“Don’t lie to me!” I shout, shaking her with each word.
That’s all she’s ever done. Just fuckinglie.
“I wasn’t, Kellan, I swear.” Her plea is breathless, but my name comingout of her mouth is enough to pull me out of the black, insidious hole swallowing me. Enough for rationality to sink back in, and the blinding rage to ease a fraction.
For a moment, I study her features carefully, taking in each detail. The aqua blue reflecting off the pool colors her otherwise pale skin. Her dark blonde hair is in disarray, the thin, wispy bangs that hang down her forehead damp with perspiration. Her dainty nose with the little gold hoops in her nostril and septum. And then her plush, pink lips that have distracted me more often than I care to admit.
All details that make up a face that, thankfully, looks very little like her father’s.
I’ve always loathed how fucking beautiful she is. I’ve often daydreamed about ruining it just so it holds no power over me any longer. So many times, she’s turned toward me when I wasn’t prepared, and I damn near swallowed my tongue.
And now is no different.
She’s a mix between ethereal and sultry. An angel and a demon.
“I swear,” she repeats shakily, barely above a whisper. “I didn’t help him kill her. I would never do that. Iswear, Kellan.”
I hate that I believe her, and I really fucking hate when she says my name like that. It gets under my goddamn skin, and I both want to make her repeat it and rip out her fucking tongue so I never have to hear it again.
“Does Barry know this secret?”
Surprise creases her brows as her panicked brain trips over what I said. “How do you know I still talk to Barry?”
“I know a lot more about you than you think,” I answer coldly. “And what I don’t know, I’ll find out. Don’t expect to hold on to your secret forever.”
She might not have helped Lionel kill my mom, but she knowssomething. Something that’s clearly fucking important enough to scare her into silence. And shewillfucking tell me, even if not tonight.
“Does he know?” I push. “Is that why he can love someone who doesn’t even have the decency to support him when the world discredits him as an investigator?”
Reverie swallows nervously, and I can tell she’s struggling to concentrate on my words.
“H-he knows everything, and he knows I believe him, too.”
Too. There she goes again, claiming to believe me.
But as deeply as I longed to hear those words, I realize now that it changes nothing.
“People suffer because of your silence,” I say quietly.
Her face twists, as if I just ripped out her heart, but it only serves to anger me more.
At least I left hers intact. She fucking stomped on mine until there was nothing left.
I narrow my eyes. “You know, killing you would only be fair,” I muse, pushing her back another inch.
She panics, her foot slipping off the edge, nearly sending her backward into the water, but my grip around her jaw keeps her from falling. Her fingers dig into my wrist harder, anchoring herself to me as if it’ll keep her safe. Bloody crescent moons form beneath her nails, but the sharp pricks don’t register.
“Kellan,” she begs, my name breaking at the seams and coming out in skewed syllables.
I scowl, my upper lip pulling up from the sound of my name wrapped around her serpent tongue.
“He took my mother from me. Shouldn’t I take you from him now?” I propose. She attempts to shake her head, but my tight grip doesn’t allow her much movement.
“I can drown you right here,” I continue, my tone as sinister as my threat. “I know how to delete the footage from the cameras in here. I could throw you into Hollow Lake. They’d rule it as an accident, even a suicide. But if they suspected foul play, the first person they’d look to is your father.”
Tears brim her long brown eyelashes, and little whimpers escape from her lips.
“I’d clean my blood and skin from beneath your nails,” I continue, glancing to where she clutches onto me. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”
