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She wants blood, she deserves to get it.
We’re going to find out what happened to her sister, and then I’m going to let Eden deal with it in whatever way she desires. Bloodshed. Revenge. Toppling a secret society that’s been around for hundreds of years. Hell, I’ll take down the whole world for her. Because that’s what people like me do for their obsessions.
They fight, and they claw their way to winning if they have to.
I learned that from my grandfather.
I couldn’t have picked a worse opponent.
10
Eden
The next morning, Oliver ignores me until he sees my face. Then he comes up, grabs me by the upper arms and pulls me close. I hug him, even though my neck is stiff from falling asleep with Leo on his couch. Sometime in the middle of the night, he’d picked me up and moved us to the bed. I woke wrapped in his arms, and despite the fact that we’d talked about the most disturbing shit last night, I felt safe.
You know that saying fight fire with fire? Maybe you should fight crazy with crazy.
If something happened to my sister because she was a virgin, they haven’t seen psychotic yet.
“Where’s Alaric?” I ask, my voice muffled from being smooshed into Oliver’s chest.
“In his room. He got home shortly after you guys left, asked where you were, and when I said you weren’t here, he holed up in his room. We’re going to have to have a family talk about communication.”
I squeeze my best friend. I can always count on him to make everything better. Just from the sheer fact that he’s labeled whatever we are as family makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, batting away some of the darker thoughts I woke up with.
“I’ll go get him,” I tell him. “And then we can have that talk about communication because Leo learned something yesterday.”
“Wonderful,” Oliver deadpans.
I don’t unpack any of his less-than-warm feelings about Leo. Instead, I climb the stairs. It’s Saturday, which means Alaric doesn’t have any class and may still be sleeping.
I knock on the door, lightly at first, then louder when there’s no response. There’s a shuffling, then the door opens in front of me. Alaric Barclay is wearing a pair of low-slung, gray joggers that should be illegal on him. He runs a hand through his air, and it somehow falls in the exact way he always wears it. “You don’t have to knock on my door, Eden.”
“No?”
He grins, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Never.” He tugs me inside, closing the door behind us. For a second, I almost forget why I even came up here. Something important, something—
“I wanted to talk to you last night, but you were gone.”
Right, talking. “Yeah, sorry. Leo needed me. Actually, we have some news…” I hike my thumb over my shoulder, but when I see Alaric’s face, I forget all about the talk we all need to have. “Something’s wrong.”
He sits on the bed. Instead of his stomach poking out like a normal human being, it drags in, showing off a set of mouth-watering abs. “I went to dinner at my parents’ last night. My dad…” He shakes his head. “He wants me to marry. Mom says he’s been talking about it a lot lately.”
Holy fucking shit, is there something going on in the universe right now? I dig my nails into my palms to make sure I’m not dreaming. First Leo with the marriage talk, now Alaric?
“You look…petrified. I’m not going to marry someone else right now. Actually, I kind of thought—”
I hold up a finger to make him stop. I had zero marriage prospects before coming to Carnegie and now I have three.
Ha. Wouldn’t that turn the elite world upside down? Eden Astor marries three of the richest eligible bachelors. Pretty sure that’s highly illegal.
“We need to talk with everyone, Alaric.” His mouth unhinges but I’m not having this conversation more than once. I’m already freaking out about it. I’m supposed to be marrying Keegan, even though that will definitely be over my dead body. If it were up to Leon Forbes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he made that happen. “Trust me on this. We’ll talk privately, too,” I tell him. “I want to hear about your sister and what’s going on with that. Just, for right now, come downstairs?”
I reach out for him, and he rises to his feet, takes my hand, and follows me down into the main room. Oliver is a godsend because he already has the fireplace roaring. Too bad the kink in my neck is getting worse. I’m on edge, my body tightening up from all the stress.
We move across the room to stand in front of Oliver and Leo. Alaric sits on a separate couch, and I drag a chair closer to them so I can have my side to the fire but not feel like I’m talking at them. “Listen, we all have updates to give. Let’s keep the fighting to a minimum, though,” I say, peering at Oliver. He’s going to freak the fuck out when he hears about the marriage stuff. I take a deep breath. “I’ll start first. Ollie and I went to see Devon Forbes. He’s messed up, living like a guy who makes friends with squirrels and talks to himself. We didn’t learn much, other than Keegan was telling the truth. He and my sister were together when she died. In love. Both of them.”
My attention skirts to Leo, and I wonder if that changes anything about the virginity thing. She may have lost it to Keegan before she died. I don’t know. And of course he’s missing, so I can’t ask.