Chapter 9

The next day,the guys and I are gathered in my grandfather's office. It's been fucking chaos within the Burning Crown since Lux pulled her little stunt yesterday. The guys and I have been inundated with questions that have come in from every fucking direction.

"She can't kick us out of our own fucking society," Lucas says, pacing the room. He's heated, and I can tell he's trying his best to keep his anger contained.

"Have any of you talked to the senior counsel?" I ask. "What did they advise?"

The senior counsel is anyone who has maintained membership in the BurningCrown for ten or more years. So basically, my dad"s and grandfather's generations.

"My uncle is looking into it," Jackson says. "He's been doing most of the legal work for the Burning Crown anyway, so he's our best bet. Not to mention he's a pretty brilliant strategist. But he did warn me, it's going to take time…"

"We don't have fucking time," Lucas bites out. "We need to stop this now, today. One of us needs to talk to Lux."

"No," I say, leveling my gaze on Lucas. "We're leaving her the fuck alone."

I need to fix this somehow. I know the only reason she wants to destroy the Burning Crown is because of me. That's what she wants. To hurt me, and me alone.

"Roman–" Lucas says, agitated. "You heard what she said about using Tyler's death to—"

"We'll just have to face whatever is coming," I say, cutting him off. "If she goes to the police, then we'll deal with it then." I look at each one of them. "But no one talks to her. We've already done enough fucking damage."

Jackson sighs. "So, what, we're just supposed to accept the fact that we've been kicked out of the Burning Crown?"

I rub my hands over my face and tilt my head back. Fuuuck. After taking a few breaths, I lower my head again and look at Jackson. "Talk to your uncle, see what he recommends. There has to be some way around this. But no one is to talk to Lux directly about this. We're doing this the right way."

"Maybe we'll get lucky, and this shit will handle itself," Christian says, grabbing a fistful of mixed nuts from a bowl on one of the side tables.

What a random fucking comment.

I tilt my head at Christian and narrow my eyes. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

I feel like I've been left out of a vital conversation or something, which wouldn't be too far-fetched. I've been distracted lately. The guys exchange looks with each other like there's something they don't want to tell me.

"What?" I sigh. "What the fuck aren't you telling me?"

Christian dips his head, his eyes not meeting mine. "We didn't want to tell you, because you already had so much going on with your brother and Lux and everyth–"

"Say it." I'm already on a razor"s edge. Whatever this is, I can tell it's going to fuck up my already fucked-up week.

"There have been rumblings of retaliation against Lux," Christian says flatly. "The Circle was already pissed about the consort thing, then her rushed initiation, and now this shit. Yeah, they're not happy."

Fuck.I should have guessed the membership would retaliate against Lux somehow. She's new to all of this, so what she doesn't know is that the circle is rabid and fucking loyal. They don't take big changes well. It's why we had to do things with Tyler a certain way—the circle doesn't just shut up and sit down when you tell them to, unfortunately. Things can get very volatile, very quickly. It's a balancing act my forefathers have played for generations.

Every muscle in my body stiffens. "What's being said?"

Lucas looks over at Jackson and flicks his chin in my direction. "Show him."

Jackson hesitates but eventually pulls out his phone, scrolling until he finds what he's looking for. Pushing off the desk, he walks over to me and shows me his screen. It's a screenshot from an unofficial ExU forum.

I grab the phone from Jackson so I can read the post.

Posted by: Anonymous9876

10 hours ago

Subject: death to the queen…

something needs to be done about this shit w/ the BC. the QC has gone too far and blames the SS for something that was her fucking fault in the first place. TS died because of her and now she's taking down the whole society. a few of us plan to put that bitch in the ground with her friend…

I read the words over and over, seething, my blood boiling. It's written in code, but BC is clearly the Burning Crown, CQ is the queen consort, and TS, obviously means Tyler.

Fuuuck!

I tilt my head back and close my eyes. Shit gets worse by the second. But thank God I have a good defense attorney because the first thing I'm doing is tracking down and slaughtering the person who wrote that post. Fuck knows I've tortured people for far, far less…