dare overstep. I’ve caused enough discord for one day, thank you very much. But if I’m correct, it would explain why he struggles so much in his English classes, as well as all of his written exams.
“You talking about my cock again?” Cassian slides into the empty seat beside Karsyn, flashing him a belligerent smile before turning towards me. “Naughty, naughty, baby. You know I don’t like getting frisky at school.”
“Which one is your baby here?” I gesture between myself and Karsyn.
“We all know the answer to that.” Cassian leans forward with a conspiratorial grin. “Karsyn prefers the name honey cock.”
“I’m going to stab you and end your miserable existence,” Karsyn murmurs as he pulls out a textbook from his backpack and leans over it, attempting to finish up an assignment for the health portion of our gym class. Cassian grabs a grape and tosses it into his mouth as if everything is okay.
Are they…?
Are they planning something?
Isn’t Cassian furious with me?
I glance between the two men warily, feeling scared and cornered. And honestly? Confused. The last time I talked with Cassian, he screamed at the top of his lungs and stalked away like he couldn’t stand to be in my presence for more than two seconds. And Karsyn doesn’t even remember our last encounter.
So why are they sitting across from me at the table, looking buddy-buddy? And why do I actually want them here with me? Why do I want them to eradicate all of the loneliness plaguing my very soul?
It feels as if my chest is caving in under an intense avalanche of pressure. My head repeatedly volleys between the two men, as if any second, one of them will lunge forward and embed a knife in my throat.
That thought makes a wry grin twist up my lips. There’s nothing nice or even sincere about my smile. It’s cruel and cunning and coated in darkness.
Five years ago, I quite literally held a knife up to my throat with every intention of slashing my neck. The pain had grown to an unbearable level, and I just wanted it to end. Some might say I was a coward; others would argue that I was actually strong. I don’t know the answer to that moral dilemma.
All I know is that I wanted—no, needed—a way for my emotional pain to end. I wanted to feel the cool cut of the blade on my skin and watch as blood drizzled into the collar of my shirt. There was something so seductive and enticing about death. It lured me in, the call a siren’s sultry song, and I was the helpless sailor succumbing to it, despite knowing it would end me.
At least if I was no longer alive, the pain would stop.
“Baby girl.” Cassian’s low, rumbly voice, almost like thunder, shakes me out of my depressive thoughts, but it doesn’t diminish the rising anger percolating in my stomach like molten lava in a volcano. “Did you hear me?”
“Fuck you, Cassian!” I snap, rising from my seat. I grab my backpack and pizza, and without another word, storm from the cafeteria.
I don’t even know where exactly my anger is coming from right now. Mariabella? The triplets? The Devils themselves? It’s all suddenly too much, and the tension squeezing my ribs has me wincing in pain.
One of my rules for revenge was to not let my emotions get the better of me. I was supposed to be cold and detached, handing out vengeance like a college RA hands out condoms.
Now, pure emotion drives all of my interactions with the Devils. I’m no longer in the driver’s seat of my own mind. Instead, I’m forced into the trunk, where I’m kicking and crying and demanding release. My lungs burn with the scream I refuse to unleash.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Lucas rising from his table—surrounded by the rest of his preppy, popular friends—and hurrying towards me. Karsyn and Cassian are still behind me, talking in urgent tones too low for me to hear.
I don’t see Elias, and I only figure out why a moment later when I run smack dab into his hard chest.
“Peony.” He places his hands on my shoulders to steady me, but I flinch away. My fear sours each breath I take, until it feels like I’m inhaling poison. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I slap his hands away and turn towards an empty hall, walking aimlessly with no explicit destination in mind. Of course, all four of them follow me, their