Page 24 of Fallen Gods

Whether it’s my father who breaks me or Aric makes no difference. Pain is inevitable.

But now, a deeper sense of purpose thrums in my chest. For once in his life, he really does need someone. He needsme.

Another sound from within Aric’s room pulls me from the spiral, but it also gives me an idea. If I’m going to play this game, I might as well start now.

Let’s see what happens when I walk straight into the storm.

I slam the notebook shut, shove my phone into my pocket along with my key card. Then I walk outside to knock on his door, maybe a bit too aggressively.

The door flies open, and Aric stares down at me. “What.”

I smile up at him through gritted teeth. “I just thought I’d reintroduce myself, since we’re dormmates now. I didn’t make you muffins, but I do have—”

He starts to close the door. I put my foot in the jamb, examining his outfit through the slight opening left. He’s wearing head-to-toe workout gear.

“Leg day?”

“Rey.” My name comes off like a growl. He jerks me into hisroom.

Wow, that was easy. I turn around just in time for him to shove me up against the wall.

“Listen very closely,” he whispers. This near, his profile is something from legends. His earth-dark eyes almost glow as he snarls at me.

I swallow hard, fighting the pull of his gaze. “I’m a good listener.”

“I don’t like you.” He grins. His voice, however, is low, lethal. “I hate everything your family stands for. There will never be a day where I will want yourmuffinsor anything else you can conjure up. I don’t know why you’re here, and it bothers me that I actually care.” His breath is warm against my skin, but a chill still runs down my spine, his voice a slow, deliberate burn. “You were nothing to me then and are nothing to me now. And just in case you need some tough love, you’re nothing to your father, too.”

His words hit like a slap. But I don’t flinch. Once, he and I had the beach—for a very brief moment, before we knew about the bad blood between our families. How easily things change.

He runs a hand down my cheek. “You’re just a pawn in his empire, one dripping with the blood of the innocent. Innocents like my parents.” He leans his head in and exhales against my ear. “We arenotfriends.”

My entire body shivers, but not from the cold.

I heard of his parents dying years ago in a car wreck, and my fingers had itched to text him how sorry I was. But this anger blasting me,blamingme, was unfair. I lash out without thinking. “Calling your parents innocent is laughable, Aric. Yours were no better than mine. Ruthless. Cold. Power-hungry. Mine just happened to be better at it.”

His eyes narrow, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. In a low voice, he says, “You don’t knowanythingabout myfamily.”

“Maybe not. But I know you want to be just likemine,” I whisper, reminding him of what we shared on the beach that day.

Like I pulled a cord from a socket, his fathomless mahogany eyes go lifeless.

He hesitates, his mouth right by my neck. “Just focus on surviving the semester and avoiding me at all costs.” With that, he pulls back and opens his door, guides me through the doorway, then follows me out.

He’s making a beeline for the elevator before I can even catch my breath.

“Good talk!” I yell after him, a bit stunned at how aggressive he is toward me and trying not to feel the loss of the guy I thought I knew.

“Goodbye, Rey,” he barks at me as the elevator doors close between us.

If that asshat hates me now just for the blood in my veins—blood I never asked for—then maybe he deserves what’s coming. Every bit of it.

Starting with a little invasion of privacy, since he’s been so kind as to leave his room unguarded, followed by me attaching myself to him so painfully close, he’s going to wish he were dead.

With a grin, I rush into my room and grab my lockpick, then jerk my door back open, coming face-to-face with Reeve as he’s exiting the stairwell.

“Oh. Hello.” I make a show of tucking my hair behind my ear as I quickly shove the pick into my back pocket.

He stares.