Crown of Thorns

7

For the next 45 minutes of my life, that question dangles over my head, sucking the air out of the room and slowly, excruciatingly, suffocating me.

What role did you play in fucking over my family?

He’s gone eerily quiet since asking me that. Though I never responded, his demand crashes around inside my skull, threatening to send into a nervous breakdown right in the middle of class. It’s like there’s a countdown ru

That’s what screws with me the most because I can feel his green eyes burning through layers of clothing—my uniform sweater and white blouse and bra—and branding my skin.

When the bell finally rings, it hits me like a ca

Of course, I can’t be that lucky because I was wrong this morning—the universe hasn’t reset itself. It’s reared its ugly head and now the king himself has singled me out because he believes I’ve somehow wronged him and his family.

“You actually think you can get away from me?” Phoenix’s voice wraps around me like a noose, causing me to gasp and stumble. He’s not even yelling. That’s the scariest part. His voice is calm and even, barely loud enough for anyone else to hear him, but it’s still like a deafening roar in my ears.

“There’s not a fucking thing you can do to get away from me now, Luna.”

I try my best to ignore him and continue forward, but his taunts only intensify as he stalks after me, his long strides bringing him closer and closer. “Is that how you afford to come here? Ripping off people you shouldn’t fuck with? Come on, Luna. Bold enough to fuck me over but not to face me? Turn around when I’m talking to you.”

I swallow hard, gulping down the pressure in the back of my throat. Still, I don’t give in to his bait. I can’t. He wants me to react so he can escalate things, I know it. He really is a sociopath. Some of the people we pass turn to gape at us with wide eyes and open mouths, but no one bothers to step in to help me.

And why would they?

He’s their king and I’m—

I’m ten feet from one of the exits when strong fingers bite into my wrist. He yanks me to a stop before dragging me into the empty classroom right next to us. My instinct is to scream, but I’m so scared that I go numb as he slams the door shut behind him. He shoves me up against the wall, and my hands instantly go up to protect myself.

This must amuse him because his full lips twitch. He pushes my arms by my sides and cages me in, splaying one hand on the side of my head and tangling the other hand in the hair at the nape of my neck. I wince, but that only seems to fuel him even more. He tilts my head far back so that we’re eye-to-eye.

“Stop moving,” he orders.

But I thrash against him, and he responds by closing the space between our bodies. He’s so much taller than me. Before, I never quite grasped how much bigger he is, but I’m easily seven or eight inches shorter. And with his body melted against mine, I feel every inch of him.

“Stop. Fucking. Moving. You’re not strong enough, bitch, so it’s a waste of your time.” His eyes are emerald fire as they roam over my earrings. “Where’s the rest of it?”

The earrings. The stupid earrings my brother left for me that Gideon had directly mentioned this morning. I should have taken them out right then. Should have known they were a mistake. Should have figured Jasper might have stolen them or at least the money to buy them, but this is a situation I never could have predicted. My brother deals with small-time druggies and car thieves, not people who live in fifty-million-dollar mansions in the heart of Bel Air.

That’s why Phoenix has to be confused, there’s no other explanation. Jasper would never steal from the Townsend family. Even he’s not that recklessly stupid. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say on a wispy breath that trembles and breaks. “Please, I—”

“Save your goddamn tears. They don’t work on me.” I’m finally able to exhale when he loosens his grip on my hair, but then his fingertips close around my left earlobe. Even though it doesn’t hurt, I cry out like he’s just ripped tiny rose from my flesh. “Where the fuck did you get these?”

“Pawnshop,” I slur, the lie tumbling from my lips with surprising ease.

As if I’ve made some sort of horrible joke, he laughs at me, his minty breath fa

My fear makes me bold. I duck under his arms and make a dash for the door, but he’s faster than me. And just as he warned, he’s stronger. So much stronger. He snags me around the waist, dragging me back to him and slamming me into the first empty desk he reaches. This time, real pain shoots through my body, but my wince doesn’t stop him from leaning over me, rage contorting every line of his face.

“Take them,” I blurt out, reaching clumsily for my ears.

He catches both my wrists and holds my hands hostage high above my head. “I don’t give a fuck about the earrings anymore,” he says, and my stomach clenches with dread. “I want everything else you took.”

Everything else you took.

Those four words swirl around my brain like a tornado, tightening my chest and sprinkling spots throughout my vision. I don’t know what Phoenix is capable of, but there’s something more than just fury in the way he grips my wrists. Something I can’t identify, which only makes it more frightening.

He will hurt me.

He will hurt me and not feel a single ounce of remorse.

To my shock, though, he lets go of me. I almost sob in relief as I scramble out of the seat. The second my gaze darts for the door, he blocks me, his spine stiff and his expression warning me that he’ll rip me into a thousand and one shreds if I so much as move another inch.

“If you don’t let me leave,” I manage to say, “I will scream. I mean it, Phoenix. I’ll scream and campus security—”

“Go on,” he taunts and takes a step closer. I back up, but he keeps coming, his tan jawline rigid with rage. “I want to hear you scream. Fuck, I need to hear it.”

Somehow, I don’t doubt that.

He needs to know that this isn’t an empty threat and that I don’t care who he is. If campus security shows up and finds us like this, even he can’t get out of an assault charge, right? At least, that’s what I tell myself to keep from launching into full panic mode.

Still, we both know the bitter truth. That if I involve campus police and insult Thornwood’s king even more than he believes I have already, he’ll bring my world crashing down even more.

“Go on and scream,” he challenges again, tipping his chin up arrogantly. He waits for me to follow through, but all I do is stand there, my lungs on the verge of exploding and my body near collapse. “You really are predictable,” he spits out.