Vicious Prince (Royal Elite 5)

The air is grim like the grey clouds, and the school’s pitch appears like a scene from an apocalypse — minus the bodies.

Our football team attracts all the ladies’ attention. They always appear at our practice, calling our names and cheering us on. I grin at them as they stand by the sidelines, and they wave and scream my number, thirteen.

That’s right — my number. Needless to say, I’m the most popular. My fucker friends can claim otherwise, but they’re wrong, so they don’t count.

I head to the bench with Aiden and Cole and snatch a bottle of water before Cole can get it. I’m in the middle of downing it when I meet those black eyes that should belong in some gothic tale about black magic and sucking people’s souls into nothingness.

Teal stands behind the school stadium’s barrier with Elsa and a miserable-looking Kim — because Xander isn’t here and she’s kind of too soft for that fucker.

She waves at me anyway — Kim, I mean — and I wink, grinning even though I’m close to crushing the bottle of water between my fingers.

Teal isn’t even watching us. She’s focused on Coach, who’s yelling at a freshman, asking him if he wants to be on this team or not.

Her phone is snuggled between her fingers, almost forgotten, but not really. Soon enough, her concentration goes back to whatever voodoo spell is in there.

After her display at dinner last week, she’s been acting as if nothing happened, as if she didn’t fuck up my fifteen-year plan that includes not getting married.

Nothing is over, though.

That tiny girl with black hair and eyes, and possibly a black heart, has riled up a part of me I’ve been keeping hidden for so long I actually thought maybe it’d start disappearing, but nope, it came back reeling from the dead.

And now she’ll fucking pay for it.

“What has that bottle done to you?” Aiden asks from his position on the bench. He’s also sipping from a sports drink, but his entire attention is on Elsa. There’s even a slight smirk on his lips; his male ego is happy she’s made it a habit to show up to watch him practice after being against it for months.

Cole sits beside him, wiping the side of his face with a towel. We’re all wearing blue Elites jerseys and shorts since we’re starters and are playing against the second string, which will take over next year once we’ve all graduated.

Knox is jesting with the goalkeeper, and I seize the opportunity his absence provides. I barge between Cole and Aiden and wrap an arm around each of their shoulders, grinning at them suggestively.

“Withdrawals, Astor?” Aiden raises an eyebrow.

“Nope, been smoking my usual stash just fine. Thanks for asking, though.”

“He meant sex withdrawals,” Cole elaborates. “You haven’t thrown a party in a week since your parents are back.”

“Nah, I’m doing fine.” Lie — about the partying, not the sex part.

“If you were, you wouldn’t be clingy like a stripper.” Aiden glares at me. “Not interested.”

“Fuck you, King,” I say, but I don’t remove my arm.

“I might be interested.” Cole raises an eyebrow. “Depending on the circumstances.”

“You keep your kinky shit away from me, Captain,” I warn.

“Are you sure?” Cole drawls. “You never know when it’ll be useful.”

His gaze strays to the spectators and he smiles at Teal. She tips her head in acknowledgment before focusing on her phone.

The fuck?

I stare between him and her then back again. Now that I think about it, Cole and Teal have been getting disgustingly close for some time now. It’s almost unnoticeable, but he’s possibly the only one amongst the horsemen — or the entire male population — that she exchanges words with.

In the beginning, I thought it was because they’re both nerds, but even if I don’t know her — yet — I know Cole. He doesn’t take a step without calculating a thousand years ahead — no kidding, he’s probably writing a financial plan for his fourth generation by now.

Cole is kind on the outside, but he doesn’t actually let people get close. The fact that he did with her is…interesting. Interesting for me because that means he’ll give me indispensable information.

“What do you know about Teal?” I ask them both, because Aiden practically lives at Elsa’s house now and might know more about her than he lets on.