Page 220 of A University of Betrayal

“Shit,” I mumbled apologetically. “I should have been there.”

Again, I smelled the sweet scent, but I didn’t want to break away from her because she needed someone. Any slightest sign of rejection could only hurt her further.

“No, no, it’s all right. My life is a tragedy.”

She broke away from me, smiling through her tears, and turned away, but I grabbed her arm.

“Mady...” I looked into her emerald-colored eyes. “I’m sorry.”

When I felt her pulse under my hand, I let go of her arm.

She just nodded. “Thank you.”

Then she poured herself a cup of tea, the smell of which suddenly made me feel nauseous.

“What kind of tea is this?” I groused, stepping a little further away from the cup as I felt my eyes begin to glow.

“Vervain,” she said without looking at me, and I remembered what Miles had said. He had told me something about a plant that could cause pain in our bloodstream, that weakened us.

Why was Mady drinking this stuff?

I stepped back even further until I stopped in the doorway, and my eyes returned to normal.

“How do you manage it, Larissa?” I looked at her in surprise. “You don’t have a family. How do you manage it all?”

She looked at me.

“Bayla,” I confessed honestly.

Of course, there was more to it than that, but Bayla was the main reason I was still alive and hadn’t died in a gang shooting long ago.

I turned around, left the kitchen, and walked down the hall to the living room to get away from Mady’s vervain tea.

“It looks like a fucking cave in here, girl!” I remarked with a laugh, looking at the closed curtains and all the stuff on the floor. More to-go noodle boxes lined the floor. I turned to Mady, who had followed me, thankfully without tea. “Do you want me to help you tidy up?”

“Larissa,” she sighed, “Please.” There was pain in her expression.

And then my gaze slid down to her carotid artery. It was as if the throbbing was calling out to me.

Creeping Emptiness

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I stepped closer.

“Over the last few months, I’ve done my best to lead a normal life, to make friends. No one,absolutely no one,was there for me when Ezra...”

I forced myself to look up, into her desperate eyes. “I’m sorry, I...”

Mady continued. “I don’t want to keep being disappointed.”

My heart broke as I heard her pain.

What had those damn witches done to her? Dumped her just because she’d been with Nash? And suddenly, I felt an abnormal amount of anger toward Grace and Vivienna.

I stared at Mady and breathed to regulate my anger. A mistake. This time, the divine sweetness hit me harder, clouding my head and... sending me rushing forward.

Mady startled violently, but by then I was already right in front of her.

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