I slid into the back seat, and we drove off.
“What’s the plan?” Nico asked.
I shrugged. I had no idea what came next. My mind held only Carmen and the thought of finding my way back to her.
“Why don’t you fake your death?” Harper said. “You know, like in the movies.”
Nico looked at me, his eyes searching mine. “This might not be a bad idea, Judas.”
And where would I go?I signed.
“I know a place,” he said as he looked at me, then Harper.
That was all it took.
We drove to the cliffs. I left my shoes and the mask at the edge, making it look like I had jumped. Harper called 911 and said she had seen a man in a white ski mask go over the cliff. When she ended the call, she threw the phone into the ocean so it couldn’t be traced.
A new life. But a new life without Carmen.
“I’m taking you to the Fallen Saints,” Nico said. “But you’ll need a new name.”
Chaos, I signed.
“Chaos,” he repeated.
I looked out at the ocean one last time. I knew I had broken her heart. I also knew I would have broken her even more if I had stayed and let her carry the weight of everything I had done.
I open my eyes, and the man is almost done. The needle drags along my neck, shadowing the wings he just tattooed there. The buzz fades, and when he finally leans back, he says, “Welcome, Chaos. You are one of us now.”
He lifts his head. I meet his brown eyes, and all I see is a man like me, someone who escaped the same life that still hunts me.
Nico pushes through the door, laughing. I slide off the tattoo table, my skin still burning with fresh ink that’s now tight against my throat.
1“Ay, cabrón.” He claps his hands and lowers himself, offering me his grip. “One of us.”
I tilt my head back and catch my reflection in the mirror above. Tattoos I got a year before stare back at me. A skull spreads across my back. My arms are crowded with palm treesand roses, thunder and clouds. A broken chain wraps around her name,Little Ruin.
No one knows about her. No one knows I've stood beneath her window every night for a year, counting people that visit her, listening to their footsteps, making sure no one climbs that balcony. Nothing and no one would stop me from killing them, one by one.
I have done it before. I will do it again.
She is still in the same house with Catherine. My father lives with Simona now. Even though my mother is happier now with Lucas, and from what I have seen, my father looks happier with Simona, too, the thought still burns. They all moved on like I never existed.
But she didn’t.
Carmen still sits on the balcony every night, waiting. Hoping I will come back.
I promised her I would. I promised I would take her away when she turned eighteen.
She turned eighteen yesterday.
I am coming for you, little sister, whether you like it or not.
Nico pulls me out of it, his voice low. “The president wants to see you, Chaos.”
I nod and step away from the table.
I sign,thank youto the tattoo artist. He answers with a short nod.
