Page 257 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

Sari leaned closer. “She was still breathing, and you paused and wasted time. Time that could have been used to save her.”

She spat onto the floor in front of me.

I rubbed at my face with both my hands, my harsh movements opening the stitches on my face.

Blood dripped.

The man on the sacred tree gurgled louder, and it sounded like he was crying for help.

“I know. I should have done more,” I said defeatedly. “You’re right.”

Sari’s voice was filled with abject loathing. “You’re a disgusting, worthless person.”

I could feel how much she hated me; it was a tangible energy between us.

My shoulders slumped, and I nodded at her. “I know.”

“Go back to your royal table, you useless whore,” Malum snapped, and his voice was harsher than I’d heard it in a long time. I’d forgotten how cruel he could be.

The students who were taking their seats around us froze.

Sari gave me one last glare before she stomped back across the room to her seat.

Like a zombie I turned around and walked toward the dais.

An arm settled around my shoulders, and I relaxed against it, then instantly stiffened when I realized it didn’t smell of sandalwood and the body was taller.

Bergamot and musk filled my senses.

“What are you doing?” I asked Scorpius as I tried to disentangle myself from him.

His arm tightened painfully so I couldn’t move.

“She’s wrong,” he said viciously.

I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, because she’s a worthless woman.” I sucked in enchanted smoke. “No. She’s right.”

Scorpius laughed cruelly. “No.” His fingernails gouged the back of my neck. “She’s wrong because she’s a naïve, sheltered fool just like the rest of them.” He gestured his head toward where the students sat.

“Whatever.” I blew out a cloud of smoke, not caring what one of the academy’s biggest bullies had to say.

“He’s right,” Malum dipped his head to whisper in my ear as he walked past.

I blinked at his retreating form.

He glanced back over his shoulder, and at my inquisitive look, a blush stained the tops of his cheeks.

A queasy sensation filled my gut.

For a second, Malum looked young.

I always thought of him as someone who was over one hundred years old like Jax, but it struck me for the first time that he was young. Someone had said he was turning thirty.

When it came to immortality, that was nothing.

Yet he already seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Was that why he was so harsh all the time?

Sun god, ever since the second competition, he’d been confusing.

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