Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 111435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
I was suddenly given that chance, to commence the speech that I’d sometimes rehearsed in my head while I was in the shower or out on walks. Yet I didn’t say a word. Not one. I just held the phone to my ear, smile still frozen on my face.
Hades stilled the second my mother screamed the second sentence at me. The phone hadn’t been on speaker, but he was sitting close enough to me to hear every vile word.
The phone was no longer at my ear. Hades slammed his wine glass down on the counter so liquid sloshed over the top and stained the surface like blood.
He only listened for a handful of seconds.
“You don’t know me,” he said in a clipped tone. “You don’t need to. All you need to know is that if you ever contact Freya again, I’ll hunt you down and hurt you. You will regret ever being fucking born.”
Then he hung up.
My Aunt V and I just gaped at him.
“I like him, a lot” she announced after a handful of seconds of silence.
“Me too,” I whispered, leaning over to squeeze his thigh. His hand covered mine.
We had a wonderful night. I did not let my mother ruin it.
HADES
I’d known this was happening.
It was clear that Victoria cared about Freya. A great deal. In the way a parent might. A lot fucking more than either of her given parents had. With a ferocity that made me feel grateful. Infinitely grateful that Freya had someone who shared her blood who was fighting for her, who would go to battle for her without hesitation.
She wasn’t afraid of me, which was impressive and jarring. I’d been used to people being afraid of me my entire adult life. Even my brothers, though they hid it well.
I didn’t relish women being afraid of me, but I couldn’t change it. Maybe that’s why I had never tried to have any other woman except club girls, chicks who knew the score.
Freya wasn’t afraid of me either.
No matter what I said to her, she took it in stride. Fuck, she’d known I’d killed people before I started fucking her. I told her I killed her piece of shit ex, and she didn’t kick me out of the house. She still hadn’t kicked me out of the house, not pointing out that there was no longer a reason for me to be living there. I hadn’t fucking pointed that out either.
I hadn’t been able to bring myself to go back to my shithole of a house. Or to my room at the club, where I’d slept a fuck of a lot more than the house I owned. The clubhouse used to be the only place I felt at home. The closest thing I had to happiness had been at that club. Or more accurately, in the bloodstained basement where I could make people scream.
But Freya’s home, with the candles, the throws, the pillows. Her fucking sheets. All the shit she had in her bathroom. I never wanted to fucking leave. It soothed me more than the fresh blood of my enemies.
With her Aunt V there, it had become something else entirely.
Happiness radiated from Freya’s fucking pores. I’d thought all I liked from people was their pain. Their suffering. I’d sucked it from them like a goddamned vampire. But it was her joy. That was my fucking life force.
Being alive hurt less when I was around her.
I fucking loved her.
With all of my wretched soul. If I even fucking had one. I loved her.
Victoria was shrewd. She saw fucking everything. So when Freya went to the grocery store because she’d decided that we needed more wine and would not hear of anyone else going, Victoria made the most of the moment. It had taken everything in me not to go with her, but I’d managed. Neither of us insisted we go with Freya because we both knew she needed the time to herself.
I was smoking outside, trying to lock myself down after hearing the venom that creature spat through the phone. The words that had wiped every ounce of joy from Freya’s face and replaced it with a pain so visceral it cut me to pieces. Freya recovered quickly because she was Freya. Because she was used to having to heal from these kinda fucking hits.
Victoria wordlessly lit up beside me. Though she was lighting up a joint.
“My niece is a marvel,” she exhaled into the desert.
“I know,” I replied immediately, even though I knew she was nowhere near done speaking.
I felt her gaze on me as I continued to look out on the desert.
“The fact that she survived that house. Survived what happened—”
She broke off, and I could practically feel the jagged edges of her broken heart. Fuck, they drew fucking blood because I was already cut the fuck open from when Freya had told me what happened. I’d barely fucking survived hearing what had happened to her. Even though I’d survived a lot of fucking shit. Done a lot of fucking shit. I hadn’t thought it was possible for anything to shock me anymore. Didn’t think I’d care about anyone’s sorrows or misfortune because none of them were unique.