“There’s no issue,” he explains, scrubbing at his chin as he avoids my gaze, and I rear back.
“Then why?—”
“He didn’t see the message,” he blurts, his eyes colliding with mine, tinged with a hint of guilt. “He tossed his stuff down on the kitchen table and went into his room to change, muttering something about needing a shower. I was about to go and do the same when I heard his cell phone vibrate on the countertop.” His gaze falls downcast for a second before he quickly shakes it off and nails me with his stare. “I know I fucked up today. I was lost in my head from the second the game actually started, so when we were done, I needed to breathe. But when I saw the text message come through, I thought I had a chance to apologizeand fix whatever… this is,” he explains, making my heart race wildly in my chest as I blink at him.
When I don’t respond, he scrubs a hand through his hair. “Say something, Elodie.”
“The time for talking was back in the dining hall, not now, and not just because you say so,” I splutter, frustration getting the better of me again, and he sighs.
Turning toward my dorm room door, I fumble as I try to balance the books on one arm while I pull my key out with the other.
“Let me help you with that, Echo,” he breathes, using that damn nickname once again as I shake my head at him.
“I don’t need your help,” I bite through clenched teeth. The soft and gooey sexual tension that has melted my limbs all day has turned to hot lava, and it’s ready to cause chaos and destruction instead.
Thankfully, the door swings open easily, and I step inside, ready to kick it shut behind me. But I betray my own thoughts as I falter, the door handle firmly in my grasp as his eyes meet mine. The look in his eyes… fuck. I can’t take it right now.
Clearing my throat, I take a deep breath. “You need to decide if you’re hot or cold with me and stick to it. I can’t keep doing this whole back and forth routine. I’ve already got too much shit going on to fall victim to this too,” I blurt, watching him intently as his throat bobs and he nods.
“If I choose cold?” he asks, his tone as chilling as his words, but I fight to remain as unfazed as possible.
“Then I can survive the ice,” I bristle as he rubs his lips together.
“And if I choose hot?” he murmurs, bracing his hand on my door frame as his hair hangs loose over his eyes. I think I’m going to pass out from lack of an orgasm at this stage, but damn if I let him know that.
Instead, I offer him a sweet smile as I tighten my hold on the door handle.
“Then you’ll have to show me just how much you’re willing to burn too.”
I groanas I crack my neck from side to side, failing to ease the tension in my shoulders as I stare down at the open book in my lap.
Maybe I should have stayed cozied up in my room, but being in my one sanctuary in this whole entire world, while reading about the raw demise of my kind was too much to handle. I needed a neutral space, but maybe the gym inside the Institute Thirteen building isn’t it.
Shuffling my hips back, I press my spine against the wall, stretching as I absorb the words in my lap. I’ve learned so much from one book alone, but it’s enough to cut my heart out and bare my soul to the entire world. Fact after fact, the origin of the scythes has been shattered by those who lived to tell the tale.
Known for their mimicking abilities,Scythes walked the Earth long before history learned to name them. Believed to be gifts sent from the heavens, they were effortlessly corrupted; twisted into instruments of destruction. Their inability to control what they wielded placed them firmly among the enemies of all.
Power leeches. Parasitic mages. They bore the weight of stolen magic and the consequences that followed.
Feared by many and controlled by worse, the Scythes chose selfishness over humanity when they played their role in the Great Fall. Locked into the demolition of the world aroundthem, they could neither hear the warnings spoken in their presence nor recognize their own failures. Their demise might not have come so swiftly had they not been so consumed by themselves.
The last known Scythes ceased to exist mere hours before the scripture was signed, and The Sanctum rose as a sanctuary for all magical beings. In their slaughter of indiscriminate lives, the Scythes forfeited their place among their peers and their chance at belonging.
The Great Fall embodies everything The Sanctum stands for. What they will forever stand for. We remain united under the rule of the select five. No one shall ever fall again.
Had action not been taken in the name of freedom, the Scythes would have destroyed themselves regardless. Their magic could not be stabilized. Tainted eyes and lesions marked their limbs, showing the visible reflections of the pain, terror, and devastation they inflicted upon the world.
Reading page after page of slander is weird. I know it isn’t aimed at me, but I still feel it in my bones. What’s worse is that I know in my heart I’m missing a lot of context. This information is one-sided; it’s another unfair advantage for those able to pass on such stories. But why keep it all hidden?
I shake my head, bewildered as I turn the page, but my mind isn’t in it anymore. I think I’ve reached my limit. The words don’t sink in as I process the biggest revelation in it all. It makes sense now why The Sanctum wants to control me and why Jude wants to use me as his little weapon.
Little do they seem to know, I take care of myself, not them, and thinking otherwise is one sure way to meettheirdemise.
For the first time since Thorne saved me from Jude’s grasp, my initial thought isn’t panic; it’s concern as my mind wanders back to those still being held in that barren room. Guilt instantlychurns in my stomach, making me hiss as my eyelids scrunch shut for a second.
I let the weight of the raw emotion crush me, every ounce of it flickering through my veins before I take a deep breath. On my exhale, I imagine tearing the emotion from my limbs, the guilt a separate part of me as it whistles in the proverbial wind. As much as I feel it, I can’t let it consume me forever if I want to survive. That’s not how life works. Instead, I can use it as a driving force to keep pushing.
Those people may not be scythes, but what I’ve perceived the facts to be are that scythes cared for others. They wanted the best for all people, not just for those considered superior. Or at least, that’s how I’m choosing to look at it, and I’m willing to adopt the same stance. Unless you think you’re superior to me, then you become the enemy.
