Page 114 of Devil May Lie

The Dominus scrutinized Madden, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Eventually, he sighed. “I’ll call Kelevra and tell him you’re awake.”

“Thanks,” Madden said. “No offense, but your faces are definitely not the ones I expected to find by my hospital bed.”

Right, because in his mind, he had very little to do with them, and absolutely nothing to do with Berga.

If his last memory was from that night at the Docks…

“What about Eric?” Berga asked, if not a little desperately.

“What about him?” Madden glanced at Baikal. “Why? He owe you guys money too? I don’t know where he is now. Ask Great or Muse.”

He didn’t know Eric was dead.

Which meant he’d forgotten all about that night at the boathouse and all the events that took place afterward.

He’d forgotten about Berga.

“Ah,” he murmured, that pain in his chest twisting until it was almost unbearable and his vision became blurry. “It’s banishment after all.”

He’d been erased from Madden’s memory.

Banished from his mind.

Robotically, Berga turned on his heel and bowed to Baikal before he spun and headed for the door. He made his way blindly down the hall and out the hospital, passing Bay and the doctor on his way. He didn’t register when the former called out to him, too lost in the siphoning feeling threatening to turn his world black.

The abyss crept in at the corners but remained just out of reach, and there were no signs of the girl in pink. Not a single one.

Almost as though even the ghost had had enough and finally left him.

In the end, it seemed Berga was simply meant to be abandoned.

How cruel.

How…deserving.

Chapter 28:

“He’s a member of the Academy, so we decided it best to hand him over to the head of the board,” Kelevra explained as he helped Madden lower down onto his couch in the boathouse.

After a weeklong stay in the hospital, he was mostly healed, aside from a few lingering bruises. Even his skin where he’d suffered the burns had been saved since he’d been rushed so quickly to the ER. Moving around was still a bit difficult, his limbs a little stiff, but they’d been reassured that would go away on its own with more time.

Madden made a noncommittal sound to let his friend know he’d heard him.

“They’d already expelled him and stripped him of any benefits he’d collected by being a trainee,” Zane continued for Kel. The two of them hovered by the couch as they spoke. “He’s also been charged with several serious crimes, all of which will put him away for at least a decade.”

“I still think he’s lucky to be getting away with his life,” Kelevra drawled, “but since a member of the Satellite was the real target, this seemed like the best way to handle things. The head of the board was highly against the death penalty, despite my prompting.”

“We could cause an accident,” Zane suggested, “if you’d like.”

“Why?” Madden lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “I can’t remember it anyway, and according to you all, it was the Butcher’s fault, really.”

“We didn’t say that…”

“No?” He set his elbows on his knees. “He was the real target, I just happened to be in the way. You still haven’t told me what I was even doing on campus that day. I would assume I was there to see you, but that doesn’t explain why I was opening the Butcher’s car.”

Kelevra and Zane shared a look, but before Madden could question it, there was a single knock, and then Great wheeled a bike into the main room.

“This came in for you while you were away,” the racer said, stopping and putting down the kickstand. “I checked it to be sure everything was in order, but no one has ridden it. What do you think?”

---