Page 57 of Anathema Codex

DAPHNE

I'm back in this stupid SUV for the third time, which means I've broken my rule twice in as many days, but I think this time it might actually be worth it. Willa and Aftyn had turned out to be… disappointing. They'd showed so much promise in the forest, and I'd really thought that laying all our cards on the table would make them more interesting—but no.

Aftyn's dad though? Definitely interesting.

From the first moment I saw him walking across the road I'd felt some kind of pull toward him. An incomprehensible tug that had actually managed to drag my attention away from Willa's bitchy little threats. I'll admit I was lucky that she was just as caught off-guard by the man's loud voice and wide grin and didn't take the opportunity to kill me when she had it, although it's not like she was smart enough to carry a weapon anyway.

But with Lakyn staring at us, none of that had even crossed my mind.

I'd recognized the similarities to Aftyn immediately, but Lakyn has a more refined version of Aftyn's good looks. He's taller, more confident, and even in the casual clothes he seemed to take up more space than his physical body. I won't deny being physically attracted to Aftyn but looking between the two of them the difference between boys and men has never been so clear to me. Lakyn is what Aftyncouldbe if he didn't spend so much time trying to one-up Willa… not that she's a problem anymore. But I still don't think he's going to get any better.

There's just too much emotion in him, and Lakyn can see it too.

Just like Lakyn saw me.

He asked me if I wanted to be a part of the family.

Those are the words I never thought I'd hear. Sixteen years of foster homes where I was too weird, too creepy, too quiet and distant and strange… but Lakyn saw right through all of that. When he looked at me, I knew I didn't need to pretend. I didn't have to act like the vulnerable lost girl, because he saw the truth in those first few moments out on the street and he liked it. He invited me in, and then gave me permission to kill Willa with a kind of excitement in his incredible blue eyes that I've never seen in another person.

'Show me how bad you want it.' he'd said.

She didn't stand a chance.

Not with joining Lakyn's family on the line. It was the first time I've everwantedto be accepted by anyone, to show them the real me without any plan to kill them after. Willa was too easy to bait, too easy to kill. Yet the way he got out of his chair to get a closer look at what I'd done, wearing a smile and not an ounce of judgment or horror on his face, that felt like a dream come true. He wasn't disgusted. If anything, he looked fascinated as he stared at Willa—but I wanted him to look at me.

I dug the knife in deeper, twisting it to end her faster and regain his attention, and as his lips spread into a grin, I felt the closest to happy I've ever been.

When Willa finally collapsed, I held her upright so I could kill her while facing him. All I'd wanted was for his gaze to meet mine again, but he'd crouched down in front of her and tried to get her attention, tried to make her say she loved him… and I'd realized that was the feeling buzzing in my chest. Iwantedto be around him. Iwantedto join his family, to go with him to meet Aftyn's aunt, or wherever the fuck he wanted to take me.

Willa didn't have the capacity to say it, and I think even if I hadn't dragged the knife through her diaphragm she probably would have ruined the moment with some bitchy little comment, so I was glad she just gurgled and choked while I waited for Lakyn to look at me again.

A cloud of smoke left his lips and then his blue eyes met mine, and he nodded. It was a moment of perfect acceptance. Approval. Acknowledgement of the real me… and there was only one response to that.

I love Lakyn.

As I slit her throat, his slow grin became the center of my universe for a moment, and I ignored all the shouting and the chaos whirling around us because none of it mattered. I just dropped Willa to the floor and waited to see if I'd done what he'd hoped for. Seventeen years old and I already knew my future belonged to him. The only other person I'd ever met that was like me, that understood me, thatlikedme.

He'd cracked jokes about my name, nothing I haven't heard before. Scooby Doo has been around since before I was born and will probably still be around after I'm dead. That mutt is one of those timeless things in culture, but I'd learned to brush off the comments when I was still a kid, and it paid off because now I'm in the front seat with him, watching him drive while Aftyn mourns his dead friend in the backseat. I don't know why Aftyn doesn't see what's right in front of him. Being related to Lakyn is a gift in his otherwise mediocre life. How many people get to have a connection to someone so vibrant? So unapologetically themselves?

If he'd stop pouting long enough to pay attention, he might actually learn something.

"Want one?" Lakyn asks, his eyes on the road, but he's offering me the last cigarette in his previous pack and I take it. He crushes the pack in his fist and tosses it over his shoulder, chuckling under his breath when Aftyn curses.

"Nice one, Pops." Aftyn huffs, and I glance back to see him pulling his cigarettes out as well.Henever offered me one, even though the only reason I was ever in this car was because he picked me up off the curb and dragged me with him into the boring dynamic of his relationship with Willa. That's just one more way Lakyn is better than him though.

The lighter is in the cup holder, and though I haven't smoked much, I know how to do it. I crack my window and light it, taking a short puff the first time just to avoid coughing and embarrassing myself. A few drags in and I get that tingly rush from the nicotine. It makes my head swim a little and I lean against the window, adjusting my backpack on my lap so I'm more comfortable as I watch Lakyn drive. "Thank you."

He just nods, letting a billow of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and I let the road noise fill the silence for a few minutes.

The urge to speak to him again bubbles up inside my chest, and it's such a foreign sensation that I don't know how to stop it as words shove their way past my lips. "I'll be eighteen in two months."

Lakyn lifts an eyebrow, glancing over at me before he grins again and chuckles. "What makes you think I care how old you are?"

"Yeah, Daphne. You trying to climb on his dick since I wouldn't fuck you?" Aftyn chimes in from the backseat and I clench my jaw.

I can feel the blush in my cheeks, a burning heat that comes too easily with the curse of red hair and pale skin, and my tongue goes stiff and awkward again. I don't even know why I said it. I wasn't even thinking about it, or at least I don'tthinkI was thinking about it. Still, the fact that he doesn't care that I'm not eighteen sends a thrill through my blood no matter what Aftyn says.

"You too busy fucking the blonde one?" Lakyn asks, glancing up at the rearview mirror and I bite back my smile.

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