Page 81 of Pretty Little Psycho

A bloodcurdling shriek escapes my throat as I lunge forward. Startled, they’re too late to stop me.

Zeke’s eyes widen as I plunge my knife into his chest. He squeezes my wrist as I twist it in deeper. But I won’t let him stop me. He’s just another fucking Chad. Another predator. His cries are muffled by the onslaught of blood in his throat.

I curl my lips into a smirk as Riot, Atlas, and Valentin stare at me speechless. I’ve been dangling between two versions of myself for so long, but now I’m finally free. I’m embracing my true nature.

I’m a killer. Just like them. Their pretty little psycho.

As the light from Zeke’s eyes burns out, Riot curses under his breath. “You didn’t have to do that, Firecracker.”

I wrap my hand around the hilt and give it a hard yank. Blood spurts out as I wrench it free. “Yes, I did.”

“This will forever stain your soul,” Atlas murmurs.

I smile softly and look up at the sky just in time to see a shooting star.

Valentin sighs. “You’ve done this before.”

I don’t take my eyes off them as I sheath the bloody knife back into my garter without wiping it off. “Yes, I’ve murdered someone before. There’s no redemption for me. Only darkness.”

Riot pulls me to him, gently by the back of my neck, and the three of them surround me. “We are your darkness, pretty girl.”

“We are your mercy and your redemption,” Valentin adds with a growl.

Atlas takes off his jacket and ties it around my waist to cover me. “We will protect you.”

Riot pinches my chin between his fingers. “We’re the fucking devils you serve now. The only heathens who get to touch you. And we will leave our marks on you so that no one fucks with what is ours again.”

His blue eyes burn bright like the base of a flame. My belly flutters. I don’t want to run from this anymore. I have never felt more alive, more wanted than I have when I’m with them.

I lick my lips and tilt my chin up to his. “Then I will lay down at your altar tonight.”

Maureen

There is no after-party tonight. No celebration of the solstice. Only the silence of our sins as they hang in the air, threatening to consume us.

Libra and Villette had also been duped by Jessamine. She locked them in the ballroom basement and smashed their phones. No one could hear them cry for help over the music of the ball.

The guys had fought and beaten their initiates into submission—ostracized them from Nocturnus forever. They were physically stripped of their sigils and are currently fighting for their lives in the Tenebrose infirmary.

We will find new initiates. Ones we can trust this time.

After freeing my friends from the basement, we go back to my dorm, so I can change and wash the blood off my hands and body. It’s a satisfying cleansing when I watch Zeke’s essence get swept down the drain.

I put on a fresh pair of panties while Atlas picks out a short black dress for me to wear back to Nocturnus House. I like it when they dress me. It makes me feel cared for and treasured. I like the way they look at me when I’ve done something that pleases them.

Libra and Villette are still skeptical, but I know Bailey would get it. Someday, I’ll tell her everything. When there’s time to. But tonight the moon is full, and the night is the longest it will ever be all year. So we have to get moving.

Atlas constructs various threads of hemlock and winds them around the doorways and windows of my dorm room to keep Jessamine from getting in and harming Libra and Villette.

“That’s why we surround our property with it. It keeps the restless dead out,” Atlas says.

The ravens are quiet now. I don’t hear them squawking as we pull out of The Nest. But I feel them watching.

“Nocturnus House was built over an ancient burial ground,” Riot explains. “It’s a place of power. We draw from it. Our sigils are conduits that funnel that power to us. There is a place like this in Ever Graves too. But your family sealed us off from it when Jessamine died. The second you took my half-brother’s life; the score became even. It reset.”

I hadn’t even thought of that. “So, you knew Zeke was your brother?”

Riot nods. “I suspected it, which is why I let him get away with being such a fucking bag of dicks most of the time. My father is a private man, and my mother fucking hates him even though she won’t leave his side. I’m sure I have many more half-brothers and sisters out there roaming around.”

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