Page 78 of Anathema Codex

"Technically Red is the one who—"

"SHUT UP!" I roar. Bracing my hands on the dash, I try to breathe normally, but I'm staring into the floorboard of Willa's fucking SUV at the smudged ash from a cigarette marring the floor mat that had been absolutely pristine before this damn trip.

The trip I pushed her to take.

"What's going on?" Daphne asks, and I know she's facing forward again even though I refuse to look.

"Kid is freaking out over the chick you killed. He might actually pop a blood vessel at this point." Lakyn reaches over and flicks the side of my forehead. "Check out that vein throbbing. Don't think you got this bullshit drama act from me."

I hate you.

Another broken sound tumbles from my lips and this time I don't even have the capacity to try and stop it. Nothing matters without Willa. I got her killed because I wanted to meet my father, and for the first time in my life my mother was actually right about something—he isn't worth knowing at all.

I didn’t get a single decent thing from either of the people that brought me into this world and I never fucking asked to be born. Tears are burning my eyes, my nose is running, and I know I'm shaking like a damn bomb about to explode. I can feel the rage welling up inside me, and I hate that it just proves I'm exactly like the bastard that fathered me… because the only thing I want right now is to feel their blood coating my hands.

I'm going to kill you.

I'm going to kill both of you.

Then I'm going to find a way to join Willa.

"Stop the car. I need to get out." I force the words out, and I hear the irritating sound of Lakyn sucking his teeth.

"Not really in the cards, kid."

"NOW!" I shout, and for a second I'm so desperate for some fucking breathing room that I try to figure out if I could survive a fall out of the SUV… but I know we're going too fast. The road would shred my clothes and my skin in no time, and then I'd be too damn weak to drive that knife through Daphne's flesh or bury Lakyn's hatchet in his throat.

"First of all, don't tell me what the fuck to do, kid. Second—"

Something in me snaps and I lunge for the steering wheel, jerking it to the side. Daphne yelps and I hear a horn blare just as I catch headlights out of the corner of my eye. We narrowly miss them—mostly because the other car slammed on their breaks—but then Lakyn clocks me in the face with his elbow and a starburst of pain explodes beside my eye. I end up against the door, holding onto the headrest as he swerves the SUV back onto the road.

I'm expecting him to hit me again, or try to kill me, oranythingexcept what he actually does.

He laughs.

With that bullshit fucking grin on his face.

"Damn, kid… maybe you do have some balls after all." Shaking his head, Lakyn cracks his neck and then pops another cigarette between his teeth, lighting it as he points out the windshield. "Six miles to the next town. Think you can suppress your urge to crash the car for ten minutes?"

I keep my mouth shut, rubbing the sore place near my temple as I try to figure out if I'm going to have a blackeye by morning or not. Not like it fucking matters, but the last thing I want is to look like Lakyn beat the shit out of me when we get wherever we're going. Somehow, I just know it would make him happy—and I only want him to suffer. Clenching my teeth hard enough to hear them creaking inside my skull, I pop open the pack of cigarettes just to have something to keep me busy for the next miserable minutes before I can at least walk away from him for a little bit.

I just need some fucking silence, some air that I don't have to share with the two people who ruined my life by killing the only good thing in it.

Just as I light it, taking that first puff to dull the edge of my rage a little, I remember what Daphne said to Willa when she had the knife pressed against her throat. Right here. In this seat. It wasn't just a random knife… it was the knife Willa used on that guy we found at the park. When she chose to kill that random coupleinsteadof me.

Turning around in my seat, I find Daphne with one leg extended across the backseat, her back against the door as she watches the priestess that I know hasn’t moved. I can’t see her, but she’s bound with rope and gagged with a sock and more duct tape than I really think is necessary.

But I don't give a shit what they do to the goth princess, I'm just wondering if she’ll distract them enough to let their guard down so I can kill one—or both—of them tonight.

"Hey," I say, blowing smoke into the backseat, and I actually manage to smile a little when I see Daphne flinch as the cloud hits her in the face. "I want that knife you took off the couple in the woods."

"Why?"

My rage ratchets up another couple of notches and so I take a long drag, letting it soak in before I blow the smoke right at her. "Because I want it."

"It's not the only knife I have," she says, tilting her head a bit as she narrows her eyes at me.

"Then it shouldn't fucking matter if you give it to me," I snap.

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