The Exorcism of Faeries (Morbid Realities, #1)

by J.L. Vampa

No, it was a macabre bloom of foreign flora that had taken root in the man’s lung, and flowered.

Outside, the campus was bustling with students, a hint of the approaching autumn on the wind, stirring the leaves that would soon lose their chlorophyll and show the world how beautiful it is to die.

But she’d agreed to too much, needed too much, had too much darkness in her heart to be a proper academic.

“I didn’t say slutty or that you have to fuck him. It has very little to do with who the man is, anyway. It’s about her, the woman in the scenario. When a woman feels sexy, she feels confident and in control. It puts a spell on men. It has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with power. It’s just another tool in a woman’s arsenal.” She laid back, resting on her elbows. “You clearly have the brains. Make people see you.”

Ariatne Morrow was something different. She did something different to him. Ever since he made the mistake of opening that first notebook, all he’d wanted to do was crack open her mind and swim in it.

“Because the order in which you turned your answers in, is the reverse order of who will get their hands dirty first.” All the students looked at one another sheepishly, and Murdoch went on. “Those whose hubris or over-studied minds led them to turn their quizzes in the quickest need to understand they don’t know everything. That there is much to be deduced by observation and employing an irritating level of patience.” He clasped his hands behind his back and took up pacing again. “Those who took their time or perhaps had no knowledge of the material, well, they need the most exposure to corporeal subjects and a chance to be thrown to the wolves to knock the apprehension from their bones.”

Professor Sonder Murdoch was the cliff-jump that terrified, the majestic wolf that captivated, the risk you knew might kill you, yet you couldn’t pass it up.

“If we were never challenged, Atta, we would never grow.”

“There’s a little phrase wise women live by. If he wants to, he will. It’s usually more romantic than our particular scenario, but the point still stands. If you wanted to murder me, you would.

“Sometimes fear cleanses the soul, Atta. It reminds us to look at the important things we took for granted while at peace.”

Fucking hell she was beautiful when she was angry. But not as beautiful as when she laughed.

If Sonder Murdoch was the dark lord, her soul was begging to be burned to ash.

you so much as look at her the wrong way, I’m the one who will make you wish you were dead. That’s who the fuck I am.”

Uneven numbers are appalling.”

“How I thought I was destined to be alone, but it turns out I was starving all these years, waiting for you?”

Loved each other countless times in countless other lives, other realities.