Vicious Prince (Royal Elite 5)

So, I go with it and snap my fingers. “This means you’re cool with it, right? Ellie, I meant it about the size, and —”

He cuts me off. “How is your fiancée, Astor?”

I smile. “Probably performing some satanic rituals.”

“Hey!” Elsa scolds me.

I pretend to grin back. What Elsa doesn’t know is that I need to keep up the façade, need to make everyone believe I don’t give two fucks about Teal — even she needs to know that. She needs to realise there’s no way in fuck she’ll become my weakness like Aiden is parading his around in the form of Elsa.

I don’t have weaknesses. I have people.

Lots of fucking people who fill every corner of my life.

So what if Teal stands out from that crowd? So what if I’ve been looking for her during lunch break and haven’t found her? I won’t show it or ask about her.

She’ll be the one who’ll admit her fault and come back to me, not the other way around.

I’m an earl’s heir. We never show our true emotions.

“I see,” Aiden muses. “That must be why she’s with Cole then. You know, for pointers.”

What the fuck is she doing with Cole?

As if reading my mind, Aiden’s smirk widens. “You know his rituals. They can get…interesting.”

“Uh-huh.” I don’t know how I manage to get that out with how firmly I’m gritting my teeth.

“They’re in the garden, near the back.”

Cole is with Teal in the garden, where he usually reads alone like a creep. What is he doing there with her?

And what is she doing with Cole instead of coming to me?

“I didn’t ask.” I smile at Aiden.

“I’m just saying. They were cosy.” He’s talking to me, but his lips are whispering the words against Elsa’s forehead. “Send me updates.”

And then he disappears with his girlfriend down the hall, and not in the direction of the pitch.

For a second, I stand there, processing Aiden’s words. He could be lying to get a rise out of me, but that’s the problem: he doesn’t — lie, I mean. He likes chaos, but not to the point of making things up.

Cole and Teal are cosy.

I run a hand through my hair. Fuck!

“Hey, Ron.” Claire’s soft voice barges through my head before she grabs me by the arm. “You look tense. Do you want me to loosen you up? Reese would help, too.”

I stare at her face, but I’m not seeing her. My dick is so flaccid, Ron Astor the Second is about to start weeping — and not in a good way.

Claire and her friend do shit for me now. I never even planned to fuck them, and my challenge to Teal yesterday was only that — a challenge. I never planned to act on it. I’m almost sure she never meant to act on her threat either.

So what the fuck is she doing with Cole?

“Later, Claire.” I push her and her disappointed expression out of view as I hurry to the other entrance of the school and towards the garden.

I try telling myself Cole isn’t her type. She prefers older and fucked up.

Still, cosy. Aiden said cosy. What does cosy mean? They’re sitting together under the tree and reading poetry? They’re talking — which is as cosy as Teal would get? Maybe they’re writing their own book titled How to be Fucked Up, and Other Questions.