better look, she’s gone in a whip of thick, glossy black hair and a blur of gold.

“You brought her here?” Zedd grits his teeth, his eyes wide as he turns to Aria. “Tomyfucking party.”

“Imagine bringing a birthday gift to a birthday party on the birthday boy’s birthday,” Aria says with a roll of her eyes. “Insane, I know.”

One second, Zedd’s behind Gant squaring off with Hale, and the next, he’s darting after the girl and brushing past Aria, who spills her champagne. She catches my eye before looking away dismissively as if we’ve never met.

---