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FORTY-THREE

LUCIUS

19 YEARS OLD

Blackthorn was never the same after what happened to Adeline. We were never the same.

Luna came to me last night, confirming something I had long suspected but never dared to say aloud. That’s the thing about secrets—you can bury them, but you can never outrun them. They creep after you, no matter how hard you pretend they aren’t part of you.

Cassius came back yesterday. He looked worse than before—hollowed out, shattered in places that couldn’t be fixed. And I knew, deep down, that he wanted to talk about it. To change something.

But we all stayed silent, living our lives, pretending.

And then you find a way to distract yourself with someone new, with borrowed looks and empty promises.

“Hi, handsome,” Gia purred as she leaned in, brushing her lips against my cheek. Her dark hair danced down her back, moving like silk, her blue eyes searching for an escape. “Wanna get out of here?”

“What do you have in mind?” I raised a brow.

“Library.” She smirked, fingers ghosting over my skin. “Me and you. Late-night rendezvous.”

“How about we bring that fun to Blackburn Woods tonight at the party?” I grinned, biting my lip as I locked eyes with her.

Gia Blake was the perfect distraction—beautiful, smart, fragile in a way that made her easy to break. She did whatever I asked, whatever I wanted.

I wasn’t a bad person. Not really. But when the mind is fractured, when the past weighs too heavy, there are things you do, things you can’t explain, things you regret.

She smiled, cheeks flushed. “Yeah. I’d love that.” Then, hesitantly, “Does that mean we’re finally official?”

I laughed. “No,” I said simply, cutting her off. “But maybe soon enough?”

Her face hardened. “You’re such an asshole, Lucius Lockwood.”

And then she shoved past me, her footsteps quick, rushing away.

I smirked, tilting my head. “You’re welcome.”

Luna’s laughter rang behind me. “You really are an asshole.”

I shrugged, falling in step beside her as we headed to class. “I did her a favor.”

“Speaking of favors,” Luna mused, pulling a note from her pocket. “Cass’s birthday is tonight. Maybe we should give him a surprise gift?”

I sighed. “Like what, Luna?”

She smirked. “It’s a party full of girls. He should pick one.”

I chuckled. “That’s your idea of a gift?”

“And I’ll bring the alcohol.”

“I’m not drinking tonight.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you won’t be able to resist.”

And she was right.

I never could.

There was something about the three of us—whenever we were together, chaos followed. Someone always got hurt. And in the end, only one of us ever got what we truly wanted.

That Night.

The party was a blur of neon lights, music, and bodies pressed too close together. Cass chose Gia Blake.

And we all knew why. She reminded us of her.

The ghost of Adeline still haunted us, and maybe that’s why we kept trying to resurrect her in different ways. Different people. Different games.

We drank and drank, drowning in something far darker than alcohol.

Until something inside us died.

Maybe it was guilt. Maybe it was the last shred of the belief that we could ever be better. But whatever it was, what we did that night was far, far worse.

“Oh, Gia,” Cass sang, bottle in hand, voice slurred with amusement. “Gia, Gia, Gia.”

“Come out,” Luna called, laughing.

We had made a game of it. A twisted hunt.

Luna said this was the only way to forget, that chasing ghosts was the only way to bury the past. So we chased Gia through the woods, laughing, taunting. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that night, she became our prey.

Nothing breaks a fractured mind more than a broken heart.

And that night, I broke hers.

“Lucius, don’t do this, please,” she begged.

But I wasn’t listening.

My vision blurred. My mind was thick with alcohol. The weight of the knife in my hand felt heavier than it should have.

“I have to,” I choked out, staggering forward. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” She backed against the bark of a tree, eyes wild with fear.

“Run,” I growled, darkness curling inside me. “Run.”

But she didn’t.

She stood her ground.

And then she mocked me.

“You’re pathetic, Lucius Lockwood,” she spat, her voice sharp as broken glass. “Hiding behind your pretty face and all that muscle, but deep down? You’re a scared little boy who never had a Daddy or a Mommy to cry to. So you jump from woman to woman, searching for something she never gave you.”

Her lips curled in a cruel smile.

“Look at you,” she sneered. “You can barely walk. You’re a joke. A liar. A fucking loser.”

Something inside me snapped.

My vision tunneled.

I tilted my head, voice eerily calm. “What the fuck did you just say?”

Luna giggled, pulling out her camcorder. “Show her, Luci,” she cheered. “Show her who she’s dealing with.”

Gia scoffed. “Yesterday, you couldn’t even get it up. What the hell do you think you’ll do with a knife?”

I moved fast.

My palm closed around her jaw, shoving her hard against the tree. My breath was ragged, seething.

“Don’t test me,” I warned.

She laughed.

So I pressed the blade against her skin.

“Everyone will know,” she breathed, voice unsteady now. “If you touch me, they’ll all know.”

I smiled.

“I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.”

The knife slid against the corner of her lips. A slow, painful slice.

She screamed.

Blood spilled over her chin as she clutched her face, stumbling back.

I licked the edge of the blade, watching her. I had no feelings for her, I did it with such an ease.

“Who’s laughing now?” I whispered.

Her words had done something. Because words cut deep. Deeper than blades, deeper than any knife. We are what we are made of.

And that night, she made me into the thing I had always feared I would become.

Cassian stumbled onto the scene, laughing, thinking it was a joke. He didn’t hesitate to go after her. And she let him.

Luna was the worst of us. She whispered in Gia’s ear, twisting her mind until she questioned everything. Until she believed this was all a bad dream.

And we woke up the next morning in her dorm, the camcorder sitting in front of us, the tape playing on repeat.

We made a promise.

That we’d never do anything like this again. That we would be better. That we could be better.

Luna was supposed to get rid of the tape.

She was supposed to make it disappear.

But instead of the tape, Gia Blake was the one who disappeared that night.

And we did the same hunt for Cass’s birthday every year after that. We couldn’t stop. We loved the thrill of it.

PRESENT DAY

For a month now, when it was all supposed to be over, when I was supposed to have my happy ending with Freya when my darkness was supposed to be swallowed by her light... It only got messier.

Deep down, I knew, I didn’t deserve my Little Star.

I didn’t deserve to be loved.

But fuck it.

I’m a selfish man.

I made her mine.

I made her love my darkest parts.

I made her forget her past and never learn mine.

It was supposed to be easy.

It was.

But it wasn’t.

A and O didn’t rest. Whoever they were, they got the tape. And for some secrets that were never meant to be revealed, this one was.

And today, of all days, when it was supposed to be just us, there was a knock at the door.

Freya opened it. And I was upstairs, getting ready for our return to Blackthorn, when she signed for the package. A yellow envelope, no signature. Just there, waiting.

She opened it.

She went to the living room, turned on the TV, and pressed play.

And then—

“Don’t test me.”

A voice she had never heard before.

A voice that was mine.

“Everyone will know.”

Then she screamed.

I barely had clothes on, barefoot, shirtless, not even thinking about dressing. The second I heard her voice, how raw and broken she was, I didn’t think.

I ran.

I can’t lose her.

Not now.

Not like this.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs, she was already at the door.

“Don’t,” I choked out, my voice thick, desperate.

She turned her red eyes, lips parted in shallow, gasping breaths. The remote was still clutched in her shaking hand. In the living room, the screen was still on, playing out my sins in grainy footage.

“Let’s talk about it,” I pleaded, stepping forward, my voice breaking. “I… I can explain. Little star, please… please… listen to me.”

But she only stared at me, her expression hollowing out, like the Freya who had loved me was already slipping away.

Then she whispered the words, “You’re a monster.”

Her words hit harder than any punch I had ever taken.

“Don’t do this,” I begged, moving down the stairs, my hands trembling as I reached for her. “Please. Please, just listen to me.”

She shook her head, hand pressed against her mouth like she might be sick, the other gripping the doorknob like it was the only thing keeping her upright.

“Please.” My vision blurred, my chest tight. “Forgive me.”

Her breath hitched. “You promised.” Her voice cracked. “You promised no more lies. You promised you didn’t hurt anyone, that you didn’t kill anyone... You promised...”

“I’m sorry.” The words barely left my lips before a tear slipped down my cheek.

But it didn’t matter.

I had already lost her.