Page 1 of Pray for Scars
Chapter One
I find Ria,and it’s not at all where I expect to find her. It’s not even while I’m looking for her. Which I’ve been doing in the two weeks since Halloween. My schedule has looked something like this:
Class at AU (well, technically, today is the first day that’s happened…)
Change hotels
Look over my shoulder
Stalk Ria leads on social media
Check out obituaries (spoiler alert: Kristof is dead. He was run over. No charges were filed because multiple witnesses saw him dart in front of a black Mercedes)
I had come to the conclusion Ria just doesn’t do social media by the time I sink down into my non-degree local history class. I can’t get into a degree program because I don’t have a diploma. But I paid for non-degree programs because with the amount of cash I took out of Jeremiah’s—my—bank account, I can do that.
The supply is dwindling already. There was only so much I could withdraw in a day, and I know either my brother or Lucifer and his gang of pricks will track my withdrawals.
But I’m not hiding. Not really.
Still, I don’t want to be completely stupid.
I pull out my notebook and a pen and lean back in my seat on the last row. There’s a bunch of senior citizens in here and a few kids my age, probably two dozen of us in total. The professor walks in, clad in tweed and a damn bow tie, and thenRiatrails in after him.
I sit up straighter, heart slamming in my chest. What the hell is she doing here? I mean, I get why she’s actually at Alexandria University because she was a university student when I met her a year ago. A junior, I think she said. But it looks like now she’s about to teach this class. She has a folder in hand, she’s wearing black dress pants and a white collared shirt, and she fiddles with a lock of her long, curly hair. Her and Professor Tweed exchange a few murmured words and then she turns to face the class. There’s a few dozen of us in here, but immediately, her eyes lock on me.
For a second, I think maybe she doesn’t recognize me. But then her deep brown skin flushes pink and she clears her throat. I feel a wave of secondhand embarrassment for her and also a little elated because obviously I’m going to corner her after class.
I never did get on that train.
I haven’t been sleeping well since Halloween—hell, I’ve never slept well, but it’s only gotten worse—and my brother’s words keep haunting me:Find Ria. Find out everything you can.
Part of me thinks Jeremiah might be dead. Part of me doesn’t care. But a small part of me...well, a small part of me does. It’s hard to go anywhere in Alexandria without hearing about the private hotel that burned to the ground, and I can’t help wondering what my brother thinks about that.
I tear my eyes away from Ria, and Professor Tweed prods her with a harsh, wet cough. Gross.
As this is a non-degree course, when I decided to enroll, I’d only missed the first day, on Monday. Today is Wednesday and no one seems too comfortable with each other yet so it’s safe to say I haven’t missed much.
Another wet cough from Tweed and IknowI haven’t missed much, and I’m already regretting this decision, although I’m glad I’ve got Ria in sight.
“Today,” she begins, her voice sounding crackly. She clears her throat, and Professor Tweed furrows his brow but sinks into a seat on the front row, watching her. How stressful. “Today,” she begins again, peeling her eyes away from me and staring at the back wall of the classroom, “we’re going to…” She trails off and Tweed leans over the desk. I can’t see his face anymore, but I’m sure he’s annoyed.
I blow my bangs out of my face and Ria catches the movement. I smile at her. She doesn’t return it, but she nods, as if to give herself strength, and starts one more time. She walks around the podium, tapping the folders she set there, looking thoughtful as she chews on her lip.
“I had planned a lesson on the early settlers here, and the Native American tribes they displaced, but,” she shrugs, “instead, we’ll fast forward a little.” She glances at Tweed as if waiting for permission, but the class seems eager, so she plows ahead. “Today, we’ll talk about the famous families of Alexandria that are still aroundnow.”She stares at me as she says those last words.
I had signed up for this course specifically to get information on Alexandria. A college town in the piedmont region of North Carolina, there are clearly secrets here I don’t get. Things at work involving the Unsaints and the Society of 6 that could very well concern me, and, you know, staying alive.
But I didn’t expect Ria andthislecture to just fall into my lap like this. Is she doing this for me?No shit, Sid.I pick up my pen, ready for her next words.
She clasps her hands behind her back and slowly starts to pace at the front of the room, surveying all of us.
“How many of you know of the Malikov family?” she asks, nothing but mild curiosity in her voice.
I, however, tense, gripping the pen in my hand a little tighter.
Hands all over the room shoot up. An elderly woman shakes her head and chuckles before saying, “I think the better question is whohasn’theard of them?” she asks good-naturedly.
Ria eyes me. I don’t raise my own hand. I have, technically, heard of them. Two weeks ago, actually, when one of the Unsaints, Mayhem, informed me it was Lucifer’s last name.
