Poison Throne: A Dark College Romance(22)

We had to hope his wife—who inherited the throne—wouldn't continue his policies.

"King Felipe truly believes they might have the support now to bring about a council for the people?" Mattie asked, shaking her head as she leaned back on her elbows, looking every inch a princess with her perfect hair and designer clothing.

I shrugged. "Felipe and Wainwright were confident.”

She mulled that over. "What exactly will this council entail? How will it even work? I mean, it would be cool to see some change, and while I’m not sure if my parents will vote yes or no, they definitely aren’t happy with the constant state of turmoil. This might be a nice compromise."

Hitting me with the hard questions. “Basically, the part I understood anyway, was that there would be a council for the people incorporated into each royal kingdom. In doing so, it would be the tipping point to stop the resistance from… resisting. It sounds like the monarchy won’t lose too much power, more of, as you said, a compromise. There’s no guarantee, though… not when it comes to power. People always think they're happy to share it right up until the moment fantasy becomes reality."

"So true," Mattie said with a sigh. "But the good news is that a lot of the new monarchs haven't had time to play with their power yet. So maybe they'll learn how to share before it's too late."

"I fucking hope so," I said, feeling tension settle in my chest. "Just the thought of dealing with Uriel ever again makes my skin crawl. We need to remove the resistance as a beacon of hope and instill a different system."

Mattie was out of her slouched position now. "Tell me everything about this Uriel."

Over the next hour I spilled my entire life to her—every single, horrible moment that led to my kidnapping, including the sex and rejection. "The thing is, if I hadn't won the ballot," I said with a dry laugh, "I would have been much more open to the idea of destroying the monarchy. In hindsight, it was legitimately the worst move the resistance could have made."

"They didn't expect you to find us," Mattie said confidently. "They thought the assholes here, like Alex and Claudette would increase your hatred."

I nodded, having come to the same conclusion. "The resistance was never going to let the Alex thing happen; they already had ways to get around that. But even if I had ended up marrying into that family, no doubt they'd have used me to take them down."

I didn't know all the details but it didn't matter anymore. That path—those plans that had been crafted since my birth—had been destroyed long ago, basically the moment I fell in love with my little circle of royals.

"I'm so happy you're okay," Mattie said huskily. "After you went missing, I couldn't stop crying. Nolan and I flew home so we could use our satellite tech to try and find you. You were so off-grid, though, that I got nothing." She coughed a little to hide a sob. "Thank fuck Rafe finally got in touch so I at least knew you were alive."

Our hug went on for a long time, and I felt a little lighter when we pulled apart. Since seeing Uriel again at the compound, I'd been carrying around this darkness that I couldn't put away. Piece by piece, my friends were helping me step back to the Violet I’d been before the world went to shit.

"You're the best fucking friend a girl could wish for," I told her truthfully. "And I'm lucky to have you."

Mattie shrugged. "I know."

We both cracked up laughing just as a heavy knock sounded on her door. "Come in, Rafe," Mattie said with an eye roll. Boy had a very distinct heavy hand on him, that was for sure.

He marched in, Jordan and Nolan right behind him. "Why isn't your door locked?" he growled.

Mattie just raised her eyebrows at him, unperturbed by his attitude. "Uh, maybe because it's three in the afternoon and the school is bustling with students."

His jaw started doing that twitchy thing that meant he was losing his shit internally and just hadn't figured out what or who to punch yet. "I'm sure by now you've heard about Uriel," Jordan said, our peacemaker. "He's highly-trained, skilled, and very evil. He will stop at nothing to get Violet into his grasp. We can't take any risks with her until he's dead and buried."

I lifted my hand in the air. "Dibs on killing him."

Mattie turned wide eyes on me. "Is he really that dangerous? Like... more than you and Rafe?"

I tried not to laugh at that. "Yes. More than me and Rafe. Combined."

"Well, fuck," she breathed, before launching herself off her bed to lock her door and slide the deadbolt across.

Rafe crossed his arms. "He's sneakier, not better. I just need to lure him out of the shadows first."

"Mine," I repeated.

Nolan chose that moment to laugh, grab some of our leftover junk food, and collapse into the chair, shoveling it into his mouth. "Only my family would fight over who gets to kill a dude," he said, laughing even harder. Bastard was going to choke on his food if he kept that up. "I love my life."

Rafe shook his head, but didn't say anything. Nolan was a pain in the ass, but he was our pain in the ass, and sometimes the relief that came with his lightheartedness was exactly what we all needed to start healing. Feeling more like our old selves.

"Safe and secure," Mattie chirped, and when I looked over to the door, laughter spilled out before I could stop it. She'd dragged her side table in front of it and piled all her shoes on top.

She shrugged. "If anyone shakes my door, all the shoes will fall off, and we'll have a warning."

Jordan wrapped his arm around her when she walked by. "How are we going to get out though?"

Mattie wrinkled her nose. "Hmmm. No idea. Guess you'll all just have to live here. We can make it work."

That had all of Nolan's attention. "I suggest a rotation of who sleeps with whom, minus Mattie and me because we're not into twincest."

Rafe looked like he was refraining from speaking his mind, and I had to admire his restraint.

The rest of the afternoon was the most normal I'd had in a very long time. To think that only a few days before this I was being brainwashed in a compound filled with extremists and murderers… It was difficult to comprehend the entire thing.

As night fell, I grew more tired, and when I'd yawned for the tenth time, Rafe reached down and scooped me off the bed and into his arms. "Violet needs to sleep," he said. "Someone is going to have to de-shoe the front door for us."

Mattie snorted. "No one murdered us, did they? I'd say a hundred percent success rate."

"Put me down," I said to Rafe when he started to walk. "I'm not that tired."

He muttered something about being a pain in the ass, but he did set me on my feet. When the door was clear, I hugged Mattie and Nolan before strolling off toward my room. Rafe and Jordan both caught me, each of them taking a hand and dragging me to a halt.

"Rafe's room is the safest," Jordan said. "We will be sticking together." There was a bite in his tone, like some of his demons were creeping back in.

"Okay."

Their astonishment at my lack of argument might be a little insulting, but I was definitely happier when we were together.

That way I could protect them too.





Chapter 18





Rafe's room was twice the size of mine, and his bed was larger too, so when I crawled in later that night, showered and dressed just in one of his shirts, there was plenty of space between the three of us.

No one moved closer—we stayed as we were for this weird, awkward moment—and then, in almost the same instant, both princes rolled over into me, draping their long-ass arms and legs all over my body, cocooning me in their heat and protection.

"We got you, Vi," Jordan murmured. "You can sleep. No one will touch you tonight."

It probably didn’t take any great leap of imagination to know how badly I’d been sleeping the past month. First while locked in a cell and beaten, then constantly on guard for Uriel’s late night visits. But still, my chest felt tight knowing that they were here with me. Finally, all three of us were together, and there was barely even any anger simmering in the air.

It almost felt... peaceful.

Jordan was the first to pass out; his injuries had him hurting and more tired than usual, and he needed the rest. Rafe was wide awake, his breathing even as he traced his fingers over my skin, almost absent-mindedly.

"Sleep, baby." His voice was a husky whisper. "You need to rest."

Wiggling a little, I moved out from under Jordan so I could turn to face Rafe. In the near darkness, I couldn't see much, but I knew his eyes were on mine.

Leaning forward, I searched for his mouth, and he moved to find mine in the same instant. The kiss was soft—an almost foreign concept for us. "Rafe," I whispered. There were so many unspoken things that we needed to say.

"It'll keep until tomorrow," he told me. "Tonight we sleep."

I nodded, not sure he could see it. Closing my eyes, I stayed the way I was, facing Rafe, needing to try and regain some of the closeness we'd had before the kidnapping. Eventually, his soft caresses on my back and rhythmic breathing lulled me to sleep—only to have me jerked awake a few hours later by a cry.

I dragged myself up from the dead sleep I’d been in—my body dangerously weighed down by exhaustion.