Page 21 of The Lost Kings
While the twins lived on one side of the house, and even my cousin Carter lived in another, we resided along the western half of the estate. The central area was all thick rugs, polished side tables, standing, bronze lamps, and expensive drinks that I was always told not to touch. Green vines hung over the glass doors that led to the outside terrace. While that would lead me directly outside and near the path to the farm, it would also alert my Uncle Scotty that someone had opened one of the doors, and there was probably a camera aimed at the exits, so he’d know it was me.
No, I would have to go through a different exit that didn’t have an alarm rigged to it…at least that was assuming they hadn’t fixed it. My steps were quiet as I walked toward the training gym, a level below us, only to be stopped by a firm hand on my wrist.
“What are you doing?”
I spun around, a breath caught in my chest as I came face-to-face with Kingston. His amber eyes were narrowed, his clothing dark, like mine, and his expression thunderous as if I’d interrupted him.
Pulling at his hold, I whispered, “I want to go see the moon Gio talked about.”
There was never any use lying to the twins; they knew almost everything about me, and typically I would have invited them to come with me, but I knew Gio was already in bed and I was still mad at Kingston for how rude he’d been earlier about my picture.
“Gio is asleep.”
I rolled my eyes, pushing past him, descending down the steps. “I know.”
He quickly followed after me. “How come you didn’t ask me?”
The training doors loomed ahead of me, but I sidestepped them and went down a different hall, so not to enter the actual facility.
“¿Mi reina?”Kingston tugged the ends of my hair.
I didn’t like hearing him call me that, not when I was so hurt over how he’d behaved.
“Because you’re rude, and you hurt my feelings,” I snapped.
The singular metal door sat darkened at the end of the hall, no cameras in sight…unless they were on the other side.
“Stop, Scotty hung cameras outside of that door. You have to use the window from the locker room.” He gently tugged my wrist and pulled me off to the side.
I followed him but pulled my wrist free.
“I wasn’t rude. I was myself…since when does that bug you?”
I glared at him. “It’s always bugged me, King. But today it just hurt a little more than usual.”
We slipped through the wood door separating the locker room from the training mats and kept the light off. There were lights outside, illuminating enough of the room for us to see. We walked past the few lockers until we faced a window large enough for us to slip through.
Kingston flipped the lock at the top of the window, and the secondary one at the base, then shoved the pane glass up, creating a crack for us to slip through. The warm night air rushed in, coasting over our fingers and faces. I realized too late that I probably smelled like Reaper, which had me swiping at my face. The last thing I wanted was for Kingston to think I smelled like dog.
“Follow exactly where I walk,” Kingston ordered from over his shoulder.
I mimicked everything he did. Lifting my leg, crawling through the window and then landing on the patch of gravel underneath it. King ducked and remained low as he ran straight forward. I did the same as him, until we hit a tree line, at which point he finally relaxed and stood straight up.
“You sure that worked?” I asked, glancing back over my shoulder.
He kept his focus forward. “I come out here quite a bit. I’ve never gotten caught.”
We walked in silence, the shadows in the trees gathering andmaking me grateful that I wasn’t alone. It wasn’t until we broke past the tree line and came to the field between our properties that the large moon overhead lit up the land enough for us to see by. Gio was right, the moon was magnificent.
“Why do you come out here a lot?”
Kingston glanced over at me but kept walking. “Just to think.”
We crossed the field and slipped through the broken fence, rounding the large barn. It was in shambles, but the stairs inside were sturdy enough to lead up to the hayloft. Kingston took them first, and I followed behind him, until we reached the top, and I quickly found the blanket I’d kept laid out for whenever I wanted to come up here.
Dipping down, I sat cross-legged on the dusty blanket while Kingston copied me.
I didn’t want to talk, so I just stared at the full moon, wishing Gio were here with me instead.
