Vicious (Villains, #1)

by V.E. Schwab

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between Bad and Good, but between Bad and Worse.

Eli flashed him the kind of smile a cult leader would covet. “That’s the idea.”

The moments that define lives aren’t always obvious. They don’t always scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there’s no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren’t always protracted, heavy with meaning. Between one sip and the next, Victor made the biggest mistake of his life, and it was made of nothing more than one line. Three small words. “I’ll go first.”