Page 47 of Poison Vows

“Well, the truth is, anyone that has ever tried getting close to my cousin is automatically in danger. Heads have rolled before. Limbs have been severed. Blood has flowed, and he has never cared."

A shudder jolts through me as an ominous feeling blooms in my chest.

The night I met Emmett is a permanent fixture in both my dreams and nightmares.

Emmett’s blasé outlook on life and death chills me to the bone. And I don’t like thinking about it either.

“He doesn’t care, but the security around this place tripled,” Scar says.

“Is that supposed to mean something?”

Scar stares at me for a beat, not saying anything. Then she shakes her head. “Never mind.”

“I notice you haven’t mentioned his name since,” I say, changing the topic. “You just call him cousin.”

“That’s because if you speak his name, you’ll summon… well, you know the ending.”

I can’t help but laugh at this.

“Are you saying he’s the d?—”

“Shh,” Scarlet rushes to cut me off.

We look at each other and then burst out laughing.

“I like you,” I tell her. “I have a feeling we’re going to be fast friends.”

“Friends?” She looks down at her shoes. “I can’t say I’ve ever had any before. Not genuine ones, at least.”

My throat starts tingling.

“I never thought I’d have real friends ever. I always believed there was something wrong with me,” I start, a ball of bleeding nerves bundling up in my stomach. “But someone once told me that if you ever have a friend that’s willing to sit with you in the silence or suit up with you for war, then you’ve been blessed beyond measure in this life.”

Scarlet looks at me seriously.

“I’ve long since dismissed that kind of hope,” she whispers. “But I can’t deny, somewhere in me is still a desperate little girl, wanting to pinkie swear with a close friend that we’ll be together forever.”

I realize then that there is more to Emmett’s cousin than meets the eye.

The sadness in her eyes is not really about not having friends, but there’s a sense of loss that comes for deep loneliness.

“Well, so long as you’re willing to be on my side and not your cousin’s, then I’ll dedicate my pinkie fingers to you.”

“Gosh, both of them?”

“Do you want the toes too?”

“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re stingy!”

Again, we laugh, giggling like teenagers.

For a moment, I forget all about Emmett, my misdeeds, marrying Vaughn, and what awaits me.

For a moment, guilt and pain make way in my chest so I can breathe a little.

CHAPTER 7

Ivy

---