women is something she’s always strived to do.
“Then big man, the Luxinator, dude of all dudes, show me.” She raises an eyebrow at me, and the softness and sassiness tied together in that move have me feeling lighter somehow.
Grabbing her by the waist, I bring us a breath apart. I can nearly taste the Jujubes on her tongue. Her guard must be a saint because she’s not allowed snacks.
“Your guard, is he trying to fuck you?” The words slip free, and I only feel bad for a moment.
“W-what?” she gasps.
I glare at her, feeling the first ounce of jealousy and hatred in a while. The last time was when Jordan forced me to admit I cared.
“Your guard,” I growl, knowing my tone is far crueler than I intended. “The one giving you your favorite candy. Is. He. Fucking. You?”
She rolls her eyes. “I can’t tell if I’m happy you know my favorite candy or mad that you’d think I’d fuck some random ass dude.”
“You fucked the twins...” It was a low blow, and I know it, but the venom leaving me isn’t any less factual. She fucked them within a day. That means they were random, and she just decided they were what she wanted.
“That’s not fair.”
“Is it not?” I grumble, thinking about how both Just and Pru rubbed it in my face. They hate me, or Pru does. It doesn’t help that Just fucked the dude I thought I loved.
“The connection I have with them isn’t easily explained. They’re my protectors—”
I cut her off almost immediately. “Your protectors,” I enunciate, making sure to mock the word, “are Emeralds.”
“H-how?” She pushes away from me, staring at me with disbelief.
“You have to have felt it, the shift when they came to Arcadia, the instances where they felt familiar to you all along. Don’t you remember them, Colt? They’ve been around for a long ass time.”
She shakes her head erratically, her face shifting into confusion then sadness and ending on betrayal. Something clicks with her, allowing her to think about the truth in my words, about how they are suspicious as hell and haven’t really ever hidden that fact from anyone.
“They can’t be. I’d remember.”
“Just like you remember Maxim?”
“Who?” she mumbled, her eyes going left and right. There’s fright in her voice. It’s far too high.
While she’s holding her chest, I’m staring around the vacant ballroom, wondering how bugged it is. Is it similar to the towers? With cameras everywhere. Or is it more secure? It’s been years since I’ve seen the room where all the TVs are.
“I don’t know why you don’t remember vital things, Colt. I fucking hate it. Do you even remember Olivia? Carter?”
She nods on Olivia and shakes on Carter. “Olivia is Ross’ sister.”
“Do you know how she died, Colton?”
At her full name, her attention solely rests on me, her eyes wandering my face. It’s as if she knows the words about to leave her mouth aren’t going to be right, but she’s also not trusting. Not that I blame her.
We all know Cass was killed. We all think we know why, but what I don’t and will never understand is how Colt has erased memories.
No, it doesn’t make sense, and Cass warned us she’d been through traumatic experiences that caused the dissociation, but right now, asking her questions, it makes complete sense.
“Didn’t she kill herself?” she asks.
I laugh derisively, unable to help myself. Of course that’s the memory she clung onto. If I witnessed my best friend’s murder, I would have erased it too.
“Who was Olivia to you, Colt?”
Her eyes blink back tears, the tremble in her body worrying me. She doesn’t seem ill anymore. I’m guessing those fake placebo pills the Vestige put her on worked. She thinks she’s broken, but she doesn’t understand she’s being played. It all makes sense without making sense at all.
“S-she was Rossy’s sister,” she cries, her lip warbling.
But that’s the thing. Yeah, she was Rossy’s sister. Yes, he loved her and kissed the floor she walked upon, but once upon a time, she and Colt were inseparable.
I heard the women in the Vestige’s way got extreme therapy to help them conform, but I didn’t think they would fuck with Colton’s brain this much.
“I-I don’t understand, Lux.”
Her body shakes, and I pull her to me. It isn’t until I hear a clearing throat that I pull her away.
“Doesn’t look like you’re teaching her to dance,” Ashton’s voice rings out, making my head pound once more.
This is too much drama, too many