Page 34 of Pretty Vile

One side of his lips lifts in an aloof grin. “And grandfather wants to meet you.”

Now,thatI’m interested in.

Intrigued, I lean forward in my chair. “When?”

“Next Saturday. A car will pick you up.”

“What—” The ringing of the phone on his desk interrupts me, and he raises the receiver to his ear while holding up a finger to silence me.

He listens for a moment before saying, “Put him through, Masie.” Glancing my way, he places his hand over the microphone. “I need to take this.”

“But what about tonight?”

“Just show up. I can’t tell you anything else.”

“And Saturday?”

He huffs out a frustrated breath, running his eyes over my luminous yellow Ridgeway U hoodie and violet pants. Nose scrunched in disapproval, he says, “Wear a suit—something less… in your face and try to put your best foot forward. Grandfather was impressed with your performance during the tasks. He is willing to give you a chance. Don’t blow it.”

So no pressure then.Frowning, I leave him to his phone call.

As the door snicks shut behind me, apprehension settles in my stomach. I’m finally getting the chance to meet my family. To find out if I truly belong with them. And if I don’t… then I guess I don’t belong anywhere. If I don’t fit in with my own flesh and blood, then I must be a lone wolf.

Which is fine. I’ve been alone most of my life. I had friends once. Well, I had guys I drank alcohol and did drugs with, but at the time, we were friends. Close friends. It wasn’t until Pac and Hadley that I understood what it meant to form a real connection with another person. In ways I’ll never understand, I was drawn to her, and she showed me what it was like to have others around you who mattered.

And they do still matter to me—all of them. I’m just not sure that it’s where I belong. Not anymore, and not if I’m to believe Emilia’s words that she’s back for good.

What happened the other day changed nothing, despite what she might think. Sure, I said she was mine—mine tobreak.Once she’s broken, I’ll have no interest. Once she’s sufficiently felt that same raw, gnawing darkness that festers on your insides like an infected wound that just won’t heal, then we’ll be even. I’ll have gotten what I wanted from her, and she can feel free to gather the remaining pieces of herself and fuck back off to wherever she came from.

I can guarantee that by then, she won’t want to stay.

She’ll have seen just how vindictive I am, witnessed the malicious intent I keep carefully tucked away from prying eyes. Seen the monster that lurks beneath my skin. She’ll not only leave but run so fast that there will be nothing but dust left in her wake.

I told her we would never have what once was. At the time, I was furious at her for ruining what we had, though perhaps it was a good thing. Perhaps her leaving was therightthing. That wasn’t the real me—the Wilder who was so in love with her that he’d become whoever she needed him to be. But I’m not that person. She might have placed a bandaid over the darkness residing inside me, but for how long would that bandage have stuck? Eventually, it would have peeled off, and then the slick depravity would have come oozing out.

I’d have morphed into a different person right in front of her eyes. She would have been terrified. She would have run. Just like she did at the end of the school year.

Perhaps I was never destined to have Emilia Harrison. I was only permitted to spend a little time in her bright light. My past transgressions consigned me to a fate where I was to know, briefly, what it was to bathe in her purity and to live alone in the dark for the rest of eternity with that knowledge.

However, misery loves company, and I don’t want to be the only one walking around dripping with the blood of their internal scars. And perhaps, because I’m a sick bastard, I want to tarnish some of Emilia’s light. Put a black smudge on her goodness. Forever change her the way she has forever wounded me.

Two shooting stars, never destined to be together yet who recognize one another’s pain when they occasionally pass in the night. Until they eventually burn out, alone as they fade into the infinite expanse of space. Forgotten for the rest of time.

* * *

At midnight on the dot,I’m standing in the Kappa Epsilon Library wearing a stupid-ass black robe I found in my room earlier. The fact that one of these entitled pricks snuck into my room pisses me off, but not as much as the thought that I’m about to get knocked the fuck out again. Which is why I’m eyeing the vent like it’s about to break free of the wall and attack me.

The sound of something unlatching has me spinning around, my eyes running warily over the bookcases on the far wall until one begins to open with the squeaking of a hinge.

“What the hell?” I murmur as a hooded figure dressed in the same freaky black robe as me frames the doorway.

“Your presence has been requested at the King’s conclave,” a deep timbre voice states, before turning on his heel and being swallowed up by the darkness.

Squinting, I peer into the tunnel behind the secret doorway, unable to make anything out. It would be stupid as fuck for me to walk myself in there, right? Despite Robbie’s claims that it’s my birthright to become a King’s Elite and it’s the only way to become part of the family, I still have no fucking ideawhatthe King’s Elite is. For all I know, it could be some blood-drinking, cannibalistic, satan-worshiping cult.

And I’m just supposed to walk myself to my likely death?

As if sensing my inner turmoil, the bookcase begins to creak closed. I swear I hear it taunting me withtick, tockas the gap grows narrower.

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