Page 18 of Delirium

“Truth.” Scarlett’s voice was soft, but strong. Another contradiction. Maybe I needed a notebook of my own to keep track of everything about her.

“What was the first mistake you ever made?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, looking out the window where the sun was beginning to set over the dense foliage surrounding us, turning the deep greens to black. “When I was fourteen, I stole a bracelet from the mall. I really wanted this bracelet, but buying it wasn’t an option. I think it was the first time in my life I thought to myself, ‘why not me?’ Why shouldn’t I have nice things, too? So I took it. And I never felt sorry about it. Not once. So to answer your question, that was my first mistake, but I’m not sure if I would even call it a mistake.”

I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting her to confess, but it wasn’t that. When she turned around to face me again, a fire blazed in her blue gaze, sharp and poignant, searing my soul where it touched me. “What was your biggest mistake?”

When she smiled this close to me, it was hard for me to think straight. Hadn’t I come here to stop thinking about her? I had a reason.Reliant. I had been reliant.

I couldn’t remember why being reliant was a bad thing. Not right now, not when she smelled like vanilla and jasmine, and she was smiling at me likethat. I’d be reliant for the rest of my life to see her look at me like that. This must be what Icarus felt like flying too close to the sun, knowing his doom was imminent, but not caring because who else could say they’d been this close to something untouchable?

“I think it’s my turn, isn’t it? It’s been a while since I played the game, but I think I remember that being a rule.” She tapped my hand, and I was certain if I looked down, I’d see a scorch mark where her finger rested. “Truth or dare.”

“Truth.” I was an open book. Nothing to hide.

So why did my heart stammer when she looked at me, really looked at me, as if she could see past the cool exterior that kept people at a safe distance?

Why did my thoughts drift to everything I had once been proud of, wondering if she would see it the same way?

Why did I begin to wonder who the real apex predator in the room was?

Icarus had flown too close to the sun, and for the first time, I wondered if he’d been lured there by a siren disguised as a dream.

Chapter

Seven

SCARLETT

Not for the first time since I’d stepped foot onCarpe Diemthat morning, I wondered if I were playing with fire.

Camp wasn’t wrong. People who ended up on trips like this usually were running from something. Even though I knew very little about my companions, I knew what he said was true. We were all on the run from something. Searching for something.

It was just more tangible for some than others.

I had given Camp a truth, and now I wanted one in return. He thought he presented as a confident, self-assured man, but I could see through the façade.

He didn’t like how weak humans were. He didn’t like thathewas human.

But at the end of the day, hewashuman, and all humans had flaws, chinks in their armor I could chip away at easily.

Camp watched me the same way I watched him. Examining. Sussing out the weaknesses.

Knowing this was the reason I let him into my room in the first place, knowing he had failings like the rest of us. I liked people who leaned into the cracks, and whether he knew it or not, Camp embraced the fractures spreading throughout.

A truth. If I pushed too hard, he’d push back. If I didn’t push hard enough, he would know I was scared.

Plain as day, if he asked the right questions, truth was I was scared of him, scared of the men on this boat, of how comfortable I felt around them after years of distancing myself from anything even close to friendships or, heaven forbid, a relationship.

His truth, though…

I chewed on my thumbnail, a terrible habit leftover from childhood, and presented my words carefully. “Why did you drop out of school?”

I expected him to lean away to think, but the opposite happened. Camp leaned in, brushing the unruly lock of hair I could never seem to contain behind my ear.

“I dropped out of school because I was tired of making mistakes.”

He froze there, with his hand on my cheek. I found myself leaning into the touch, trying to break apart the pieces of Camp. He thought school was a mistake. Either that, or what he was doingatschool was a mistake. Curious.

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