Alex…Alex was…pretty.
She sometimes caught herself wanting to rake her nails through the opulent crown of his rusty-gold hair. More than once, she found herself studying his face with rapt fascination. The elegant slope of his nose. The perfect shape of his red mouth. His lashes, which started out dark but were lighter at the tips. His beauty pleased her, and he was the only boy other than Tiernan she trusted not to touch her, not to hurt her.
Which was probably foolish, seeing as the only reason she was here, in this camp, was because Alex’s father carved her mother’s pregnant belly. He had stolen the twins and left their mother to bleed out.
Foolish because she could never trust another human—let alone one with a penis—other than Tiernan after everything she’d lost here.
Still. Alex fascinated her. And if she weren’t so broken, maybe she could have actually brought herself to like him,likehim. Not just as a friend but as a boy.
Taking a swig of the vodka, she let the fiery sensation burn a path down her throat, passing it to Alex, who took a sip without removing his eyes from his handiwork. He was now pouring the ink into an empty toothpaste tube, his brows furrowed in concentration.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked.
“No,” he said patently. “But we’ll figure it out. What’s taking Tiernan so long?”
She knew the answer. Tiernan was making last-minute preparations ahead of their escape tonight. Stocking up on food, clean water, and gas, making sure he had the keys to thecar they were about to steal and the maps to the place they were headed.
“I—I don’t know.” She forced herself not to blush.
Looking for a distraction, she trudged to the desk and pulled out the Latin book Alex used to teach her and Tiernan how to read and write.
“What are you doing?” Alex looked up.
“Looking for the quote we’ll tattoo on ourselves.”
“I already chose one for us,” he said.“Audentis fortuna iuvat.”
Fortune favors the brave. It was good but not good enough for her to etch it into her very being for the rest of her life. Tierney shook her head. “I want something else.”
Alex made a face but didn’t argue. He had a mild nature. Different from his father’s. She flipped through the pages, keeping her tears at bay. Every few seconds, her gaze fastened back on Alex. It was stupid, but she was paranoid he could read her mind and know what was going on, that she was about to run away and screw him over.
He was threading some sort of needle into the motor of what looked like an electric shaver.
Her eyes landed back on the page and collided with words that struck her like lightning.
Oderint dum metuant.
Let them hate as long as they fear.
She gasped.
Alex stopped what he was doing and looked at her. “What?”
“I found the quote for us.” She recited it, holding her breath, craving his approval.
Alex nodded seriously. “I like it. Where are we putting it?”
“Somewhere everyone can see,” she said. “The side of our necks.”
Tears rimmed her eyes, and this time, she couldn’t make them stop even if she tried.
Alex scowled, setting the toothpaste tube and razor motor down on the desk. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, wiping her face quickly. “Nothing.”
“You never cry.”
She didn’t want to lie to him but couldn’t tell him the whole truth, either. She settled for something in between. A truth, mistimed.
