Page 42 of Pretty Little Psycho

We walk in silence through the woods, and I relish the peacefulness of it. When she’s not bouncing around shrieking, her presence is quite calming.

“Who killed you?” I blurt out without warning.

Her eyes glaze like her mind is in some far-off place. “It was an accident. He didn’t mean to.”

I glance at my phone to check the time. Class starts in twenty minutes, so I grab her elbow and pull her to a stop. I wait for a few groups of chatty students to pass us before launching back in.

“Who didn’t mean to? I need to know what kind of danger I’m in.”

Jessamine tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and looks up at the sky, as if there’s something actually up there besides clouds and stars. “His name was Silas Graves. We were in love. But we should have been more careful. We were playing in the dark. With the ravens.”

A shiver races up my back. “You mean dark, like evil stuff? What did the ravens do to you?”

She looks to the sky again. “Up there, we have the sun and the moon and the stars.” Her gaze averts down to the muddy ground. She points to it. “And down there… we have decay and death and ravens. Do you understand?”

Heaven and Hell. I nod and shiver again as the hairs on the back of my arms prickle. “But you exist somewhere in between. Why?”

She shrugs, her eyes filling with sadness. “Neither wants to let me in. I’m tied to Tenebrose forever. Alone.”

My heart aches for her. I clasp her hand and lace my fingers through hers. “You’re not alone, Jess… What happened to you? To Silas?”

Her lower lip starts to quiver, and she swallows hard as if she’s physically trying to shove the pain down. “He made a sacrifice to the ravens. They promised him power, and we trusted them. He loved me, but he was a silly boy. There was a ritual, and we drank too much poison. We both died, but I woke up like this, and he was just… gone.”

I gasp and throw my arms around her. “Girl, I’m so sorry. Fuck.” I’m sick for her. What a freakishly fucked up thing to happen.

Her body is rigid, and she doesn’t hug me back. “I’d do anything to get him back, Maur. Anything.”

A cold wind blows around us, and my mind clicks something else into place. I pull away to look into her eyes and try to put it all together. Her death. The timeline of it. The Graves family getting banished from Ever Graves. The curse. The ravens…

Fuck.

Fucking hell.

I clasp my hand to my mouth. “You… you’re a Blackwell. You’re the reason the Graves are cursed.”

She sighs. “I’m the reason Nocturnus exists. And the reason they are making your life a living hell. Our family blames theirs for my death. But it wasn’t Silas’s fault.”

I’m in shock. I can’t keep my mouth from dropping open. “Jessamine…” I don’t know what to say. This girl is my blood. My ancestor.

She squeezes my hand back. “It’s okay, Maur. Things will be different this time. But I have to go now. The ravens are listening. They don’t like me talking to you. I’ll find you later.”

Before I can utter another word, she pulls her usual ghost disappearing act.

I walk through the rest of the day like a zombie. I try my best to pay attention in class, but I can’t stop thinking about my connection to Jessamine. I try to wrap my head around what happened to her and what it has to do with me.

But the air around me changes as I waltz into my last class—Tragic Music. The most haunting melody fills the room as I grab the nearest seat and search for the source. My heart skips a beat when I spot Valentin in the corner, playing the violin. For fuck’s sake, as if he wasn’t already ridiculously hot and mysterious.

His jet-black hair is tousled with a few strands hanging over his eyes. He doesn’t seem to notice as his fingers seem to fly over the instrument. Beads of sweat drip from his temples while he works the bow over the strings faster than the human eye can comprehend.

My whole body vibrates with each unearthly note he creates. As the music builds, his whole body moves like a force of nature. I can’t look away. It feels like nothing else exists but this. Like he’s playing it just for me. The chatter around the room is distant, muffled, and all I hear is Valentin.

And all I want is for him to play me.

He strums one last powerful note, drawing it out until I think I might cry or suffocate. And in those few seconds between the silence and the applause, he lifts his head and looks only at me.

My breath catches in my throat and for a brief moment, the darkness in his eyes dissipates. A spark of light flickers around his pupils, and I have to resist the urge to go to him.

In a flash, the spell is broken by Professor Harker. “Excellent work, Valentin.” He turns to the class. “The rest of us can only hope to have a sliver of that sort of talent.”

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