Page 24 of Tempest

Her beauty may fell me, but her words don’t. “Shouldn’t we report you to the university’s psych department?”

The Ardyn I knew would’ve shriveled under the insult, her eyes welling with tears.

This one—she doesn’t blink. “That depends. Has anyone reported you for mutilating forest animals and burying them in the woods outside your window?”

One corner of my mouth twitches with a reluctant smile. “Been keeping up with my comings and goings, have you?”

“I know a lot more about you than you think, Tempest.”

My grin sours. Searching her eyes, I can tell she’s dead serious. The thought of Ardyn 2.0 knowing my deepest secrets is unsettling at best. She has to be bluffing.

“Jesus, you two.” Clover comes between us, dissipating the heat in the air and turning to me. “Ardyn stays. Not only do the cards deem it so but I also do.”

I don’t respond, all too aware of Ardyn’s stare digging into my cheek.

Clover throws her hands on her hips. “You can leave now.”

After a beat, I flick my gaze to Ardyn. “This isn’t over.”

Her lips quirk. “This hasn’t even started.”

The fuck does that mean? “You want to stay at TFU? Fine. But your daddy’s money can’t protect you from my determination to protect my sister. You’re bad luck, princess, and I’m going to be on your ass for your entire stay.”

When Ardyn still doesn’t flinch, I grab Clover’s arm, raising it high. She screeches and bucks in my hold until my grip grows so tight that she stills.

“See this?” I say to Ardyn.

She doesn’t remove her gaze from mine.

“Look at it,” I say. “Look at it.”

Ardyn’s jaw works, her teeth grinding together. She blinks. A muscle in her cheek spasms.

Right when I’m about to dig my fingers into the soft pillows of her cheeks and force her to look, her eyes slide to Clover.

“This scar is from you. Clover’s mutilation is because of you. You’re ignorant, and a coward all rolled into one. And Mila’s death is—”

“Don’t you dare say it.”

I chuckle. Ardyn’s venom will coat Clover before it ever reaches me. “Mila’s death is on you, too.”

Ardyn’s lips peel back from her teeth.

Another laugh escapes. “God, it feels good to say that after being unable to scream it into your face for over two years.”

She lunges.

My jaw drops open in shock. Clover yanks her wrist out of my slackened hold, shouting something indecipherable as Ardyn unleashes an animalistic cry and goes for my throat.

Clover grabs Ardyn by the waist just in time. She yells over her shoulder, “Get out, Tempest! You’re such an asshole!”

I raise my hands in mock surrender, walking backward to the door where a collection of freshmen stand, gawking. “Gee, your institution stay has worked wonders, Ardyn. It’s too bad I despise you—you’d be a wildcat in bed.”

Ardyn nearly topples Clover with her desire to get to me. A few freshmen scatter, the rest fleeing when I spin and saunter out the door. In no time, Ardyn’s meltdown will spread through the freshmen and all the way to upperclassmen ears, shaping into rumors and morphing into an attack. It suits my plans perfectly, which is why I’m able to walk away with a jaunty swagger, whistling as I pass shocked faces and rapid-fire texts as news of TFU’s latest psychotic import spreads.

I chalk the lump in my chest up to indigestion from Anderton Cottage’s kitchen, where the cook is ancient, and our meat is mostly jerky. It has nothing to do with seeing Ardyn’s classical face again and reigniting old feelings … and memorialized oaths.

Not even two months ago, I was assured Ardyn couldn’t remember any of the events that happened that night. The trauma, coupled with the Molly in her system, made any recall all but unreliable if she had even that much. My sources confirmed her version of events was spotty, at best, intermixing with the kidnapping she endured as a child so thoroughly that it was impossible for authorities to tell one from the other.

I believed the explanation. I’d still stand behind it if it weren’t for the way she looked at me just now.

Fuck, if she remembers what happened, who was executed, and who did it, everything I agreed to in order to keep Ardyn and my sister out of it is at risk. I was forced to make a deal with the devil after I sent Ardyn away that night, and I’ve been under his thumb ever since, committing his dirty deeds, collecting information for him to use, and handing him his victims on a silver platter.

If Ardyn remembers…

After all my efforts to keep her alive, it’d be a shame to have to kill her.

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