The Dark One (Vicious Lost Boys Book 2)

The twins are laughing and they can’t stop.

“You launched that fucker to the clouds,” Bash says.

Kas wipes tears from his face as the ocean breeze blows his hair in his face. “Did you see him pinwheeling all the way down?”

The Lost Boy in question, the one I stuck in the giant slingshot and launched into the sky is trudging back up the beach, his clothes soaking wet and hanging off of his scrawny body like moss from a tree. He’s drunk too. We’re all drunk.

I needed this more than I realized.

“That was fun,” the Lost Boy says and smiles up at me.

“Great,” I tell him. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

He hurries back up to the fire where the rest of the Lost Boys are drinking, playing cards, and cavorting with the town girls.

Bash and Kas and I have been noticeably absent from the fireside.

Inevitably, girls will circle us and we’ll have to turn them down and I don’t want them to ruin my good time.

I scan the crowd for my girl, but she’s noticeably absent too.

“Where’s our Darling?” I ask the twins.

Bash hands me a freshly uncorked bottle of rum. “I think I saw her go into the house a while ago.”

The urge to go to her is nearly unbearable.

But there’s something I need to say to the twins while I have them alone. I take a long pull from the amber bottle, then hand it off to one of them. “What did your sister offer you?”

They look at one another and I can hear the chime of bells over the crashing of the ocean. “No, fuckers. You speak to my face.”

Bash sighs. “In a vague sort of way, she offered us our wings back and the possibility of being welcomed back to court if we sided with her or gave her something she could use against you.”

Tilly may be young compared to me, but I have to give her credit—she knows how to motivate her brothers. They may pretend like being banished is but a distant memory, but I know it is a splinter wedged deep beneath the skin, one they pick and pick at as the wound festers and the skin rots.

This business with Tilly, losing their wings, leaving their home, it’s unresolved business, and the longer they ignore it, the worse it’ll get.

“I don’t have the power to get you your wings directly,” I say, “but if I have my shadow, I’ll have the power to help you stage a coup if that’s what you want.”

They pretend like they’re just considering this offer, but they’re not stupid. This was always the way it would go down. I think in some way I always knew they would eventually end up on the throne. Maybe that’s why I took them in when they were banished. They always held some value to me, but now I’ve come to see them as brothers.

Little asshole brothers, anyway.

The tinkling of bells punctuates the night. I let them have their secret conversation this time.

“All right,” Kas finally says. “Consider this our official word. We’ll stand by your side if you help us get our wings and the court back.”

I nod, feeling the last vestiges of the alcohol burn off. As an immortal, I can never stay drunk long enough.

“I think we’ll enjoy this,” I say. “Overthrowing the fae queen has a certain ring to it.”

Bash snorts. “That’s still our sister you’re talking about.”

“Apologies.” I hook my arms around their necks and tug them into me. “Let me correct that. Overthrowing your sister will be fun.”

Kas’s yanks his hair out from beneath my arm. “You really are the world’s biggest asshole.”

“Now we’re on the same page.”