any desire for swords swinging around while I’m with a girl. But that was before someone shot at me, my dad put out a hit on my girlfriend, and I helped a mobster dissolve a guy in his bathtub. The whole world is fucked up. Why should my relationship be any different?”
I can’t help the smile that plays across my lips. “So you’re in?”
“I’m in. Just as long as you don’t cramp my style.”
I snort. “Unlikely. I think I have a few tricks to teach you, young grasshopper.”
Claudia laughs. She throws her arms around us both, bringing us together so we’re smushed against her, Noah’s salty, jasmine scent mingling with hers. It feels… good, but a completely different kind of good to having her writhe under my lips. This was more of a chest-tightening, flame-licking-down-the-spine kind of good.
I kiss Claudia’s forehead. On the other side, Noah copies. The crown falls over her ear, and I pull back to set it straight on her head, brushing her hair away from her face to marvel at those wide, blue eyes. They aren’t so filled with ice today. There’s a warmth there that spreads fire across my chest.
“Every queen needs a harem.” I lean back to admire her crown.
“We’re not quite a harem. More like a threesome, a triad.” Noah decides now is the time to get technical. “We need at least one more…”
Too late, he realizes what he’s saying. Claudia’s eyes flutter closed. One name dances on her lips. “Eli…”
The name saps the warmth from the room. My chest tightens so hard I struggle to breathe. I know that I’ll never be enough for Claudia August. No one man could be. But especially not me. Noah understands her shadow side because he lives in the shadows himself. All I’m good for is a good time and incredible sex. There’s a piece missing. We all feel it.
Claudia needs Eli’s steadiness. We all do.
I’ll never admit it to Eli, but he’s a big reason why I moved back to Emerald Beach. I wanted to borrow a little of his quiet strength to get me through Dylan’s suicide. He got Noah through losing his brother, I figured he could help me, too. It never occurred to me until this very moment that Eli has lost more than all of us, and he had to go through it alone.
Dylan is right. Even when I try to be a good person, I fuck it up with my own selfishness. Eli knows it. One day Claws will realize too, and she’ll drop me for good.
25
Claudia
On Monday, we walk into Stonehurst Prep in our usual formation, only this time, we’ve added Isaac to our group. George is still beaming with happiness from the weekend – she called me on Sunday as I lay curled up in Gabe’s arms to tell me every adorkable detail of her night. All the other patrons left halfway through the infamous final thirty minutes of Society, leaving George and Isaac with the theatre to themselves, with tubs and tubs of uneaten popcorn. Midway through the scene in Army of Darkness where Ash fudges the incantation for the Necronomicon, Isaac kissed her.
As George squeezes his hand and surges forward in her non-regulation neon-green Docs, I can’t help but think falling in love looks damn good on her. I swear she’s gained a couple of inches in height overnight, and her skin has a glow to it that can’t be credited to makeup or exposure to nuclear fallout.
I feel I’ve got a little glow on of my own. That’s the power of the right guys at your side.
I wear my homecoming crown askew, and a pink bomber jacket with the word Queen stitched across the back. It’s my boldest uniform violation to date, but no one will dare write me up.
It’s official now – I’m the queen of this school. Soon, I’ll be the queen of this whole damn city.
My confidence trembles as we hit the throng of students crowding the entrance. Something seems off. I expect things to be different after the homecoming announcement, but I’m not prepared for the wave of weird vibes that hit us as we pass under the Corinthian columns into the main courtyard.
Eyes flicker across me and then look away. Bodies shuffle aside as we move toward the lockers, clearing a wide berth around us as if accidentally touching me might see me sentence them to death. It reminded me a little of the way Daddy’s lower-level soldiers sometimes behaved