Page 21 of Tell Me Why
Know thy enemy.
Sara’s pale eyes flick up to meet mine. “Christian and me?”
I’ve seen them practically fucking in the livingroom, so, yeah, who else would I be talking about? “Yeah. You two seem pretty close.”
A smile tugs at her glossy lips. The Sacred Sons are all manwhores, so I doubt Christian’s attention toward Sara is anything special, but she clearly feels a sense of pride when I mention their closeness.
“Yeah, we’re dating. I mean, kinda.”
I shake my head. “What does that mean? Either you’re dating or you’re not, right?”
She shrugs and glances down. “I’m his Consort.”
HisConsort?Before coming here, I read everything I could about the Burning Crown, which was, admittedly, not much, but I never ran across that term.
“Is that, like…a girlfriend or something?”
“I’m not supposed to tell you anything,” she says, hesitating. “But, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you what a Consort is. It’s not exactly a secret.”
Actually, if I couldn’t find any mention of it on the dark web, then I would consider that a secret, but whatever. If she wants to tell me, I’m going to let her.
“At the start of every academic year, the Sacred Sons host something called a Preference Ceremony, and at that ceremony, they choose their Consorts for that academic year. It’s like a girlfriend, I guess, except…more. She’s his queen. She gets all the privileges of his power and influence during that year.”
“Oh.”How fucking archaic.“Cool. What’s the downside?”
She blinks at me, her threaded brows pulled together in confusion. “There’s no downside, which is whyeveryDeb wants to be a Consort.”
My God, she’s drunk the Kool-Aid. Nothing in this world comes for free. Nothing. Therehasto be a downside—especially if we’re talking about the Sacred Sons.
I shove a handful of fries into my face, no salt, ketchup, nothing. I’m so hungry. “So, who was Christian’s Consort last year?” I ask between bites.
Sara sinks into the chair beside the bed. “Becca.” She scrunches her nose. “I have no idea why he picked her. She wassowrong for him.”
I can tell by the animation in Sara’s voice that I’ve stumbled on a topic that she’s eager to dish about. Pursing my lips, I tilt my head to the side and try to act interested.
“Huh,” I say. Honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck less about Christian’s love life, but information is information and who knows what might end up being useful. “Really? Wrong for him, how?”
Sara pulls her legs up under her, settling in. “I don’t know,” she says, relaxed and open. “He’s usually a pretty chill guy, but lately he’s beenreallyintense. He needs someone who can care for him, cater to him, and Becca was just too flighty.” She scrunches her nose again. “She gave him far too much freedom, if you ask me.”
Her comment confuses me. “Wait, ‘too much freedom?’ I thought the Sacred Sons called the shots around here? They don’t seem like the type to take orders from anyone.”
“Oh, they do call the shots,” she rushes to correct. “I just mean that Becca had a certain amount of pull as his consort, but she just let Christian fuck around with any girl. Don’t get me wrong, it ended up being good forme,because I was one of those girls, but—” She scoffs. “No way am I letting him get away with that…”
I nod, likesure, yeah.I get the sense that Sara talks a big game, but in the end, she’d bow and scrape to Christian just like every other person here. And I can’t even blame her, either. That’s the culture here. The Sacred Sons are venerated. It’s in their titles, for God’s sake. TheSacredSons? That mind-fuck coupled with obscene wealth and freakishly good looks…yeah, it’s no wonder the girls around here worship them like gods.
But me? I’m not worshiping anyone. I’m here to pay for my brother’s stupidity and grab some blackmail as insurance while I’m at it. Then I’m out.
“So, what’s your story?” Sara asks. “Christian hasn’t told us much.”
Grabbing the burger from the paper bag, I climb up onto the bed and cross my legs in front of me. “Honestly, my story isn’t that interesting,” I answer vaguely. I’m not sure what people around here have been told about me, or my ties to Shadow and Ash, so I decide to play it safe.
“No offense, but why are you here, then?” She tilts her head to the side, and her gaze flicks over me like she’s trying to suss out my motivation for showing up out of nowhere.
I guess that answers my question. The membershiphasn’tbeen told about my background. Interesting. I wonder why.
“I…have a debt to the Burning Crown,” I answer, picking my way through the truth without giving away too much. “And the Sacred Sons have agreed to let me work it off…”
Hopefully, she doesn’t glean too much from that lame answer.
