Page 58 of Heartless Legacy

I’ll call you later.

My lips pull into a faint smile and my racing heart settles a little. His day will be just as busy as mine, but he still made time to let me hear his voice. I don’t deserve him.I’m keeping him. There’s no way I’m letting someone else have him. But I don’t deserve him.

I’m in a calm, almost optimistic mood right up until the time the professor enters the classroom. It’s not him that ruins it, not his presence that sucks the air out of my chest. It’s the person walking through the door behind him commanding attention, swaggering through the rows of seats like he owns the space.

What is Pax doing here? He’s looking at his phone as he takes a seat near the middle, leaving me to stare at the back of his head, and the ink peaking out of the collar of his shirt. This is considered a history class, but I don’t think Greek Archaeology is required for his degree path. Is it?

It’s a lower level course, but I’m behind by a semester, so maybe that’s why I don’t recognize anyone else. I registered for this class instead of the more popular Roman Archaeology because I assumed the class sizes would be smaller, and I wanted to learn more about the place where I was born.

I put thoughts of Pax out of my mind. I knew I’d see him and the other two around campus, but hoped it would be from a distance far enough away that I had to squint to make out their features.

It takes a while, but I’m finally able to move air in and out of my lungs without feeling like each breath is full of needles, and my grip loosens on my phone. It’s a classroom. I’m surrounded by people. Not that I trust them, but it’s unlikely that something will happen to me here. I hope.

Pax is standing outside my dorm when I get back from Moira and Scott’s. I went to their place to pick up more of the snacks that Cora keeps on hand for me and stayed for dinner since I’m relatively sure they’re not trying to poison me.

It’s late and visiting hours are over, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering why nobody let Pax inside the building. He’s an entitled bastard and uses his position and reputation to go where he wants whenever he wants. Does the front desk enforce the visitor policy here? None of the others do. Or maybe this dorm didn’t before either. Them doing so now could be a new security measure put in place last semester.

I glance around, looking for others. He seems to be alone, and there’s enough space between him and the door for me to enter. The tightness in my chest eases a little, but if he tries to get in my way, he’llbe sporting a bruise for everyone to see.

“Are you just gonna walk by like you don’t see me here? Like I don’t exist.” He yells at my back.

“Youdon’texist. Not to me.”

“Nem-”

I spin around, letting my knife loose. “Don’t call me that.”

He ducks in just enough time to avoid getting impaled through his shoulder. The knife hits the ground with ating.

“Are you fucking crazy?”

“Don’t call meNem.You don’t get to call me anything. In fact, pretend like I’m not even here. Act likeIdon’t exist.”

“I can’t do that.” Taking a step forward, he says, “Youarehere.”

“I’m here, but I’m dead to you, and so is your little scheme to get shares in Joshua’s company.”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“I know, Pax. I know, so you can stop pretending. I heard you and your mother talking about me and the twenty-five percent clause, and how you were only being nice to me to make me more compliant for the next unlucky person I matched with.” She claps. “Bravo, on your acting skills, by the way. You had me fooled enough to think it was real. I was such an idiot. I even ignored the truth when it was right in front of my face. You were fucking Eloise the whole time.”

His jaw works as he bites back whatever he really wants to say. Since when does he let me get the last word? The smell of roses reaches my nose. I twist my head to see Eloise hurrying down the path towards us.

“Hey, baby. It’s funny running into you here.” She gushes as she stops beside him.

Funny?He’s way on the other side of campus, away from anything either of them would be doing, and they both happen to be here. Butsure. Let’s go with funny. It’s so funny they need a comedy special.

“Oh. Hey, Thea. I didn’t see you.” Rubbing Pax’s arm, she asks, “Did she fake an emergency to get you over here?” Addressing me, she says, “I’m sure Pax was too nice to tell you, so I will. You’re no longer a resident of Vale Tower, so any residence hall issues you have need to go through your dorm liaison. The Trium doesn’t deal with petty roommate squabbles for the campus.”

I blink at her as her arm wraps tighter around him and she leans into him. I see through her game. She’s waiting for a reaction. I want to wipe the condescending smile off her face, but I simply retrieve my knife from where it landed, salute them with it, and swipe my badge to get into the building.

Chapter 37

Finn

We all have things that we have to do, even though we don’t want to. This group meeting is one of those things. I guess calling it a meeting isn’t the right word. It’s more like a meet and greet. A poor reenactment of the first time we met Thea. I would have preferred to talk to her alone, but this is one of those times where I have to pretend there’s nothing wrong. Basically, I’m standing next to Pax pretending like I’m not imagining slicing his fingers off.

Holden thinks we should be patient. Feel things out with Thea. I think we’ve done that for almost a week, and it’s gotten us nowhere. My guess is it’s the Eloise funk on Pax’s clothes. I’m repelled by it, so she’s gotta be too.

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