Page 13 of Absentia Mori

Libra Thorn is the most self-absorbed, rotten, fucking woman I’ve ever met. She’s so oblivious to her own vanity that she can’t even see how shallow and superficial she is.

She’s trying to play me for a fool but I’m not stupid. I know she has no interest in me. She never gave me a second glance back at Tenebrose. And that clever little trick she does with her breath, trying to act like she’s turned on. Fuck that. No amount of sexual manipulation is going to stop me from inflicting obscene amounts of pain on her.

“You’re upset.” Raithe offers me a bottle of water.

I take it and chug half of it before coming up for air. “She wasn’t afraid of me last night.”

Fabien hisses. “Well, then make her afraid of you. Her bravado is a fucking act. She still thinks her daddy is going to swoop in here and rescue her. We need to break her faith in that.”

Raithe lifts his eye patch to rub the skin underneath. The stitch job they did on him was shit, so the poor bastard looks like he got stamped with a permanent spider web. “Are either of you curious as to how she ended up here? It’s fucking strange.”

I shake my head. “I don’t care why she’s here. That cunt has pissed off so many fucking people in her life. It was only a matter of time before karma came to bite her in the ass. But her daddy’s money can’t protect her this time.”

Fabien’s blue eyes darken. “Nothing can.”

I finish the rest of my water on the way to the gym. I’d rather be reading, but I’ve got to stay strong if I want to get out of this place. A few of the orderlies are under our thumb, but it isn’t enough to buy us our freedom. There are powerful people in play. Rich fucking people who promised Nocturnus that they’d keep us locked up.

Raithe may want to know how Libra ended up here, but I can’t go down that rabbit hole. If I do, I’ll start to give a shit. And I won’t let her have a story other than she’s the vain socialite cunt who treated us like scum. The bitch who ran all of Nocturnus’s little errands with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye. That’s the only narrative I have space in my head for. The only one she deserves.

When I get to the gym, I find the usual suspects—the Terror Twins. Well, they don’t terrify me, but everyone else steers clear of them. The two blonde girls run around the room, giggling and shrieking at each other.

I grasp each of them firmly by the arm and drag them out. “You can come back in when I’m done.”

They fold their arms and pout. “But, Mordecai,” they both whisper-whine in unison.

I reach into my pocket and find what they’re waiting for—lollipops. I hand one to each of them. “Okay?”

They giggle and run off without another word. I can’t murder them, so I have to bribe them with sweets.

Fucking ghosts.

I run the treadmill for about an hour to work up a sweat and get my heart going. Each pointless step makes me long for the forest at Tenebrose. It was the one place I could run free without thinking about my status or place there. The trees didn’t judge me. And the ravens didn’t venture too far in. They stayed close to Nocturnus House.

I take off my shirt and wipe the sweat off my brow with it. I try to keep my mind inside the fantasy of my forest, but I can’t stop thinking abouther. I almost crushed Gormon’s skull last night. I don’t know why it pissed me off so much to see him holding her down. I should’ve fucking helped him. I should’ve done a million fucking things instead of getting into a verbal sparring match with her.

I didn’t expect her to get under my skin like this. Libra is not a nice person. But neither am I. Not anymore. She’s manipulative and cunning. I have to keep my wits about me around her.

I jump off the treadmill and move over to the bench press. After readjusting the weight to two hundred pounds,Raithe was clearly here last as it was at three hundred, I lay back and grip the barbell.

The weight feels good. A reminder of all I need to push against it. With each curl, I grow stronger, more focused, and moredetermined. The pain in my muscles fuels me, reminding me of all that I’ve already endured. That pain is nothing to me. I disassociate from it.

Up. Down. Breathe. In. Out. Sweat drips into my eyes, but I keep going. Again. And again. One more. I grunt and grit my teeth as I stretch up for one last rep, my arms shaking so badly that I nearly drop the weight.

It’s almost to the barbell rack when I see a quick flash of blonde hair. The scent of nightshade wafts up my nose.

Fuck.

Libra pounces and the barbell comes crashing back down toward me. I wheeze as it knocks the wind out of me.

She leaps on top of my chest, straddling me on the bench as she presses the weight down. “Maybe I’ll killyoufirst.”

My rage festers. This sick twisted fury that’s been burrowing in my gut ever since I saw her that day, laughing with her brother as they hopped into their Mercedes. I’d been tending totheirpoison crops all day. I was tired and thirsty, and my muscles ached. Instead of offering me something to drink or even a polite thank you, they spun their tires out on purpose to drench me in mud. I could hear them cackling all the way down the driveway.

“Get the fuck off before you get hurt,” I grunt out.

She laughs that same way in my face. “Nah. Looks like I have the upper hand this time, asshole.”

Fuck. She’s stronger than she looks.

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