Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“No, but he was close. I could see it in his eyes. Please, just go talk to him. I don’t know how to get through to him, but you know exactly what to say to bring him to life.”
I smirk. “All right. Looking out for everyone, I see.” I peck him on the cheeks and go to my closet to put on some clothes. “I’ll go see what he’s up to then. Have you talked to Atreus yet?”
“He’s on Sam’s tracks,” Xavier replies. “Probably won’t be long until he calls.”
I throw him a bag, and he catches it just in time. “What are you waiting for then? My closet’s that way. Gather all the ropes, guns, and knives I need.”
A devilish grin slowly forms on his face. “Yes, ma’am.”
I crawl into Orion’s room through the window just as I did before. He’s listening to his music through his earbuds, completely oblivious to my presence as he keeps penning stuff down in that book of his.
I sneak up to him and block his vision with my hand, and he shrieks, so I cover his mouth too. He swiftly pulls out his earbud, and I whisper, “Don’t scream, pretty prince. Unless you want me to hurt you.”
Goose bumps scatter on his skin, and I remove my hand from his mouth.
“Please do,” he moans.
I chuckle in his ear. “Maybe later. After you’ve been a good boy for me.”
I snatch his notebook from underneath his pen and take a stroll to read through it, and he immediately jumps up from his seat to follow me. “Wait, don’t read that.”
“Why not?” I ask, flipping through the pages.
His entire face turns red like a cherry.
“Because …”
Every sentence I read feels familiar for some reason, and I can’t put my finger on it until I spot that one sentence at the bottom of the last page.
The sun scorches all in her path…
I want to burn it its flames.
Sun.
“This poem … is it about me?” I ask, and I hold up the page.
He licks his lips, stuttering, “Y-yes.”
He’s never stuttered before.
“All of them are.”
Holy shit.
I flip through the notebook again, page after page, an unending stream of consciousness about violence, bloodshed, pain, and … adoration. And I pause when there’s that same poem I heard last year, when he read it aloud to Ivy and her friends.
Oh, gentle verdant storm
Whisked away by madness
All that dares
Wilts and wanes
Shredded and torn
Leaves dance in tune
Spinning the world on its axis
Leaving a heart in ruin
My finger traces the words he wrote by hand. I left his heart in ruin because I ignored him.
I look up into his luscious green eyes, feeling so exposed that I forget how to breathe.
I was so full of anger whenever he spoke to me, I didn’t understand why, until now.
Death.
I hate the idea that it will one day happen to me, and it’s why I hate every birthday that I pass.
But he douses himself in the idea willingly, and it pissed me off … because how could anyone want to die?
It made no sense in my mind, until I actually got to know him, and the depth of the darkness that his soul succumbed to. Somehow, someway, I was able to pull him back from the nether with my wicked ways. I can’t let him slip back in.
“I understand now,” I mutter. “You’re in love with me.”
“You’ve been my muse for a very long time,” he says, running his fingers through his blond curls. “What I feel for you is far more than love. I cannot write without you, breathe without you … exist without you.” He swallows. “You are there in my mind with every waking thought and it consumes me to the point where I don’t want to live a life if it cannot be spent near you.”
I clutch the notebook close to my chest.
A languished sigh follows. “But I knew deep down you would never see me the way I see you, and that made me want to destroy myself.”
So that’s why he drank so much and asked me to make him my next victim.
“Nothing felt worth living for. Until you,” he says.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see you.” I grab his face and make him look at me. “I want you here. Alive.”
He leans into my palm. “I could … for you.” He swallows. “I can’t bear to lose you.”
“I know,” I say, pinching his cheeks so he’s forced to lean in as I pull him close. “But I don’t plan on going anywhere. No one will pin this bitch down.”
He chuckles, and I smother his insecurities with a demanding kiss that makes him groan impatiently.
“Fuck, I could get used to this,” he murmurs, kissing me back.
I lick the roof of his mouth. “Do not ever think of dying. No one is allowed to kill you except me.”