Page 171 of Blood & Betrayals

I tilt my head, interested. “Oh?”

“I know because I am the same. Most people only ever see a single side of me. The facade I wear to appease them.”

My lips twitch. “Ah, so there are people who physically perceive you? As in, you’re not only…” I gesture to his form.

His laugh rumbles in my ears. “Another mask, but I do exist outside of this avatar.”

I chuckle, looking down at the ground.

“What?”

I shake my head, laughing. “You’ve unblocked yourself already, haven’t you?”

“Are you planning on blocking me again?”

“Probably,” I reply honestly.

“Even when it does nothing?” he asks.

I smirk, looking up at him. “It doesn’t do nothing. It pisses you off.”

“You’re such a brat,” he says, and I can practically hear his eyes roll.

There’s that word again.Brat. Why does it spark something inside me?

He pauses for a long moment. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with that berserker.” It isn’t a question. It’s a statement, and there is something behind the words that I can’t identify.

I quirk an eyebrow, waiting for more.

“It’s just a question.”

“There was no question. It was a statement.”

“Why?” I can hear the way he forced the word from between his clenched teeth.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Does it matter?” I ask, unsure why I’m unwilling to tell him the truth, but for now, I want to hold on to this information. Something in the bite of his words makes me want to push at him.

“I have to go.” His tone is short and clipped, and I sigh.

Just when I thought I was getting somewhere, it turns out he’s just a dick who was pretending not to be a dick. “Bye,” I bite out.

The spell holding him here fractures, and I’m alone again.

70

Summer

Alice looks up from the couch when I come through the door. “Hey.”

My head is still a mess, but at least the stranger was an asshole, so things felt a little more normal than they did when he seemed to be… understanding.

“Hi.” I smile, walking to the fridge.

“How was the gym?” she asks.

“Fine. Max is a dick,” I say, taking a deep drink of water, the cold soothing my sob-ravaged throat.

Alice snorts, turning the television off. “Then why do you keep going back?”

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