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This chick was weird—and that said a lot, coming from me. She pretended she hadn’t just been staring at Arlen and me, making herself that much more obvious.

Finishing off my plate and water, I searched for a trashcan, only to have the plate lifted by an acolyte. He or she gave me a slight nod and simply walked away.

“Stop glaring.” Romero nudged me with a soft laugh, instantly making me melt. He’d been doing that a lot lately—laughing, that is. I loved it.

“They like doing shit like that,” he explained.

“Being garbage collectors?”

“I have to go to the pot,” Arlen said. She’d been speaking specifically to me, but Grimm heard due to the volume.

“Let’s go.” He stood up and held his hand out like a well-refined escort.

“I’m not goin to argue with you about being my shadow, because I don’t wanna piss my pants.” She took his hand and huffed out an exasperated breath.

I stared after them with furrowed brows.

“That’s going to happen,” Romero stated with something akin to amusement. I’d like to have agreed with him but I didn’t see it.

“Didn’t you all have a thing with her sister?”

“You mean, didn’t we all fuck her bitch of a sister at the same time?”

“Yeah, Rome, that’s exactly what I meant.” I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder. “What happened to her?”

“She’ll be at the hotel until it’s laundry day.”

I wanted to know what he meant but that would have to wait. I followed his gaze across the room where Luther stood with Dhal, both staring back at him expectantly.

“I’ll be back.” He rose from the couch, dropping a chaste kiss on my lips before making his way through the masses. Unsurprisingly, people got the hell out of his way without him saying a word.

Unsure of what to really do with myself, I just sat there, receiving more than a few weird hand signals and genuine grins, one of them from a redhead I remembered being at my initiation.

“Wanna girl chat?” Arlen asked, bounding up to me and wiggling her brows.

I had no idea how to do that, but one could try.

“Sure.” I grinned and let her pull me off the couch and through the crowd. Surprisingly, people were quick to move the hell out of my way, too.

We passed a man that had a woman sitting on his lap, stroking her hair. She was naked, and her throat was split open. He smiled at me, so I assumed he was lucid.

She took me through the back door, out into the warmth of the night. We walked to a patio set and sat down.

Across the lawn, I saw teepees of flames with some of the Order delegates and sisters being burned alive within them thrashing around in pain. Their screams were full of agony.

I’d seen much of this from my initiation, so it was easier to take in stride this time around. It would take a minute for me to adjust to this fully, but it was easily doable.

“How are you doin with everything?” she asked, tearing her gaze away from the fires.

“Well, I know my father went from being the head of a bullshit religious cult to a cannibal, but…I don’t really care. I’ve never had parents. This Brock guy doesn’t change that.”

“I totally get it. My sperm donor would rather run the Kingdom than be a dad,” she shrugged.

“Run the Kingdom as in…?”

“He’s the mayor,” she answered slowly, as if this was common knowledge.

“Your dad is mayor of Centriole?” I confirmed.