Rule and Ruin

twenty-seven; the end

chapter twenty-seven.

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"NICKY, REN TOOK me shopping today," Adelaide said warmly as she spun around in her new flower dress.

"You look lovely," Nix said affectionately. 

Ren leaned against the doorway, watching Adelaide with a soft smile as she spoke with her brother.

Adelaide had opened up a lot more. She smiled a lot more and spoke with an elegant flow in her words. She was almost unrecognizable from the quiet, raspy girl that cowered away from any kind of contact.

Selene didn't feel as horrible when she looked at her anymore.

"Sel," Adelaide bubbled, "we should go shopping sometime."

Selene didn't like shopping.

"Sure," she said anyway.

Adelaide smiled and smoothed her hands down her new dress. She walked over to the doorway and took Ren's hand as she led him away. Besides Nix, Ren seemed to be her safe haven. She reached to him for support, for guidance, for direction, and he was more than willing to be at her service.

Nix threw an arm over Selene's shoulder and yawned, "Running empires sure gets tiring."

"You're not even the one running it," she mumbled.

Selene liked her newfound leadership. It wasn't like it was completely new to her. Over the years, she had watched and learned from Dino, had basically ran the show for him. She had known all his strengths and all his faults. Because of that, it wasn't difficult to get people to accept her authority.

"Hey," she said suddenly.

Nix looked over at her.

"I'm shutting the Mermaid Venue down," Selene said.

"Okay," he said slowly. She could see the calculation in his mind.  "You'd be losing a lot of money."

"Yeah," she said. "We'd have to double down on the money laundering and drug distribution. But we've got a list of attendees for the Mermaid Venue. Politicians. Billionaires. Celebrities. That's a lot of blackmail material."

Nix nodded with a slight smile, "Okay. You'd be making a lot of enemies."

"Everyone's an enemy in this business," she said simply.

He hummed, toying with a strand of her hair. "As long as you know what you're doing."

Selene had never been so sure of what she was doing.

She leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his. His chest rumbled against her hand as he sighed into her kiss.

"Nix," she said. She rarely ever called him that.

"Yeah," he murmured against her lips.

"Don't ever betray me," she warned quietly.

He smiled and kissed her again.

"Never."

THE END.
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