Page 50 of Loving the Liar

There are around fifteen men standing there, some of them already with a woman in their arms, some of them talking, laughing and drinking from chalices as they wait. They’re the new Shadows with their Heras. Some men already have a roughed-up Aphrodite by their side, and I’m assuming they’re the old Shadows who caught someone tonight, ruining their chances to become a wife. Later tonight, they’ll go back to their own wives, happy to know they added mistresses to the Circle.

I want to scream from the unfairness of the situation. They’ve been having a wonderful time while the women were running for their lives, chased by whatever hallucinations their minds created. Some of them didn’t make it to the center, probably still being raped by Shadows in the darkness of the maze.

I’m in the last run, the path I’m on leading straight to the group of men. They’re in the light, and I’m in pitch-black, so I doubt any of them can see me. I take a minute to look for Chris. He’s here somewhere. I just hope Megan is not in his arms.

When I find him standing slightly to the side, chatting quietly with another man, a chalice in his hand, my heart explodes in my chest.

I made it.

He can’t see me, but I’m ready to run into the arms of the man who’s always protected me no matter what. I don’t care that this isn’t what he planned. I don’t even care if he pushes me away, telling me he wants Megan. If I get to him before she does, he’s mine. Consequences be damned.

I put one foot in front of the other, ready to go, when a feminine voice calls out for me.

“Ella!”

My mistake is turning around when I should have run to the man who could have saved me. She backhands me so hard I fall to the ground, blood spilling from my mouth. There must have been a ring on her finger.

When I look up at Megan standing right above me, my vision is hazy.

“I have a question for you,” she snarls, crouching next to me. “Did you enjoy fucking Chris last Christmas?” She’s smiling, but it looks terrifying.

I can’t answer. The shock from her revelation, the pain in my mouth, the fear gripping me, the drugs. It’s all too much.

But she doesn’t expect me to and keeps going. “Do you know how many times he tried to leave me for you? How many times his excuse for a breakup was that he still had feelings for someone else. And yet I still managed to keep him.”

Nearly hyperventilating, terror bubbles up my throat. Chris isn’t far. He can’t see me, but he could hear me.

I take a deep breath, ready to scream for my life.

“Chr—” Megan’s hand slaps on my mouth so hard I choke on my own breath.

“Shut the fuck up,” she hisses. “I’m not playing some dumb high school game here, Ella. I’m playing to win. And my prize is him.”

She lowers herself slightly to look me right in the eye. “If you act like a slut, sleeping with men who are taken, you might as well become one. Aphrodites get all the attention, darling. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

I try to shake my head, tears gathering in my eyes. He wasn’t taken. They had broken up.

“I think I’ll quite enjoy seeing you get caught by some perv twice your age and become a whore for him.”

Tears of anguish spill down my cheeks, a sob tightening my chest. This woman doesn’t care. I can see it deep in her eyes. She won’t let anything get in the way of what she wants. Or who she wants.

She looks behind her, and a laugh bursts out of her mouth. “Well. He’s not twice your age, but he’ll do. I heard he’s pretty sadistic.”

She finally lets go of me, standing up. “She’s all yours, Professor Reeves.”

She doesn’t even run to the center of the labyrinth, seeming to glide above the ground like a real goddess of chaos.

I cry out when Reeves grabs me by the hair, forcing me to stand up. Holding on to my dress, I desperately try to protect it from falling off my upper body.

“You’re hurting me,” I whimper as he drags me with him to where the crowd is gathered. “P-please, Professor Reeves…”

“That’s how you’ll learn,” he purrs. “You were the only girl I wanted to hunt tonight, Ella. Starting tomorrow, you’ll belong to the whole Circle, but whichever Aphrodite we catch is ours for the night.”

My teeth clatter from how hard I’m trembling. He yanks harder on my hair as he lines up with the other Shadows who hunted tonight, and right across from us, I see the men and women being initiated as couples standing hand in hand.

My body freezes when I see Chris and Megan holding hands. He still hasn’t seen me, and I’m desperate for reassurance. That somehow this is going to get better.

Lips trembling, I try to force a sound past my throat. “Chris.”

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