Page 301 of Vile Boys

Fear finally makes my heart tremble behind my rib cage.

But this kind of fear … it’s not the kind you want to deny. It’s the kind you want to obey.

So I turn around and run while the boys stay behind, collecting God knows what other toys from Ares’s cabinet. By the time I’ve made it out of the Tartarus House, I can already hear them rushing down the stairs.

Fuck.

My heart races as I run through the back exit and come out in the rose maze.

Remember the route. Remember.

God, why can’t I remember?

Panicked, I run off to one side and into the maze, left, right, C, right, right, left, left. I don’t know where I’m going, and when I turn a corner and come to a dead end, I can feel my own breathing pick up.

“Little rose … I can smell your perfume luring me.”

His low, gravelly voice makes goose bumps scatter on my skin.

I turn around, and a rose’s thorns scratch my cheek, but I keep running into the next turn and another one until I’m lost in the maze once more. The roses in this part are unkempt and completely overgrown, and I stumble over the prickly branches, nearly falling into the bushes. I only manage to capture myself on … two strong arms.

“Hello, darling, going somewhere?” Long black hair flows behind the mask, and I take a step back.

“Blaine,” I mutter, jerking myself free from his grip, and I bolt off as fast as I can.

“Run, run, my darling! We both know they’ll find you eventually. But I do enjoy watching this chase.”

I can hear him laugh behind me as I keep running in the opposite direction of wherever the crackling sounds are coming from. Twigs snap in half and make me gasp as I turn around to a ghostly figure wearing nothing but a black pair of pants and shoes appearing from behind the hedge, sparkling gray eyes boring a hole into my chest.

Ares.

My blood runs thick with icy cold fear as I rush in the opposite direction, but then I see another figure emerge from the darkness, blond streaks of hair and tattooed skin peeking out from underneath a hoodie.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I run to the left, and within seconds, I find myself out of the maze, running across campus grounds, past the Skull & Serpent Society building, and into Priory Forest and beyond. I don’t stop running, not even as my lungs grow frigid and my body begins to shiver as painful spasms shoot up my legs.

The adrenaline keeps me going, makes me feel alive. It makes me feel like I could face the world with a smile because no matter what it sends my way, I can take it.

Thanks to them.

Caleb

I can seeher bolting past the campus grounds from a distance, and I signal Ares to her location, who goes for the pursuit.

A chase like this is all I’ll ever crave, and now that Crystal had a taste of us, I just know she can’t get enough of it either.

Blaine passes me by. “Gotta run quicker than that.”

“I don’t see you helping,” I rebuke.

“I already had her in my clutches,” he muses.

I frown at him. “Youhadher? And you let her go?”

“Of course. Gotta give her a head start against you guys.”

I grumble. “What the fuck, Blaine!”

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