Under the Lies
Page 9
Maybe he never cared for me at all.
“You mean I never formally declared my love for you, Madison Torrent.” His smooth tone flows across my neck at the same time as his warm fingertips carefully slide along there as well, skimming my flesh with so much gentleness that goosebumps follow his path.
I nod slowly to him, wishing I had the logic to step out of his embrace and really consider what he feels for me.
But I’m not strong enough. Not when it comes to these three men.
Soft lips ghost over mine with an intoxicating rasp of words following. “I never told you, because I fell in love with this insane woman who claimed to be The One. I fell in love with her the moment I warned her not to touch me. And then she kissed me.” His lips almost press to mine but achingly pull back. “She owned every fucking part of me with a single kiss.” Still he doesn’t close the sliver of a space that’s pressing between his lips and mine. It’s a physical pain in my chest because of the span of that small space. “I never told you I loved you, because I know how to scare the fuck out of people, Madison. And me confessing my love to a stranger simply because she kissed me, when the whole damn world refused to even call me by my name, I thought that might scare you a bit, Sweetheart.”
A smile pulls at my lips, and he’s so close I can taste the laughter that’s humming through his chest.
He’s so damn cruel.
Even with his love.
My fingers fist into his tie, and I pull hard. In an instant, his lips slam to mine, and I dig my nails into the collar of his shirt until I feel his pulse along my fingertips. Lightly I tense my palm around his neck, and he groans sensually against my mouth.
He tastes dangerous and sweet all at the same time.
And then he pulls back.
Sparking air lingers between us.
“I love you, Madison,” he whispers against my lips.
Again and again and again.
I’m loved.
I never realized just how loved I am until it was spelled out for me in this perfect moment.
“You should leave,” someone says behind me.
I untangle myself slowly from the three men surrounding me. Preston stands with his hands casually in his pockets. The dusk warms his skin just slightly, giving him an angelic look that sends a shiver across my damp skin.
“Go, Madison. You know what you need to do. You know where you belong. And it’s not here.”
My brow tenses as I stare at the knowing boy. Preston holds my gaze in a sort of challenging way, and it sends a prickling sensation across my skin and into my body.
“Go where?”
I look back at my men, but they seem just as confused as I am.
Water sloshes, and then Cat and Brody are watching me too. But they don’t seem the least bit baffled.
“Go home, Madison,” Cat whispers softly, sadness stinging her bright eyes.
Go home?
I can’t go home.
Remember everything I said.
Preston’s words circle in my mind. Every single thing Sixth Sense Boy has ever told me rises up in my memories.
He told me I would have died of cancer if I stayed in the surface world. And now he’s telling me to go back?
Well, he also said I’d die here too.
My future isn’t looking too happily ever after-ish at the moment…
I would have killed Alice for what she did to Cat. Luckily, Alice is the hero of this story.
My eyes grow wide as I realize very clearly who I am in this twisted fairytale.
And it isn’t pretty.
But it isn’t any better than who I am in the surface world either.
You fucking could have beat cancer, Madison. You could have done it. But you’d rather fight for everyone around you rather than yourself!
I flinch instantly from the thought of those words.
I could have beat it…if I had it in me to fight the way I fight for these people who I love.
And they love me.
I blink at Preston, and his boyish appearance has never looked so grown up before. A slow smile pulls at his lips. My gaze slips to Cat, and the moment I meet her eyes, her arms fling around me. And then we’re hugging all over again.
“I love you, Maddy,” she whispers into my tangled wet hair.
My eyes close hard, and I tell myself over and over again not to cry. I can’t cry, I’ve already cried too much today.
“I love you too,” I gasp as tears stream down my face.
I pull back slowly, and then someone else is wrapping me up in a gentle hug. “You can do this,” Preston says with total certainty. “Your mother is always with you. You can do this.”
His reminder of my mother cuts into me with a little bit of sadness but so much happiness and hope.
“I will.” My voice cuts out as a shaking breath hits my lungs. “I’ll see you again,” I tell him with a bittersweet smile tensing my lips through the endless tears.
His palms meet my shoulders, and he shoves hard. “No, you won’t,” he says with a shake of his head.
And then cold water pulls me under.
Trepidation strikes through my heart. A split second of slashing terror strikes through me.
Until three fearless men sink into the sea right along with me.
It only takes the ocean one pressing wave to toss us out of Wonderland.
And back into reality.
Prologue
Kais
Her short red hair is starting to curl around the delicate angle of her face.
It’s been a real long time since I faced the surface world, but it’s been a year now, and I’m still not used to it all. I wasn’t surprised to find that the magic of that realm healed Alixx’s original wound but spit him out without his beloved eerie wings.
I often think the wings were his own illusion to keep people at bay.
But it healed him, that’s what’s important. It healed Madison too.
But her wounds are different. Cancer, it’s a persistent bitch, I’m finding. It may have been cured while she was in Wonderland, but it rose back up the moment we returned to the real world.
We tried to make the best of it while she was strong. See the sights. I showed her France, and for every dozen things that have changed in my country, there were a dozen that hadn’t.
Lighton took her home to Seattle. He introduced her to his sister, but it seems they already knew each other in a way. His parents avoided them until the last day. I don’t know what they think of Lighton, but whatever it is, they’re wrong. He’s good. A little annoying, but I realize now he’s completely loyal to the people he cares about.
And I know someday they’ll realize that too.
Alixx wanted to skip showing Madison where he grew up, said London wasn’t charming then and he was sure it wasn’t now. But she insisted the two of them go to something close to her heart in the UK. They spent a lot of time at something called Platform Nine and Three Quarters. And The Making of Harry Potter. And so many other things that I have no idea what it all means, but she was happy.
Coming back to California and facing Madison’s reality, that was the worst of it.
Chemo wasn’t a lifesaving medicine the last time I was in the surface world. And I never could have imagined a medicine that weakens the body just to heal it. I both fucking hate her treatment days and pray for them all at the same damn time.
I hold my breath as I stand in the crisp white hall, with Lighton and Alixx staring a hole through the door she walked through an hour ago.
An hour! What could that doctor possibly be talking to her about that takes that fucking long?
The door swings open with a whine of its hinges, and I hear Lighton take a breath like air hasn’t entered his lungs for the entirety of that hour.
When her big green eyes look up, sadness is shining in her gaze.
And my attention slices to the man in the white jacket immediately. What the fuck did he do? What did he say to her?
I’m storming across the white tile hall in three big steps, and she lifts her small hands to my chest.
“What’s wrong? What happened? What’d they say?”
“Remission,” she whispers in the sweetest fucking voice, and the smile pulling at her perfect lips seeps fluttering warmth right into the cold fear that had started to cut into me.
The pounding of my heart turns to happiness instead of panic.
“Remission?” My eyebrows lift high, and before I can even say another word, Lighton’s wrapping her thin frame up and twirling her around in the middle of the hall.
“Fucking remission, Cupcake.” He’s kissing her so deeply he has to stop just to steady himself hard against her, pressing her up against the wall like she isn’t nearly as fragile as she looks.
Because she’s not.
She’s so damn strong. I knew she was. The moment I met her, I knew she was strong. I just thought she’d use that strength to save a Kingdom, not her life.
She did both.
A sharp slapping sound snaps into my memory, and when I look up, Alixx is smacking Lighton across his man bun.
A man bun. I don’t know why that phrase sits like sour milk against my tongue.
“I have to get to my office; stop trying to fuck her during our family time,” Alixx hums in a tone that sounds slightly more sensual than it should for someone who’s complaining about a simple kiss.
I’ll never admit it, but it absolutely kills me that Alixx is the most professional and well-adjusted one of the three of us.
Lighton was born in this century, and yet Alixx is the one working the stock market like he was born on the Wall’s Avenue…Wall’s Streets…Wall… Whatever.
“I love you,” Alixx murmurs against her lips as Lighton holds her in his arms. Her tongue slips out and meets his, and Lighton nuzzles his head into the crook of her neck, gaining all three of them the full attention of every female nurse and even a few men just behind us.
The three of them are seamless as well as shameless together.
Okay, Lighton and Alixx both might be fairly well-adjusted to our new life.
She pulls back from Alixx on a heavy breath. Her searching eyes meet mine from over Lighton’s shoulder, and I don’t waste any time going to her. She looks at me for so long I slowly push Lighton right off of her and cover her body with mine.
Wasn’t I just talking about shamelessness?
Every inch of her soft body aligns with every hard inch of mine, and I love the way she fits beneath me. She’s so fucking sweet. Innocent.
And healthy.
Remission; a single word has never felt so monumental.
It’s like she’s starting her life over again.
And this time, the three of us are going to make sure she lives it to its complete and utter fullest.
The End.
Also by A.K. Koonce
Reverse Harem
The Hopeless Series
Hopeless Magic
Hopeless Kingdom
Hopeless Realm
Hopeless Sacrifice
The To Tame a Shifter Series
Taming
Claiming
Maiming
Sustaining
Reigning
The Origins of the Six Series
Academy of Six
Control of Five
Destruction of Two
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
The Harem of Misery Series
Pandora’s Pain
The Severed Souls Series
Darkness Rising
Darkness Consuming
Darkness Colliding
The Huntress Series
An Assassin’s Death
An Assassin’s Deception
An Assassin’s Destiny
The Villainous Wonderland Series
Into the Madness
Within the Wonder
Under the Lies
Paranormal Romance
The Mortals and Mystics Series
Fate of the Hybrid, Prequel
When Fate Aligns, Book one
When Fate Unravels, Book two
When Fate Prevails, Book three
Standalone Paranormal Romance
Resurrection Island
About the Author
A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. She’s mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance writer by night. She keeps her fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular, but demanding, fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.