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Now hear, you blissful powers underground—answer the call, send help. Bless the children, give them triumph now. AESCHYLUS
According to my father, next to death, anger is the only constant in life. When Mom and Grandma aren’t around, his father, my grandpa, says anger is a part of our heritage—unforgiving and endless.
There’s no urgency with him, no rush to correct bad behavior. Everything is calm, like the moment before a storm rolls in.
“Yes, your mother once enjoyed throwing punches without thinking too.
The kids at school call him the Grim Reaper. I don’t understand why—aside from his height, he looks just like me, and I don’t look like the collector of death. Mom says so.
That smile feels like the eighth wonder of the world. The stupid, selfish part of me wishes she’d direct it my way, but she’s always favored animals over humans. Everything over me.
Almost like there’s so much anger within me, there’s no room for anything else. Just anger and her.
When her hand slides closer, her fingers interlocking with mine, I feel I might explode into a million little pieces. I think this must be what death is like, and I wonder how she’d react if I told her. Dying doesn’t seem all that bad. Not if it’s like this. Not if it’s with you.
Our tour guide is a tall person with spiky white hair and thick, purple glasses resting on the bridge of their wide, pale nose.
“If there’s a creature out there worse than a human, I’ve yet to be convinced.”
The bloodline is tainted. Cronus placed this fate upon their heads. If a descendant steps onto this campus, it is the duty of Avernia to ensure they do not remain if we are to avoid the curse that plagues them. Remember the law of three. Unity will result in our failure—they will be the destruction of us all.
classics department.
typo smh
“Now.” Turning, he faces the corpse. “One of the most important things I will ever teach you,” he says in a low, steady voice, like he’s been waiting for this exact moment, which I find fucking weird, “is how to properly clean up your messes.”
There’s a small, slightly deranged, part of me that likes how he always has my back.
Right now, he’s just my best friend. The only boy I’ve ever loved. And the one I know will never break my heart.
The fight I was in this afternoon was with some asshole who didn’t like Lucy’s science project on the alternatives to fossil fuels, so she doesn’t admonish me for the fact that I showed up tonight bloodied and bruised. They called her stupid. I broke their jaw.
Is that the kind of thing she’s into? Extreme jealousy and overprotection? Have I not been doing enough?
Turns out I’m interested, but only where Lucy Aberdeen Wolfe is concerned. I only want anything with her.
“Kidnapping is our family legacy,”
“Tell me what you wanted from him then,” Asher whispers. “I’ll do it for you instead.”
The only thing I’ve ever been capable of absorbing is other peoples’ anger. I store fury in my heart like I’m afraid I’ll forget how painful it is if I don’t.
Not everything can be fixed, and sometimes the consequences are residual. Sometimes the anger lingers.
I would have followed Lucy Wolfe to the ends of the goddamn earth. I was just too chickenshit to admit it. And now that I know better, I’m definitely not going anywhere.
Still, I’d thought for sure my desire for Asher would have burned out by now. Imagine my surprise when I realize it’s the complete opposite, and I’m losing sleep over both the thought of my dead roommate and the outline of my former best friend’s cock under my pussy.
“Does it feel like you might die if you don’t kiss me?”
He nods. Inches closer.
“Then die.”
“You’re kissing me.”
“Fuck yeah, I am.”
“This little virgin hole is dripping wet, and I’m the first man to ever put anything inside it. What a fucking honor.”
“You’re gonna come on my fingers, aren’t you?”
“Gonna soak my hand and then walk out of here and go on your little date. You’ll be sitting in that auditorium or at dinner or wherever else you go tonight a sticky, needy mess all because of me, and he’ll be none the wiser.”
“But we have to whisper. I don’t want to get in trouble with the librarians—they’re the real heroes around here.”
“Well.” I lift my chin, meeting those glassy gemstone eyes. Dark ocean water, but clear all the way through. “I did it for you.”
“You start calling me Daddy, I’m going to ensure you make me one.”
“Okay, quit trying to make us grandparents, and get the hell over here,”
