Three Trials (The Dark Side, #2)

by Kristy Cunning

I grew attached to all of you—infallibly loyal, viciously protective, savagely lustful, and tragically devoted.

“If we could have you, I wouldn’t be so selfish. I’d make sure you were well sated before taking mine, and I’d make you crave me as often as possible. The fact that I’m not your favorite kills me. But because of that aching need to be your favorite, I know you’d be the end of us.”

“My evil vagina is impressed with her powers of temptation,” I deadpan.

“That’s twice you’ve called me comoara trădătoare. What does it mean?” I ask him. He holds my gaze for so long that I think he’s not going to answer. Just as he closes his eyes, I hear the words that are almost whispered. “Treacherous treasure.”

This is my favorite feeling. The intimate contact with one of them. It always reminds me that I’m finally alive instead of just surviving. Especially in the middle of a game of survival.

“Who’s your favorite now?” he drawls as he turns and starts backing away, a knowing grin on his face. “Definitely you,” I say with one hundred percent honesty.

“Everyone gather around me,” I shout, then glance down at my ruby red slippers as they appear. Everyone does as I say, putting their hands on/through me as just only my feet turn whole and start clicking together. “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like—” “Are you fucking kidding me?” Jude barks in interruption, causing my eyes to peel open as I grimace. “Worth a shot,” I tell them, furious with all the false hope movies have given me over these past few years.

“Give me a few days to be thankful I’m alive, to be thankful I somehow managed to see you all home safely, and give my heart a break, before you remind me how very little you care.”

“For fuck’s sake, so what if she cheated? She spent an hour trying to paint the damn things just because you bought her the fucking polish. Give her a compliment already,” Kai says, confusing me, until I realize he’s angrily directing that toward Ezekiel.

“My feelings were only getting hurt in the beginning. When it was all of you against me. Ezekiel is my special boy because he was the first to gift me with hope. Kai is like a willful drug, because I truly enjoy the attention he pays me, even when he’s so surly he couldn’t possibly have a gentle bone in his body. Gage is my current favorite because I know without a doubt he finally sees me as what I am.” He turns to me, his brow furrowing. “And what is that?” “All of yours,” I state as though it should be obvious.

“It’s clear I was designed just for the four of you. Whether or not I’m a Trojan Horse is beyond my knowledge. But even if I am such, I’ll destroy whoever wants to use me against you. My loyalties are sealed and undivided. The four of you are my only charge. If Lamar had been truly trying to hurt you, I would have burned his heart in his chest without blinking an eye. And I happen to like Lamar.”

I’m beyond drugged and unable to pull back, as I clutch him closer, kissing him so hard that my lips start to hurt. I knew it’d be violent with him. Just as it is with all of them. It makes the times they’re soft so much more special.

“I’m saying she’s The Apocalypse. Her name is Apocalypse. She puts the in front of it when she wants to remind everyone she’s the only one who can truly level the world. As I said, she’s rather vain that way,”

My eyes close as the book comes down to my chest, and I imagine what it would be like for one of them to hold my shoulders down, two of them to hold my legs open, and then take turns on who fucks me into submission.

“They were already too imbalanced. In other words, you were able to give a gift with no strings attached, because of that imbalance. You were the only one who had to sacrifice anything, because they’d—we’d—already suffered too much,” Gage patiently tells me.

“You healed their bodily wounds. You released them from the chains. And you pushed the power into their bodies one at a time. Then you hovered over them, caring for them for almost a century, as their minds and bodies continued to grow stronger. They slept under your watchful eye for the first time since the madness crept in. And they made up for the many centuries that sleep had evaded them. That version of you was enchanted by the effect you—and only you—seemed to have on them—on us.”

“So she gave all four of them a piece of her sacred balance, disrupting her own stability in an effort to save them from themselves,” he adds, holding my gaze. “She tied herself to them, leaving her less than whole. When their bond suffered, she suffered twice as much.”

“You’re not capable of guilt or conscience, so when you feel regret, it is true, unpersuaded, heart-wrenching regret,” he says seriously, causing me to hesitate for a split second. “And you’d certainly regret this.”