Dark Sides by Isabella King

Author:Isabella King [King, Isabella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tempest Books
Published: 2019-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 42

Violett

She looked at me in a way that so reminded me of dad. Intense, unreadable. She looked at me like she’d just realized I hung up the sun, and I was capable of shooting it back down.

Hm. My ploy with Kemper is working how I’d hoped it would. She’s obviously envious. But though Kemper is hot as hell and surprisingly nice underneath that shadow-eyed persona, I couldn’t be further than interested. It was Scarlett I’d infiltrated her friend group for, and I’m getting all of them but her.

“I know what you’re doing.” Dolores’s voice rings through the Armory.

I’ve come looking for Scarlett, but I must have missed her. A pity. I almost thought, when she gripped my wrist and looked into my face, that we were going to make a truce. Stupid. She’s not interested in making a truce. She’s jammed too far up my mom’s ass to give a single shit about me. Her loss, I guess.

I turn between the bow range targets, leaning against one and meeting Dolores’s ruby-chip eyes. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Dolores smiles. She’s so bitchy you wouldn’t know it, but she has an Earth-shattering smile. Maybe because the manically gleeful one only comes for every cruel, sardonic hundred. It’s like looking into the face of a full moon, and it never gets old.

“OK. Fine.” I cross my arms, winding between the targets until I stand before her. She’s wearing a black hoodie and Doc Martens, her long black hair French braided down her back. “I admit it. I’m flirting with Kemper to piss Scarlett off. Impressed?”

Dolores lifts a brow, matching my pose, black talons curled over her arms. “Disappointed, more like.”

A chill runs down my spine. I hope Dolores doesn’t notice that I brighten, but I do. Heat rises to my cheeks as it doesn’t when I’m with Kemper. I try to forget that she’s Scarlett’s friend, that they have history and a relationship I can exploit as I do with hers and Kemper’s.

It’s easier to look at her then. To take her in. “Disappointed,” I repeat. “Why’s that?”

“Well, I want to like you.”

I flush sharply. Can Dolores see the heat in my cheeks? “A conflict of interest.”

“If it came down to sides, I’d be on Scarlett’s.” Dolores touches a compact bow hanging on the wall, draws her shiny acrylics down the shaft of a colored arrow. “But you guys have only met once or twice, right? Who knows? Maybe it doesn’t have to be team this, team that.”

Except that it all comes back to Scarlett, over and over. She just got here and this place, my place, is already hers. “She won’t even look at me.”

“She’s had it rough, as far as family goes.” Dolores sighs, turning back to me. “You grew up with parents that seem to at least tolerate your presence. And don’t tell me Yvan’s not a cool dad. I’ve seen you two together. You don’t seem like you have some kind of tumultuous relationship.”

You don’t know anything. I avert my eyes, more embarrassed than angry about her assumptions.

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