Page 43 of Serpentine Valentine

“Good. And I won’t tell anyone about your epiphany, yeah? It’s yours to share when you’re ready.”

“Same goes to you.”

“Hey, I didn’t come out. I just said I thought my teammate was hot back in the day,” he protested through his smile.

“Po-tate-o, po-tah-to,” I joked and then laughed when he pushed me.

We grinned at each other, and I felt lighter than I had maybe ever.

“You wanna have the kick-ass pasta and meatballs I made, then help me with my stupid philosophy paper?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling so giddy, so invincible I almost wanted to go to the top of the Mathieson Library and scream from the rooftop. “Just give me a second.”

Pierce kissed me on the forehead, then went into the kitchen, and I got up to grab my phone from my backpack I’d dropped by the front door.

Before I lost the high from my first act of bravery, I committed another and sent Lex a text that I thought her scary sisters would approve of.

“Each of us must suffer his own demanding ghost.”

––Virgil,The Aeneid

Lex

Luna: “I will not choose what many men desire, Because I will not jump with common spirits, And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.”

Luna: I’m not afraid of you, Lex. Far from it. I’m moved to be a better person, a braver person because you inspire me. Even if you don’t want me, please let me be your friend.

The screenof my phone was the only light in the dark, turning my face blueish-white. I should turn it off and put it away. Now wasn’t the time for distractions. Only, it didn’t seem to matter what time it was, Luna Pallas wouldn’t stop haunting my every hour.

How was I supposed to remain cold and immovable against a girl who quotedThe Merchant of Veniceto me, knowing it was my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays? Who used it to persuade me to take a chance on her?

She was supposed to be a goddamn pawn, not a prize worth risking everything I’drebuilt inside me to win.

I hadn’t seen her since my panic attack eight days ago nor had I responded to her text since then. It was cruel to leave her hanging like that, but I found I grew crueler by the day, my heart shriveling away like a flower hung to dry from my rib cage.

Anyway, I had more important things to focus on.

Like the fact that even though two students had gone in to tell their truths about being assaulted by Jerrod Ericht, the bastard was still walking free and clear on campus. I’d even caught him last Monday, days after we’d attacked him, walking with his chums and laughing like he didn’t have a care in the world.

It enraged me.

I’d known that Mina Pallas was quelling any signs of sexual misconduct for a while, but not to this degree, not when a photo of the rapist in question had made the rounds of the entire university. She was getting bold.

She had reason to, in a way.

I’d attacked Professor Morgan after what he’d done to me, and she’d quashed news of that like a bug beneath her sensible heel. Now, Jerrod, no doubt with the help of his family’s money, had been purged of his crimes.

Bullying, Mina said in an article that was published in the school paper,The Delphi, wouldn’t be tolerated at Acheron.

Bullying.

As if what we had done to Jerrod wasn’t warranted.

Well, we planned to expand her lexicon tonight.

What we had planned wasn’t bullying.

It was vigilante justice.