Sinful Things

21

When he’s gone, I pull myself together. This is a dangerous game I’m playing. I have to remind myself that the Princes and I are not friends, not after what they did to me last year. That includes Marcus.

It’s time for stage two of my revenge plan.

O

n Saturday, Araceli and I head into Redding, the largest nearby city, to hit up the department stores. We take my car and fill it with stuff that makes us cackle in delight, especially when we imagine the Princes’ faces. Then we head back to campus, and we wait.

Araceli lets out a huge groan when I wake her up at 2 AM, but she manages to rouse herself after a few minutes. Thanks to my Ishim classes, I know how to make her invisible now too, as long as I’m touching her. Together we grab some department store bags and fly over to the bell tower, which is dark and empty. The Princes are all in bed, leaving their lair unattended. They claimed this space as their own, another symbol of their authority over the rest of the students, and it’s time to mess with it—just like they messed with my room last year.

It takes a few clandestine trips back and forth to bring everything over, and then we begin. Their masculine leather couches are decorated with sparkly pink blankets and pillows. Their dark wood tables get new tablecloths with shiny pink unicorns. Their little mini-kitchen gets pink heart stickers all over it—on the counters, on the microwave, on the fridge—until you can barely see anything underneath them. Sparkly pink streamers hang from the ceiling, while pink shimmering curtains cover the windows. For the final touches, we spray a ton of cheap floral body spray around the room, and cover everything with a heavy dusting of glitter.

“Wait, we almost forgot the best part,” Araceli says, as she grabs the last bag. She pulls out tons of little stuffed animals, all super cute and very pink, ranging from unicorns to kittens to bunnies. There’s even a pink sparkly llama with a nanny cam in it, which I place in the perfect spot to capture the Princes’ reactions when they arrive. We scatter the rest of the stuffed animals liberally around the room, and then stand back to admire our work with a grin.

The Princes’ mancave has been completely transformed into a pretty pink princess room, with three sparkly plastic tiaras on the table waiting to be crowned. It’s totally over the top and ridiculous, and I love it.

I can’t wait to see their faces when they walk in.

Chapter Fifteen

Callan

I

fly into the bell tower, with Marcus and Bastien just a few wingspans behind me. The first thing that hits me is the smell as I set down on the alcove. My nose is assaulted by a strong fake floral scent that permeates the space, and I recoil as it hits me hard in the face. Then my eyes catch up to my nose, and my jaw drops as I scan the room, taking in all the pink sparkles, stuffed animals, and glitter. f**k, there’s so much glitter. We’ll be finding that stuff in weird cracks for the rest of our lives.

Bastien lands beside me and covers his nose, then scans the room with disgust. When Marcus lands, he bursts out laughing, doubling over both from the smell and his amusement.

“Open all the windows and doors,” I command. We can’t do anything else until we air this place out. My eyes are watering just from being in here for a few seconds.

We cover our faces with our shirts and open everything up, then use our wings to create a draft that blows some fresh air through the place. But the smell is only the beginning. Our lounge has been twisted into some kind of pink monstrosity.

I stare at the room for a few minutes, and all I can finally manage to say is, “What the f**k?”

“It’s so petty,” Bastien says, shaking his head.

“We trashed her room, and now she trashed ours,” Marcus says with a shrug. “It’s nothing more than we deserve.” He plops down on the couch, falling into the pile of pink stuffed animals. “Besides, I think it’s pretty awesome.”

“How long is this revenge bullshit going to continue?” I ask.

Bastien plucks a unicorn off his armchair and tosses it aside. “So far she’s gotten back at you for her car, and this is obviously retaliation for what we did to her room. Assuming she ignores the smaller offenses like vandalizing her door and leaving her threatening notes, she should only have one more act of revenge left.” He gives me a hard look. “Exposing a secret to the entire school.”

“We have to stop her before it gets to that point,” I growl.

“Stop her how?” Marcus asks with a snort. “That sort of thing is what got us into this mess.”

I scowl at him. "I did what I had to do."

"Did you?" Marcus throws a stuffed dog at my head, which I catch. "Did you really have to threaten her?” He throws a stuffed llama next. “Or f**k up her car? Or betray her?” His words are laced with anger, and he keeps throwing things at me until there’s nothing else within reach.

“Are you done?” I ask, knocking the last of the animals aside. “I did what I thought was right at the time. I didn’t know she was Jonah’s sister, only that I made a promise to him, a promise to keep Olivia away from this school.”

“Some of it was particularly harsh,” Bastien says, rubbing his chin.

I glare at him. I thought he was on my side. Guess I’m alone here. “Maybe it was harsh, but it was a necessary evil.”