MasukI fall back, crashing into a dark, barren floor. I feel like I hit the ground, but I can’t see anything in front of me to be sure. My body aches from the slam. The only thing that exists in this room is me and the person standing over my kneeling body. Nester. “Well, well,” he says, his voice full of venom. “I didn’t think I’d see you here.” The hairs on the back of my neck raise. I try to push myself away from him, but Nester’s fingers dig into my cheeks. Hard. My body stiffens as he snaps me up to face him. His shadowed eyes bore into mine, the only things blacker than the darkness around us. “Where are we?” I gasp, my heart about to pound out of my chest. “In my head,” he responds. “In my memories. I can’t be fucking sure; all I know is your fucking silver poisoning put me here.” Okay… so I think he’s still really mad about that. His fingers tighten around my cheeks, making my words come out stilted. “You were going to enslave our entire town.” “And I was going to let you
The path to Nester’s room is trailed with bright, red petals, a big contrast to how dark and dull Penwood is. They’re Roses.Of course it had to be roses.I’ve never thought about those stupid flowers as much as I’ve been forced to since coming to Penwood, but now it seems roses are my entire life.I walk over the stupid petals as the boys trail behind me. Each step they take rattles my heart. I begged them not to follow me, but I guess I should have learned by now that there’s no asking them to stay away from me.“Careful,” Ryker whispers. “We don’t want to make too much noise and wake the bastard up.”“He’s being drugged with silver. In what world could he possibly wake up?” Hunter asks incredulously.“That’s not the reason you shouldn’t yell,” Ryker counters.“I wasn’t yelling.”“Yes, you were.”“No, I wasn't.”I whirl to the four of them, pinning Hunter and Ryker with my death glare. “If you guys don’t shut up, you can find your way back to where we came from.”They stiffen, look
I didn’t protect Talon. All those years. All those empty alcohol bottles. All my care for him, and I couldn’t protect him. My guilt and hatred choke me. I should have known. How could I not have known? Liana’s voice is the only thing that snaps me out of my head. “I’m not participating in any fucking civil war,” she seethes, pacing the length of Olivia’s bedroom that we all gathered in. Only the adults went to the room next to us, which is for the best because I don’t think my dad could handle all of Liana’s cursing. “I don’t think that’s up to you,” Axel answers from the other side of the room, sitting at the desk bolt upright. He looks like people are going to burst into this room at any moment and try to murder him. He would not be so paranoid to think that. But he also keeps stealing glances at Talon, laying on Livvy’s bed. His white hair spills around his face, with his whole body turned to the wall. I don’t know if he’s sleeping, but he definitely needs the rest. I can
It takes 4 minutes before Roanna stops screaming.I count each excruciating second with a pounding heart. Nester’s mark pulses, only adding to my distress. The entire time, I want to look away, or hold my breath against the stench of her burning flesh… but I don’t. I don’t for Talon’s sake—my boy who has been hurt by her more times than I can count. The only time I turn is to glance at him, and I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse. He stands statue-still, his body more rigid than the ground we’re standing on. I’m not sure he’s breathing. Eventually, Roanna’s corpse collapses at his feet. Talon doesn’t jerk back. He keeps staring at her, as if he’s waiting for her to come back to life so he can kill her again. My pack and friends don’t react. We stay so still that It’s only the crowd that remind me the world is still moving.They gasp. They gag. When Roanna collapses, a woman screams so loud my heart lurches. But no one tries to stop the burning. I’m not sure if it
I wait with bated breath for the people to respond. I realize these aren’t exactly the most ideal circumstances to make them like me, but I also don’t really fucking care. I will kill Roanna, whether that makes me their villain or not. But it’s still nerve-racking to watch them make a decision about me, eyes flitting between Roanna and myself. I’m about to explode from the silent tension when someone steps forward: a man with roguish red hair and clear blue eyes. He’s handsome, and clear, he’s not part of the undead army. Roanna shuts up the second he’s in front of her. He sizes me up, and I hear my boys growl behind me in warning. Safe to say I like having my own personal bodyguards. The boy ignores them, pointing at Roanna. “You say you want to burn her alive?” I nod curtly. No need to dwell on the facts when I’ve already placed them before him. He stares down at her, eyes hardening. Roanna mumbles through her stuffed lips, a slew of things no one will ever understand thank
I am probably the first person in the whole world to plan to burn her teacher alive in front of thousands of people.But if that’s the case, then I’ve never been prouder.The boys drag her behind me toward the middle of the town as she begs and cries for her pathetic, worthless life.I feel powerful and powerless at the same time—one because somehow I got everyone to follow me and do this, but the other because it doesn’t matter if I punish Roanna for a hundred years, it will never reverse what she did to Talon.He comes to me, wraps his arm around my shoulders, and keeps me steady. It’s a job Hunter has been willingly doing all day, but now he has better things to do, like drag Roanna and make it hurt.“Are you okay, Tals?” I whisper to him, unable to keep the venom I have for Roanna under wraps.He nods, looking straight ahead. He tugs at my heartstrings with this show he’s putting on. Clearly, he’s not fine; no one would be fine after what just happened.“She’s going to pay,” I ins
“I hope you grabbed everything, dear?” Theresa tells me outside her door the next day. I decided it’d be best if Talon spent the day in his house, calming down from everything that happened. Now it’s the next morning, and we’re both stable enough to return to our unstable lives. “I think so.” I sm
Hunter’s mouth is magic against mine. My whole body goes hot; my lips, my nerves, my core. Everything. He pulls away as quickly as he bent down and I gasp, “Hunter.” I can already see some sort of apology building in his mind, but I shake my head, pulling him closer, “Don’t. Please, kiss me
I’ve never wanted someone the way I want Hunter right now. Everything feels woozy. But, even though the world is a blur, my desire for him is as sharp as ever. “Hunter.” I beg, my fingers still hooked in the waistband of his jeans, ‘Hunter, please.” “Olivia, don’t.” His voice is strained. I w
Cinnamon and strawberry. Every time I blink, I see her. That creature. That… that thing. Staring up at me with those brown eyes, trying to seduce me into forgetting how evil the humans are. I will never forget, not after what they took from me during the war. “Axel!” Ryker cries,







