Page 27 of Beautiful Liar

He turned to me. His brow folded as if trying to pick out my brain. He got up, took both our plates and washed them, put them away, dried his hands, and turned to me. Like Dasher when he was trying to teach me something, Morgan looked as if he were carefully picking out his words so I’d understand. What Miguel used to say, dumbing it down for me. “This school was built on the fucked-up idea of Zeus and his bastards, right?”

I nodded. Dasher had explained this to me. The reason the Ark Boys came about, and they all had Greek sigils. Kieran’s was the little dipper for Arcas. One of Zeus’s bastard sons he had to protect from his wife.

“The gladiator games were originally held after a death. They believed that filling the ground with blood would help the dead pass on to the afterlife. They were called funeral games.”

“But we can’t be killed inside the grounds.”

“We can during the funeral games.” He let that sink in for a moment. “The purpose isn’t to kill, but if someone dies as a result there won’t be any consequences.”

“That’s fucked up,” I said, because it really was fucked up.

“The students here are creating alliances for protection. We have a better chance at survival with our limbs intact if we stay in a group.” He pulled his collar revealing the juncture between his neck and shoulder and the new ink he had there. Of course I recognized it. I had the same one on my hand. Seven dots when linked created the little dipper for Arcas. Kieran’s brand. I suddenly felt sick.

“Are you okay?” he asked. The dark swirl of ink peeked out onto his neck. I hadn’t noticed it before he mentioned it, now it was all I saw.

Kieran’s brand. The one that meant they were tethered. Morgan belonged to Kieran now, just like me. I imagined all hisex’s wearing the Arcas brand and it made me sick.

No, I wasn’t okay. I was the biggest fucking idiot on the damn planet. I got to my feet, needing to get as far away from Morgan as I possibly could.

“I know you have one too,” he said, defensively. His eyes lowered to my hand which I had wrapped up.

“No. I don’t.” The food turned into a brick in my stomach. “I gotta go.”

I sprinted back to my room and made it to the bathroom in time to dry heave. Kieran hadn’t come back for me. The fucking bastard had been gone three months! And I thought when he came back last night that he’d come for me. Did he come as a Brennan dignitary? Did he come for his friends? If Amir hadn’t died, would he have come back at all?

No. Of course not.

Because he hadn’t come for me. He could find a fuck anywhere in New York. He didn’t have to slum anymore.

The bathroom had been cleaned up. The mirror gone. Kieran had cleaned it last night. Like he had cleaned the kitchen. I splashed water on my face until I felt like myself again.

Morgan was already gone when I left the house.

Harper House was one of a series of five similar houses on the same path. The cloudy skies overhead threatened rain again. Spring rains were so damn cold. It sucked. I shoved my hands inside my pocket, hood over my head, and walked. I didn’t blame Morgan for inking himself if what he said about the funeral games was true. Being protected by the Ark Boys was the best protection you could have in this place. But what possible reason did Kieran have to brand him? They weren’t fucking. So why? I had thought the brand meant something more than protection. I thought I’d been the only one.

Stupid. I was fucking stupid.

I wanted to find Dasher to rant and rave. I hadn’t donethat in a while with him. But telling Dasher how I let Kieran get in my head again, how I thought I was fucking special wearing his brand, made me an idiot. I couldn’t say it. Saying it made it real.

Not looking where I was going, I almost rammed into Zarek. I didn’t know the guy, just knew of him. He hung out with Ashton and some others who were equally jock-like and assholes. Already in a prickly mood, I glared at him.

“What?” he said, puffing out his rather large chest. His bookend, Beck, right behind him.

I wasn’t against old school fist fights, but I was fucking tired. In my head and bones. When I slumped into my hoodie and kept walking, they chuckled. “You won’t be able to run forever.”

Yeah, I actually could. I was a good runner.

The theatre was empty. Dasher kept to the changing rooms at the back of the stage. I had intended to talk through the mess of emotions running rampant in my mind with him. Dasher knew about Kieran and me. He knew about Maddox. He knew almost everything about me.

Almost.

But I stopped short when I reached his space. He wasn’t alone.

“He was released last night. You can’t tell us he doesn’t know anything,” Ashton said. Ashton and I had become sort of friends after we won the flag wars against the Ark Boys. He had scapegoated me so that left a dent in our friendship status. I didn’t trust him.

Dasher was sorting costumes. We’d finished the spring musical a few days ago. It felt like months. “I haven’t seen him.”

Ashton and his sister Ashlee were standing together like a pair of tragedies. Micah and Charity, their bookends. Except Ashlee, they all had helped me bring down the Ark Boys duringthe flag wars. We had won but were hazed for it with me being scapegoated. Sue me if I didn’t trust them.

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