Page 98 of River of Deceit

I wipe my face, but it’s too late. I’m going to have to walk out into the frat house looking like this. “Give me… Give me a second,” I tell him, my voice unsteady.

“I meant her,” Blaze says. He approaches the bed and pulls Pandora off.

She laughs and presses her bloodied torso against him, getting her blood all over his clothes.

I watch, dazed, as she kisses him.

Despite his anger, Blaze doesn’t push her away. He kisses her back, even, and his hands go up to her chest, to the cuts.

Jealousy races through me, and I stare at the two of them.

This is exactly what I’d been wanting to prevent, but here it is, happening anyway. My jaw tics, and it’s all I can do to keep silent as Blaze gives himself over to the one person who could destroy him.

When Pandora pulls away, she says, “Not really convincing me to leave.”

Blaze’s eyes snap open. “Fuck. You’re so—” He steps away from her and grabs her shorts and hoodie, tossing them to her.

Pandora catches them, but somethingclatters to the floor. She freezes, then gets down on her knees and fumbles for something. “Fuck. Where is it?”

Blaze shares a look with me. “Where’s what?”

“The thing you dropped! My charm!” Pandora checks the hoodie pockets, but her expression gets even wilder. “If you broke it, if it gets lost because of you?—”

“What charm?” I ask, scanning the floor. I see something small and white, and I crouch down to grab it.

“Don’t touch it!” Pandora yells. She reaches for it, but I’m faster.

I hold it up. It’s a set of three off-white stones held together with wire. Except when I look closer at it, I realize they aren’t stones.

They’re bones.

“What the fuck?” I ask, staring down at it as I straighten. “You’re carrying bones around with you?”

Something clicks into place almost immediately, and I grip it more tightly in my hand, keeping her from snatching it back.

“Does River know you have these?” I ask.

“None of your fucking business!” Pandora snarls at me, and I’m taken aback at the rage in her voice.

In her eyes.

Pandora gets into my personal space. I lift the bones higher, out of her reach.

Before I can even process what’s happening, she jabs her fingers as hard as she can into my armpit. I shout and drop the bones, which she snatches up wildly.

Blaze stares. “What the actual fuck, Pandora?”

She sneers at us. “If either of you breathes a word of this toanyone, I won’t be playing nice anymore.”

She’s still naked, still covered in her own blood, but none of that changes the fact that she’s fucking terrifying right now.

She really would destroy us over this.

I want to look at Blaze, to see if he’s thinking the same thing, but I’m too wary of Pandora to look away from her.

Who the hell carries fingerbones around with themeverywhere?

Pandora gets dressed quickly, stuffing her underwear into her pocket instead of taking that extra step. She grabs her backpack and knife, too. There’s no mistaking that she’s been fucked, cut up, with how disheveled she looks. She didn’t even zip the hoodie up all the way.