Page 101 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

He still won’t meet my eyes, even when he says, “The void.” I can’t stop the laugh from slipping out of my throat. Now he looks at me. “This isn’t funny.”

The way he’s looking at me isn’t the way I’m used to—like I’m something worth being looked at. Now he’s looking at me like I’ve done something wrong here when he’s the one playing some kind of sick joke on me, using my mom as the butt.

“You’re saying that my mom is in a world where the bad boys and girls go when they don’t follow rules. It kind of is.” The void, the Arcanes, and everything that goes with it is a story, taught to children so that they behave or else you’ll be stolen in the middle of the night, any memory of your existence taken with you.

It’s bullshit.

“It’s not a world, it’s a universe.” I’m definitely not used to this look in his eyes. He whispers, “The first time we tracked her, you almost stepped into my projection.”

Suddenly, I’m looking at him differently too. He really believes my mom is in the void. “So you’ve known where she was and have been lying to me this whole time?” I ask.

He won’t meet my eyes when he says, “Yes.”

I lose all the control over my face that has kept me protected this entire time. Every muscle drops, and suddenly tears are prickling in my eyes against my will. “What do you mean I almost stepped into your projection? Do you mean I could be there right now?”

Everything is cracking, crashing, crumbling into a million pieces.

“Your mind, possibly. Your body, probably not.”

“Then we’re doing this again, right now. I’m going to find my mom right now!” I start to tear my shirt from my body so I have something dry to get into when this is over.

Then I stop. He took me to the lake. This is what he wants.

When his mom was looking at me with murder in her eyes, he was the one who told me I’d be safe. When I killed a man with the seal of Soma, he was the one who came to my rescue.

The boy who knows too much is certainly taking claim to the weapon he’s wielded with such information.

“Okay,” he says and I step back, reaching for the dagger tucked in my waistband.

“I mean, I can’t believe you’ve been lying to me this whole time!” I continue to inch my way away from him, just far enough to give me a head start before I run back to the school. If I could just get to Aralia, or even Leiholan, then I’d have someone to hide behind.

Another step back.

“You know I trusted you, right?” I shout. “I’ve already trusted you, and now I find out you’re lying!”

Another step back.

“Marquees?” he says.

“What?”

He looks at me like I’m his prey. “I know what you’re doing.”

I stop. “What am I doing?”

“There are two ways this is going to end. You’ll run and I’ll catch you, or you’ll get in the water and do this without the needless games you’re so fond of.”

It’s all been a lie. Every glance we shared, every touch that did make me catch my breath, every word from his mouth that I believed. Every time he looked at me like I was something more than what I am.

A lie.

How can I really be surprised? His family, Kai’s family, both of them are the reason I’ve lost my family.

I have my hand on the hilt of the dagger Aralia gave me when he says, “Please don’t make this bloodier than it has to be.” He sounds actually pained. Like he’s the one seeing what I really am instead of the other way around.

I run as fast as I can. One foot in front of the other in front of the other until his hands are on my body again and I’m doing anything but catching my breath. I’m screaming.

“Get off me!”

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