“Very. It’s what bad people do,” Bilal said, and shrugged as he inhaled more toxins.
“You think you’re a bad person?” Octavius asked, surprised.
Bilal just gave him a sideways glance.
In the distance, Octavius could still hear the rattling and cries coming out from the stables.
Someone should really check on those horses, he thought.
“I guess I am grateful to Dad in some ways for what he did. I suppose neither of us would have had careers at all if it came out that we—”
“Can you keep your voice down?” Bilal whispered angrily.
“My bad… What I meant to say was that neither of us would have had careers if it came out that we were both… criminal masterminds,” Octavius finished with a grin.
Bilal looked murderous. “You see, this…thisis why we don’t speak,” he said, moving away from his brother now.
“Aw, don’t be like that, Billy!” Octavius said.
“Like what? You don’t take anything seriously and I’m sick of it. Sick of you and your shield of wit. You can’t sarcasm your way out of consequences, Octavius. One day, it will all catch up to you and you will be left with nothing but your empty, empty heart,” Bilal said, his voice thundering. The fencer was breathless and staring down at Octavius with a look that could only be described as unrelenting sorrow.
Octavius didn’t react at first, just looked up neutrally as though the words had washed over him, going into one ear and right through the other.
Then suddenly, he fell back onto the grass, dramatically clutching his chest as he did.
“Lover boy is rubbing off on you, Billy. Look at all those metaphors you used. I’m very impressed,” Octavius said, practically giggling with glee like a toddler.
Bilal shook his head and tossed his unfinished joint into one of the rosebushes. “Goodbye, Tavi,” he said, wincing as he limped back across the black-and-white-checkered patio and vanished into the Manor once again, taking all of their secrets back inside with him, leaving Octavius alone outside in the dark, bitter cold of the evening.
Just how he liked it.
In the distance, the death bell chimed and Octavius closed his eyes one last time, ignoring the flashing images that permeated his every waking thought.
Hisblood…hisscreams… the sound ofhisbody hitting the ground.
Over and over and over again.
6:21P.M.—THE BUTTON MANOR
Perdita had been sitting on the couch in the center of the drawing room in what could only be described as a dissociative state.
Her mind blanked and her vision blurred as she settled into a calming nothingness that allowed her to escape her reality. The reality where her siblings hated her guts and she was in the middle of her own father’s murder case.
She wanted to do this in the safety of her own bedroom, but there were more officers in here now. Before she had only seen two, now there were four watching over them. She didn’t currently have the brainpower to figure out how to sneak past the wall of cops, though seeing as her brothers and sister were not currently in her line of sight, she assumed they had. She preferred not knowing where her siblings were. No more angry shouting and accusations she couldn’t easily dispel.
She had become so good at disappearing from her physical reality that when Thorin appeared suddenly in front of her, she nearly had a heart attack.
“Oh my god, Rin, you scared the shit out of me,” Perdita said, clutching at her chest as her boyfriend smiled down at her apologetically.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you,” he whispered. “Just wanted to say hi again, and tell you I’m back,” he added in a normal voice, as he took a seat next to her on the couch now, grabbing ahold of her hand as he did.
“I can see that. You had a whole dress change too,” she said, looking him up and down pointedly.
He had been wearing a Sleep Token T-shirt and jeans before, and now he was wearing adifferentSleep Token T-shirt.
“Yeah. I spilled alphabet soup on my shirt at home,” he said, sounding a littleembarrassed, which to Perdita was the most adorable thing in the world since he rarely got embarrassed. With a name like Thorin, he’d had to learn how to take the punches and keep it rolling. “Thanks for noticing. It’s nice to know someone is closely monitoring my outfits—I put a lot of thought into them.”
Perdita smiled at him. “Of course. Who else will I get my fashion tips from?”
