There’s a warmth to her gaze, an invitation, but no pressure. I wonder if she’s always been this way, or if Westpoint made her soft in the right places so she wouldn’t destroy herself everywhere else.
I lower myself onto the bed. The sheets are still rumpled from this morning. The hem of my skirt rides up, and I have to force myself not to smooth it.
“I can’t,” I say. “I just—can’t.”
Eve nods, as if this is a perfectly reasonable answer. “Okay. Want some tea?”
I blink, thrown. “What?”
She lifts the thermos and pours steaming liquid into the cap. “It’s chamomile. Supposed to be calming.”
I reach for the cup, fingers trembling. The tea is hot enough to scald, but I welcome the pain. It gives my hands something to do.
“Let me guess,” she says, after a long minute of silence before her lips twist up in a smirk. “You fucked Julian. Or rather… he fucked you.”
I almost spill the tea. “How did you—”
She cuts me off. “Because, I can see the flush on your face. And also you have come on your shoes. No biggie, but maybe wash it off before class tomorrow. I get it, these Boys take what they want, but it’s kinda hot right.”
I swallow hard, unable to look at her. “Is it always like this?”
Eve shrugs, her mouth a thin line. “It’s a game. The only way to win is to stop playing by their rules. But that’s the part they never tell you—you’re allowed to make your own.”
I consider this, rolling it over in my head like a marble. It feels weightless, impossible.
She sets the tea aside and leans forward, elbows on knees. “You want to hear my Hunt story?”
I nod, desperate for anything to distract me from the shiver in my bones.
She starts. “They made me run. Literally. There was this whole creepy ritual and then I ran. Colt caught me in some old building. He made it good for me.”
I flinch. “Did he?”
She smiles. “He did. Like I said before, if they ride for you, they ride hard.”
“Did you fight back?”
“Of course.” She flexes her hand, showing a knuckle scar I’d never noticed. “That’s part of the fun.”
It’s so absurd, I almost choke on a laugh of my own. “And that’s how you fell in love?”
Eve shakes her head, grinning now. “No. I hated him for all of this, but love is learned. He shadowed me everywhere, like a goddamn wraith. He fits me. Despite how it all happened, he really does. He protects me. Keeps me safe.”
I drain the cup, feeling the heat pool in my stomach. “ So you won.”
“Well, yeah, but we’re all working on a way to end it all. The Boys… as much as they’re psychopathic assholes, they don’t want this anymore than you do. You only see that it took away your choice, but it took away theirs too.”
There’s a light in her eyes now, a kind of fierce pride. I want to reach out and touch it.
“What if you can’t fight all of them?” I ask, voice small. “What if you freeze, and they just do whatever they want?”
She doesn’t look away. “Then you turn the freeze into a wall. Make it so nothing gets in. And if they break through, youremember who you were before. Because that’s the only thing they can’t take from you.”
A lump rises in my throat. “He didn’t even ask me. He just—” I can’t finish.
Eve stands and crosses the room. She sits next to me on the bed, close enough that I can smell the soap on her skin. “Julian Roth is an animal. He set his sights on you and there’s no backing out, no escape. But… I’m willing to guess that despite the fact he didn’t ask, you’re just as attracted to him as he is to you, is that close?”
I nod, but the tears are already leaking out.
