Page 190 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

Do it, or I will.

I nick my knife deeper into his neck.

“Gods, Marquees,” Lucian breathes, but he glances at my blade like it’s a feather.

“Relent,” I say through clenched teeth. I’ll kill him, I will. He deserves it. I can do it this time.

“Everyone outside this room wants you dead. I’m doing you a damned favor.”

“I’d like to see them try.”

“No. You don’t.”

I flick my knife up against the bottom of his chin, pressing harder and harder until he’s forced to look up. Good, I don’t want to look into his eyes.

“Yes, I do.” I’ll kill them first. I’ll kill them all. Everyone who wishes to take away from me what is mine—the only thing that is mine.

Lucian presses his knife into my chest too. “Do you want this to end in a blood bath?”

“I don’t know, I did think we were kind of like Amun and Eira,” I mutter sarcastically, pushing his head up past its breaking point.

“Would you say you’ve seen my charming attributes yet?” I can’t believe he’s joking with my knife digging into the vulnerable pocket below his chin.

“I’d say I’ve seen more of you than I would’ve wished to.”

“Drop the blade, Marquees.”

“Why don’t you say it louder and bring the blood bath to me?”

In a move too fast, he drops his knife and both his hands grip mine. He pulls my knife down and levels it at his chest, forcing me to look him in the eye.

Why not just take it?

“I’m going to try to get you out of here alive,” he says.

I shove him into the wall. “Why would you bring me somewhere that you have to get me out of?”

“It was the safest place.”

“Why would you bring me anywhere?”

He glances down at the knife I have to his chest. “Because I’m a glutton for punishment?”

“Hm, funny,” I mutter, just as I feel the vacancy against my chest. The knife falls from my hand when I reach for it. “My necklace,” I say in sudden realization. “Where’s my necklace?” I back away from him, looking for any reflective surface.

My eyes. They really are red. I touch the bone under them and continue to stare, like if I look long enough, they’ll go back to brown.

They don’t.

Nova. Bernice. They were real. They were my friends. I killed them.

I killed them all.

Every dream I had wasn’t a dream at all. I don’t want to think about my mom and what she truly feels about me.

I don’t want to think about Nova and Bernice. I want to believe that Bernice was nothing more than a living asshole.

I walk back to the bed and throw the cover over my head.

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