Vile Boys (Spine Ridge University)

I watch her storm out the front door, shattering my heart into a million pieces.

I thought I could be there for her through thick and thin, but even I can’t force her to stay around someone she wants to kill so badly.

Now more than ever, I wish I wasn’t bound to Ares’s life.

I was almost ready to stab him with that knife myself.

I close the door and hang my head in defeat. “We lost her because of you.”

“Why? Why didn’t you tell us the truth?” Caleb growls at Ares.

“You think I’m proud of lying?” Ares says, slumping in his chair.

“You knew this would happen and chose not to tell us.”

“What should I have said, then? Crystal, the tiny innocent-looking blonde, wants to kill me? You think you would’ve believed me?”

“You could’ve at least tried,” Caleb says.

Ares snorts. “Stop lying to yourself. You were smitten with her.”

“I thought we’d made a deal with her, not that you were secretly scheming behind our backs to make her fall for us.” Caleb grabs the chair and flings it across the room. “You fucking used us!”

“No,” Ares retorts. “I didn’t force you to do anything. You both did it all on your own.”

Caleb marches up to him and slaps him in the face. Hard.

“I fucking loved you. And you betrayed me.”

Ares’s face contorts. “I know you don’t believe me, but I loved you too. I still do.” He grabs Caleb’s hand and caresses his own cheek with it, pressing soft kisses on the top, and I can see Caleb melt to his charms. “I can’t do this without you. Don’t leave me too. Please.”

“You wanted to die for her,” Caleb says, frowning.

“I knew she’d be my end. I always did,” Ares says. “Nothing will change that.” He pulls Caleb closer. “But I would die for both of you. Believe me.”

He grabs Caleb’s face and kisses him so passionately I feel like I’m intruding on something, so I leave the room to go grab my clothes.

But before I close the door, his voice looms in the background.

“Don’t try to convince her to stay. It won’t work,” Ares warns.

“I’m not,” I reply, clearing my throat. “But you should know I was ready to kill you for her if she needed me to. The only thing that stopped me was my life debt.”

There’s a pause. “I know.”

And I close the door behind me and walk off, wishing I could chase her while knowing deep down she’ll never forgive me for intervening and stopping her from taking his life.

My fist balls.

Ares has ruined us all.

She’s perched over The Edge near Priory Forest at the top of the hill, which overlooks Crescent Vale City and the sea beyond.

I step closer, but a twig underneath my feet gives me away.

“Don’t come closer.”

“I just want to talk.”

“I’m not going back to that house,” she says staunchly without even looking at me.

“I won’t ask you to,” I reply. “And I don’t think Caleb or Ares will either.”

“So … I’m free of the deal that never existed in the first place.” She scoffs with disdain. “How did you find me?”

“I followed you the minute you walked out the door,” I reply.

She snorts. “Figured. Stalker.”

“I couldn’t let you walk away without letting you know someone still cares,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“Right. Even after I admitted that I used you two to get closer to Ares so I could kill him?”

I chuckle. “Even then. Besides, I kind of already knew you wanted him dead, darling.”

I approach her even though she said I shouldn’t. I can’t stay away.

“I know you still want to kill him,” I reply.

“I should have.” Her fist balls, collecting grass in the palm of her hand. “He deserved nothing more than a painful death for what he did to my father.” She crushes the grass in her hand and lets it blow away in the wind. “Yet I couldn’t do it.”

“Killing isn’t so easy when it involves your heart,” I say.

“How would you know?”

“Darling, I’ve seen the way you two kiss. You need him as much as you hate the very air he breathes.” I take another step.

“Look at what he’s done to me.” She turns her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “All I ever wanted was to see him suffer and make him pay for his crime. And I couldn’t.”

I feel for her.

“All the training in the world couldn’t prepare you for what you had to do …” I whisper as I approach her slowly. “I’m sorry.”

I go to my knees in front of her and place a hand on her shoulder, after which she slowly caves into me, crying her eyes out against my chest, and it strips me bare of everything I thought I knew. About myself, about her, about us.

All my life, I have only ever chased fleeting desires, getting drunk on sex and the hedonistic lifestyle we enjoyed. All temporary, waning … until her.

She’s made me fall in love with her by simply existing.

“You stormed into our lives, and I haven’t been able to let you go. Even if you want to push me away right now, I don’t want to leave you when I know you’re hurting,” I say, holding her tight. “I just wish I could make it all go away.”

“Why? Why are you even here when you belong with them?” she asks, wiping away her tears as she looks up into my eyes.

“I belong to the Tartarus House because I gave my word to Ares after he saved my life … but my heart … I’ve given that to you.”

A brief smile adorns her face.

A smile so pure it takes my breath away.

She’s taken my soul, and I can no longer call it mine.

That honor belongs to her.

“But I understand if you can no longer be with me,” I say, shattering my own heart for her.

She nods and looks away at the horizon. “I just … want to be alone for now.”

I nod too despite the fact that I feel like my heart is being ripped to shreds.

I know this is for the best.

After all … how could she be with any of us when we’ve enabled a monster?

“Will he still come after me?” she asks.

I shake my head. “He’s made his point.”

“Right. He won.”

“What will you do now? Leave Spine Ridge?” I ask.

She stares out at Crescent Vale City, admiring the twinkling lights. “No. My father always wanted me to complete my studies here. So I will. For him. But I will do it on my own.”

I swallow. “I will always wait for you.” I pull another rose from my pocket, one I plucked on my way here, and I place it down on the grass before her. “When you’re ready, I’ll be there to mend your heart.”

And I turn around, leaving The Edge without a heart to call my own.

Caleb

That night

I climb up to her room at her sorority and peer inside. I’m surprised she’s already made her way back here.

Has she spoken with them and told them about our dirty secrets?

Did she tell anyone what we’ve made her do?

I stare at her as she’s curled up in her bed, clutching her pillow tightly.

Her soft whimpers break my heart.

I place a hand against the window, contemplating whether to break through just so I can hold her tight.

But I know she’d only drive that knife of hers straight through my heart just for touching her.

She hates us now …

Not because of my actions but because I can’t let her kill him.

When I first met her, I thought I wanted her to hate me. Because I was terrified of Ares’s obsession with her, of losing him to her. But I slowly came to realize he wasn’t the only one obsessed.

All I ever wanted was for her to be mine.

And when her mother came between us, I felt lost, confused, angry that she’d let it happen. I blamed her for my feelings when my heart was the one that had chained itself to her.

The one constant between us is Ares.

I love him, and he loves me …

But I love her too.

And he ruined that for me.

My hand slowly twists into a fist against the window, but I can’t bring myself to act.

She wouldn’t want me to. She made that very clear.

So I swallow away the frustration and slowly back away despite the burning flame inside my body, realizing she was destroyed by the one I love.

And with it, he destroyed me too.