Even… Hunter.
I glance at the other walls. It is a mess of sickness. Rituals, and statues, and blood. People in robes holding babies and piles of bones at their feet.
The wall detailing the next hundred years is nothing but high society pages. The birth of the Ruling Class.
Marriage announcements. Parties and fundraisers. Men, rising and falling. Money, gained and lost.
The next fifty years is chaos and death. Wars and violence. Hate and rage.
And our families—even Hunter—playing their parts.
I take it all down, pack it all back up, and even though I know this is history and I have no right to erase it, I erase it anyway.
I take it outside, put it in an old rusty barrel used for burning leaves, and I set it on fire.
I don’t want to know that story.
I decide that from this moment on, I do not want to take the path of least resistance.
EPILOGUE - COOPER
Almost five years after the raid on the Monrovian Estates tomb I am in my final year of grad school.
I finished the masters but stayed on for the Ph.D. because… well, why not?
I’m in my office, packing up my shit before winter break, when I hear a soft knock on my door.
Cadee Hunter is standing in my doorway wearing… I smile at her. Then laugh. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“Oh, this?” She pans her hand down her outfit. She’s wearing tan leggings, knee-high brown leather boots, a puffy white shirt that makes her look like a pirate, and a cropped and studded brown leather jacket that is absolutely worthless in this dreary winter weather. “This is my quest uniform.”
She says this like it hasn’t been five years since we’ve talked.
She says this like we’ve spent every second of the time between then and now casually showing up in each other’s lives wearing ridiculous ‘quest costumes’.
She says this like we are a forgone conclusion and not on the verge of something.
“What are you wearing?”
I look down at my clothes. Jeans. Blue button-down shirt. Boots. Then I look back up at her. “My grad student uniform.”
“Hmm.” She walks inside my office and kicks the door closed with her foot. “How’s that working out for you, Coop?”
I practically beam with happiness. “Well, I have to be honest, Cades. It’s pretty fucking boring. How’s your… quest working out for you?”
She walks over to me. Smiles and bats her eyelashes. “Well.” She leans into my neck when she says this and her breath is soft, and warm, and it kinda tickles. “I was just getting ready to leave when I thought of you. I thought about that crown you used to wear.”
“Did I ever really wear a crown?”
“No. You didn’t. I was just propping you up with that statement. But do you know why, Cooper? Do you know why you never wore the crown?”
“Please, tell me.”
“Because you had never been on a quest. You cannot be a king without a quest.”
“Are you inviting me along on your quest?”
“I am, Cooper. Because I remembered that I never did slay any dragons.” She grabs my shirt with both hands and tilts her chin up so she’s looking me in the eyes. “I owe you a dragon. And I don’t want to scare you off, but I’m afraid there might be more than one out there. There might be a lot of dragons out there, Cooper.”
“Does that worry you, Cades?”
She nods. Then inhales deeply and nods again. “Yes. Because dragons are big, and strong, and evil, and they breathe fire. So yeah, I’m afraid of the dragons.”
“Then why go on the quest to take them out?”
“Because for once in my life I would like to rise to a challenge set by me.”
I look down at her pretty face and think about all the ways in which I’ve known Cadee Hunter.
The girl the woods.
The friend.
The lover.
The stranger.
And now she is my prince.
She has come to save me from a life less lived.
She has come to remind me that living involves risk.
She has come to inform me that I can still wear that crown, but I have to earn it first.
And sitting here in a grad school office teaching two classes a semester while I finish my dissertation will never help me slay a dragon.
Anonymously handing out billions of dollars that aren’t mine won’t slay a dragon, either.
She leans up on her tip toes and places her hands flat on my cheeks. “Is this the best you can do, Cooper?”
I am suddenly transported back in time. To that night during summer rush when Cadee and I were sitting in my boat. Later, she would get high with Mona and I would make a series of very bad choices that would eventually lead me right here, to this moment.
But in the boat I insisted that if I had known what my father’s plan was, I would do something about it.
I told her that I had done my best.
Of course, it was a lie. It was just the path of least resistance.
“No, Cadee. This isn’t the best I can do.”
She smiles and her lips press against mine.
I live in that kiss for thousands of years before she pulls away.
Then I grab my coat, lock my office, and when we walk out that door and start our quest… for the first time in my life, I decide to become… the hero.
LOOKING FOR ANOTHER TWISTED SERIES BY JA HUSS?
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THE BOSTON BROTHERS have more money than God.
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END OF BOOK SHIT
Welcome to the End of Book Shit – this is the part of the book where I get to write anything I want about the book and you can read it or not. But be aware that it’s never edited or censored.
Well, I actually have a lot to say about Ruling Class. This duet, as a whole, really. Because before writing Bully King I had never read a “bully book” before. (I still have never read another “bully book”.)