Page 67 of Volatile King (The Kings of Wayward Academy #6)

She tilted her head, smile dimming slightly. Her eyes hardened just enough that the sickeningly sweet facade was washed away for a few seconds. It was as if she could only hold the harmless mask in place for so long.

“Did Nash ever tell you what happened to my parents?”

I nodded, but she kept talking anyway.

“I watched them die,” she said, voice harsher now. “Lawrence shot them in front of me. My mom was holding my hand. I screamed and cried, but I could only sit there and watch.”

My heart cracked in my chest like an old wound being torn open. I knew this pain all too well. A flash of my mother’s death filled my mind.

“That kind of pain…” Mya pressed a hand to her heart. “It doesn’t leave. It just learns to wear heels and smile wider, but you never have to worry about that with Nash. He never looks away from danger or darkness.”

I swallowed the lump clawing up my throat.

“You’ve seen it, too? I mean, you must have,” she said. “The darkness in him. The way he clings to warmth because he’s afraid he’ll freeze if he stops moving. That’s why he loves you. It’s not because you’re perfect…it’s because you’re familiar, you make him feel…normal…warm . You get what I mean?”

I stood there, not moving, afraid that if I spoke, I would shatter into a million little pieces right here in the dressing room.

“Nash and Vicky were never going to work. She doesn’t have the scars that we do,” she said, and then looked over her shoulder to see if Vicky was around. “I can see why she latched on to me and tried to keep him away from you.”

Vicky’s words about knowing that Nash would fall in love with me were ringing far too loudly in my head.

“She’s all glitz and polish with no soul.” She rolled her eyes. “We didn’t hang out often because I went to a different school, but she’s always been the same. It’s like time stood still where she is concerned. She panted after him back then, too, and lost.”

My nostrils flared. Vicky was a bitch, but she was my bitch now…my sister, and no one, not even Mya, was going to talk shit about her.

“Don’t,” I snarled in warning, and her eyes went wide.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you two were actually friends.

Didn’t think she had any, to be honest. I bet it’s because Nash never told you the stories of the things she pulled to try and win him over.

Even back then, she thought that she was a better match.

But don’t worry, I’m happy he chose you. ”

I opened my mouth to tear her a new one, but she stood and placed her hand on my shoulder. It was a simple gesture, but it felt far more threatening.

“Listen…I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like you. And once we have North back…our son safely home…well, I’m looking forward to raising him with you.”

My mind screeched to a halt.

“It’s going to be so good for him to have both of us. You and me. Two strong women. Same broken roots, but different trees. We can teach him so much.”

I didn’t respond. Couldn’t.

“It won’t be weird, I promise,” she said. All I could see was her living in the house with us, and weird didn’t come close to describing what I felt. “I mean, sure, some people might think it’s strange. But I don’t. I think it’s fate.”

She let go of my shoulder and placed her hand right over her heart.

“Children need peace, and we can give that to him. Together. Maybe this was always God’s plan.”

I stood there, drowning in memories that weren’t mine. A future I struggled to see, like a thick blanket of fog had descended on everything I thought I knew. It was as if Mya had brought it with her from the grave.

Mya stepped back and looked me up and down.

“You really do wear that dress well,” she added after letting me stew in the toxicity. “It’s almost…royal. I’m going to keep shopping, but take your time. I know it’s not easy wearing something that looks like it was made for someone else.”

Just then Ella stepped into the changeroom with a couple outfits laying over her arm. Mya morphed into a totally different person right before my eyes. Ella looked at me and then Mya.

Is everything okay? Ella signed.

“Yeah, I was just telling Ren how pretty she looks,” Mya said, softly with her head down.

I nodded not wanting to get into what she’d just said to me.

“Could you help me pick something out,” Mya asked Ella.

I could tell that Ella didn’t want to leave me alone and had picked up on something, but I gave small smile and signed.

I’m good. Just going to get changed.

Ella gave me a lingering look and then left with Mya who walked away like the last ten minutes hadn’t just gutted me from the inside out.

And just like that…she was gone. Mya had left me standing in a kingdom I didn’t build, drowning in a moat I didn’t want, and wearing a crown made from someone else’s grief.

The door opened beside me, and I jumped to the side, shocked that someone was in here.

Great, it was Vicky.

Vicky locked eyes with me, and I got ready for round two.

“She’s a scheming whore, and I don’t care that she has miraculously risen from the dead, or that Lawrence fucked her brains out for three years. That bitch can kiss my glitzy, polished ass. She needs to go,” Vicky said with a snarl, her eyes hard.

She stepped out of the dressing room with her nose in the air and her high-heeled shoes clicking on the tile.

“No one talks to you like that but me,” Vicky said and strutted away.

I smirked, knowing that I’d just thought the same thing about her. My world had officially turned completely upside down.

I guess it really was true…

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.