Page 47 of Her Wicked Knights (Their Hallowed Queen #3)

There's a scuffle behind me as Tripp and Colton come running, but I don't focus on the yelling, the blows I hear as fists land over bone. I focus on her, swiping hair from her face, trying to rouse her gently.

I'm about to start CPR, because I don't know what else to do, when her lashes begin to flutter and a moan slips out of her parted lips.

Relief surges through me as her eyes open to that enchanting brown iris. She stares up without seeing me, and I'm not sure she hears me saying her name.

"You okay, Angel?" I think it's the third time I ask before her eyes move to mine and realization sets in.

She braces her hand on the dirt flowerbed Jake had her standing in before she went down and tries to sit up.

"Take it easy." I warn, just as Colton reaches around me to help pull her to her feet.

Tripp offers me his hand, and I take it without letting myself analyze what it means, standing now, too.

When I turn, she's leaning against Colton, still looking unsteady as her eyes appraise his swelling eye. Looks like Jake got in a punch before he scrambled away, but based on the sounds I heard, Jake must look a hell of a lot worse than this.

"Oh my God." Marley says, reaching out toward Colton's face before pausing. "Are you okay?"

I could laugh, if I wasn't so fucking pissed about what I just witnessed.

If we'd lingered any longer inside the church, what would have happened? Would Jake have continued choking her until she took her last breath? Would we be gathering here again in a few days with her in the coffin next?

The thought makes me feel like I'm going insane, and I run my hands through my hair, trying to find something to do with them before I can act out on the first person to get within my reach.

"He's out of his fucking mind." Colton growls.

"I'm going to kill him." Tripp says, crossing his arms like that's his final word. "Fucking asshole."

"We'll deal with him together." I tell them, glancing between my friends so that they know I would very much like to take a hit at him as well. If Colton goes after him alone, I may never get the chance.

"I think he killed her." Marley says, so suddenly that it stuns us all to silence. That silence, she takes as our doubt, and begins trying to run it back, telling us to forget she said anything.

It takes some prompting, but we finally get her to reveal the cause of her suspicions. "I think he's on drugs. I think he's been on drugs. And over the summer..."

Marley hesitates, but when Tripp assures her that she can tell us anything, she nods.

"What happened over the summer?"

She struggles with the words a minute before opening her mouth. "I went to pick Audrey up for one of the bonfires. Jake was there, and he had her against a wall. He stopped when he saw me, and he chased us out of her house and..."

She stops again, and I wait for her to admit that she saw them hooking up, that she confronted him about cheating on her with the person who was supposed to be her best friend.

Instead, her eyes flick to Colton. "Audrey said that Jake tried to rape her.

" Marley clamps her mouth shut, like doing so will keep her from breaking down.

"I'm so sorry, Colt. She begged me not to tell you.

She was worried about ruining your friendship, but if he did that, is it really a stretch to think maybe he's the one who put her in that coffin? "

I lock eyes with Tripp, both of us undoubtedly thinking the same thing.

Jake and Audrey hooked up plenty of times.

It was an ongoing thing between them, and just because they were together doesn't mean that consent was automatic.

But Jake was hardly the aggressor in that relationship.

He never went after Audrey, only took what she was willing to give him freely.

Jake's spineless, a coward, so it's possible he did try to do that.

But Audrey was cruel and manipulative; it's possible she lied to Marley to try and cover something she didn't want her to know about.

"If he killed her and I kept that secret...."

Marley's voice breaks off, and I recognize the spiral she's about to put herself in, just in time to pull her out of it.

Together, Tripp and I assure her that she did nothing wrong, that this is her mind playing tricks on her, that she's experiencing survivor's guilt.

And then Colton decides that's enough of all of it, telling us to take her home.

"Colton—" She tries.

"I'll talk to you in a bit, Marley." He assures her, turning to go.

She tries to protest some more, until Tripp finally reminds her she can't go back into the church looking like this.

She's fucking gorgeous, obviously. But with mulch clinging to her hair and red handprints on her neck, she'll attract attention that none of us want on her.

She's already under a microscope as the only witness, the lone survivor. The final girl.

We shepherd her to Tripp's car with little protest; once we start moving her, she goes willingly, her mind too overwhelmed to resist. Tripp helps her into the passenger seat, and I settle in the back, sliding into the middle seat so I can lean between them, feeling oddly left out.

The two people I care for most on this earth are inches away, and yet, it feels like miles.

We're on the highway by the time the inky sky breaks open and rain begins falling on the roof of the car, splashing in fat drops against the windshield faster than Tripp’s wipers can clear them.

Tripp's music is low, and the air is so cool it's almost freezing, and suddenly, with the two of them here like this, everything feels okay.

"Don't take me home." Marley says suddenly.

For a moment, I think neither of us heard her right. "What?"

She sighs. "I don't want to go back yet."

And that's all she has to say, because the two of us will give her everything she could ever want.

Tripp doesn't take her home. He whips the wheel with barely a moment's notice, grinning as he exits off the highway, choosing a different route... one we've been to a half dozen times before.

He takes us to the south beach, past Audrey's dead aunt's vacation home, and parks on the hill, as close to the shore as he can get us without driving on the sand.

It's raining hard, and the sound of it falling around us is enchanting, melodic, inspiring.

I don't know what it is that surges through my veins.

Hope. Joy. Euphoria? It doesn't matter, though, because the thought crosses my mind to get out and run, to feel the cool rain on my skin, to just fucking let go of everything for a moment.

So, I do, throwing open my door and darting out into the rain.

Tripp's headlights illuminate the space where the shore meets the sea, offering a hazy glow that makes the rain drops look like slashes in the fabric of the night sky as I kick off my shoes, running on the shore and letting the sand squash between my toes.

I spin in circles, flap my arms, throw my head back, scream like a fucking banshee, and I just let go.

I probably look like an absolute fucking moron, but I can't bring myself to care.

If there's anyone I don't mind looking like a fool for, it's the only two people who can see me right now, still sitting in the quiet safety of Tripp's car as I wear myself out on the shore.

It's amazing, really, how good it feels to not think, to shut my brain off and just let my body move of its own accord.

When Tripp joins me, I'm so excited that I decide to trap him out here, putting him in a headlock that keeps him tethered by my side as I encourage him to let go.

It's easier for me to do than him, I know.

Tripp is the king of never letting go, holding onto everything and letting it wear on him.

. But tonight, I'm not letting him go another moment carrying everything we've been shouldering the past year and a half that we've known about all this nonsense with the magic and sacrifices.

He doesn't fight me off, laughing instead when I rake my fingers through his hair, sending droplets flying through the air as he relents, letting out a small, tentative whoop at my insistence.

"Weak!" I taunt. "You can do better than that! Fucking let go!"

Tripp laughs, yelling louder this time. But it's not enough... not nearly all that he's been holding.

"Fucking howl at the moon!" I scream. "LET GO!"

That seems to spur him to it. He grins, shaking his head, before he throws it back, planting his hands on his thighs, and does it. He screams at the fucking moon, at the sea, at the universe. He screams for his sorrows and his joys, and when she joins us, Marley does the same thing.

And once we've screamed ourselves hoarse, we dance, skip through the water, spin round in circles with our hands laced.

Together, we stop striving to make it through and we just exist, like the clouds in the sky or the moon cutting through the night.

It's cold out, and dropping by the moment, but I'm reluctant to let go of the moment, this unsplintered, perfect piece of heaven.

We don't let it go, none of us, until Marley is shivering, her soaked dress clinging to her skin and mascara dripping in rivulets down her face.

Her hair is plastered to her skin, but she looks so fucking gorgeous like this.

.. unburdened. Happy. The way she's supposed to be.

The way she used to be. The way we will make her feel again.

Tripp's eyes dart to his car, and I can tell he's already rethinking whether the moment of unsplintered peace was worth the drive home on wet leather.

Marley answers that for both of us when she strips down to her bra and panties, a matching set, and rushes toward the back seat of the car, letting herself in before slamming the door shut to try and shut out the rain and cold.

Tripp and I shed our clothes just as quickly.

"Sit with her." Tripp says as we throw our clothes in the trunk. "Keep her warm!"

He doesn't have to ask twice. I slip into the back seat with her, grinning and assessing whether she's put off by my advance. But she looks grateful for the warmth as I pull her against me, pressing her to my chest.

I catch Tripp’s gaze on mine in the rearview and wonder whether he regrets giving me this idea when she sighs in relief after a few moments, adjusting herself so that she rests more fully on me.

I'm pretty sure she can feel my hard cock, desperate for her attention just inches away from her flesh, but she's kind enough not to point it out, and I sure as shit am not going to say anything.

I notice Tripp's gaze on us a couple of times as he drives, periodically glancing back, like he's thinking of something that he isn't saying. And once Marley’s eyes start to get heavy, I decide I've had enough waiting for him to say whatever's on his mind.

"What?" I ask finally, once I'm sure she's asleep.

I'm surprised it took as long as it did, considering how exhausted she must be. My own eyelids are heavy, and sleep sounds so fucking seductive, but she's half-naked with her skin on mine; there's not a fucking chance in hell I'm going to fall asleep and let go of this moment. It’s too perfect.

"Nothing." Tripp shrugs, but the quirk of his lips assures me that's a damn lie.

"Spill it, Archer." I demand. "What's going on in that pretty head?"

I would swear he blushes just the slightest bit at that, his cheeks reddening in the night. I only notice because the taillights of the car in the lane next to ours illuminate him for just a second.

"I was just wondering..." he says cooly. "How you feel about sharing her?"

"I thought it was obvious." I laugh, my fingers pressing against Marley's skull gently to keep her from slipping as my chest caves with the sound. "I'll do anything. Part of her, all of her. it doesn't matter, as long as I have her."

Tripp swallows, his focus trained on the road. It's quiet a minute before he sighs. "I... I meant about me. How do you feel about sharing her with me?"

I blink, not entirely sure what he means by that. I feel like I just answered that question.

"I mean, sharing. Not split custody. Not like, she spends the night with you one night and me the next.

I want all of her, but..." He sighs, laughs, and then rubs the back of his neck, his eyes catching mine in the rearview mirror for half of a second before he looks away, focusing on the road again.

"But I want all of you, too. Like... the three of us. "

I blink again, unable to think of words to say in response to a confession like that.

I want all of you.

The three of us.

"What are you getting at Tripp? You want to be a throuple or something?"

Tripp shrugs, biting his bottom lip and pulling it between his teeth. "Yeah."

A throuple.

Not sure Colton would stand for it. And Marley. Sweet, pure as undriven snow Marley. I can't imagine her being okay with the idea of dating two guys simultaneously.

But then again, she seemed awfully liberated tonight.

Maybe she would go for it. Maybe she would like to be adored by both of us. And sharing her wouldn't mean we would have to push her into anything she's uncomfortable with as far as sex goes. Throuple implies threesomes, sure, but we could start more naturally.

Hell, this feels pretty natural as it is.

"Colton may kill us."

"Colton could join too." Tripp shrugs, taking me by surprise enough that I laugh, surprised by how casually he's speaking about this.

He's been playing hot and cold with me for months.

I know I can't have been the only one feeling this tension.

And the other day, when he kissed me on the Ferris wheel, he said he chose that one so no one would see him kiss me.

Now, all of a sudden, he wants to be out.

.. not just as mine, but as a full-on throuple?

"Not sure he'd go for it."

"Maybe." Tripp shrugs. "Maybe not. But he seemed awful interested in your hand on my cock the other day."