Page 29 of Heartless Heathens

“I don’t think anyone can hurt me anymore,” she said with a sigh and I immediately needed to know what that meant.

“Was Frollo hurting you?”

She didn’t answer but the pain was ripping her apart so visibly anyone could see it for what it was. She was broken.

And her shattered pieces called out to me as if they knew we fit together perfectly. My regret came crashing down with the loud braying of my alarm reminding me I had twenty minutes to get my ass on the field or Father Thomas would have me running laps all practice instead.

“I have soccer practice. You’ll have to go to class with Sonny this morning.” I sighed as soon as I said the words, realizing that I wasn’t sure I trusted the sadistic bastard to not hurt this girl, but the only other option was even less safe.

“I can’t stay here? I promise I won’t leave.”

But I knew the truth…she had nowhere to go.

“No, my brother isn’t reliable right now. If he wakes up while either of us are gone…I don’t know that I trust him around you,” I told her before I fully registered every word she had said. “Do you want to tell me where you live and why you don’t want to go back?”

She bit her lips anxiously and I decided not to press it. She’d open up when she was ready to tell me what fresh hell she crawled out of before coming through Corvin’s window.

“You can tell me when you’re ready.” I kissed her forehead before rolling out of bed and she let out a breath filled with relief.

Turning on the faucet I scooped my hands under to wet my hair before I decided to give up on fixing any of the random rogue waves. I tucked my shin-guards under the jade-green knee-high socks before slipping on the white soccer shorts and the jade-green matching jersey.

“I know I told you to stay away from him, but it looks like that’s already not an option. Just don’t lie to him, okay? He shouldn’t be too hard to get along with otherwise,” I warned her, giving her one last look before slipping on my chuck taylors and carrying my cleats out the door.

I thought I needed a hobby, something to keep me occupied so all that manic energy had something to focus on that wasn’t as destructive and harmful as letting my intrusive thoughts consume me. But even as I ran ladders across that soccer field while sweating down to my underwear, I couldn’t get the girl with the silver hair out of my head.

She occupied my mind despite the ball coming to me and scoring three goals. Father Thomas hollered and smiled from ear to ear at the idea that I’d be sending them to regionals at the end of the season.

I hoped like hell I wouldn’t be here that long.

Even after practice, while I washed the sweat off of me in a cold shower, I still thought about her. Would Sonny have fed her breakfast? How was he going to explain her to the nuns in his classes today? What kind of fight was the old bag of bones going to put up over this?

I thought about Frollo.The girl definitely knew him, the look in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She knew the Archbishop, and it seemed like she was more scared of him than Sonny.

And that said a lot.

The Archbishop had leverage, but he didn’t havepower. Not unless he could convince the people that whatever he was lobbying for was the desire of God. The trick to his control was the undying allegiance of the masses who followed him without question.

That’s how he was able to kill our mother.

He turned the entire country against her in the blink of an eye.

He could try his best to pretend like Romina’s existence didn’t bother him but we were going to make sure he acknowledged her presence. He was going to confess eventually, Sonny just needed to make it slow and painful first.

Dig that knife in before he turned it.

I sent a text over to him before heading over to the cathedral for my first lecture of the day.

ME:Are you being nice? How’s our new toy doing?

SONNY: Nice?

ME:Don’t forget to feed her, brush her hair, give her plenty of water and take her on a couple of walks so she doesn’t get stir crazy.

“Phones away in my class Mr. Escura,” Sister Sophia crooned out from her podium in the center of the behemoth lecture hall we sat in.

I had no beef with the old bird and she hadn’t given me a reason to hate her yet, despite being married to a God of lies and all that. I would respect her otherwise. Some of these nuns were only here so they could provide for their families, most teachers ended up becoming nuns when they realized it was the only way they could keep their jobs. Some weren’t willing to sacrifice their morals and fundamental beliefs, so they resorted to the poorhouses to work for the Nile like everyone else. Whether through labor for the conglomerate or as daycare providers for the many families hobbled in squalor.

And even that came out of their pay.