Page 20 of Sweet Venom

But this girl was different.

She made me feel too much, and that terrified me.

Because Poe Vaeda Nicolasi was as pure as freshly fallen snow, as good and untouchable as everything I’d never be. Even someone like me understood she deserved better. I wasn’t good. Not even as a friend.

Poe blushed under my harsh gaze, and my heart did something strange again—something unfamiliar. It was the same soft, warm ache I felt when Mother smiled at me or pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead before saying goodbye. Or when Raiza babbled nonsense at me and covered my face in snotty kisses. When Dad ruffled my head and called me his heart and told me he was proud.

It felt the same.

Only this time, it was sharper, deeper, and it lingered in a way I didn’t quite understand.

I tried to understand what was happening, but I didn’t.

Poe stepped closer, tilting her head to look up at me, her wide eyes searching my face. I looked down at her, noticing how small she seemed standing next to me.

Why was she here?

After how badly I treated her—and that was when I wasn’t ignoring her presence outside this garden.

She didn’t come over often anymore. Not like her father and brothers, who seemed to spend half their time at the house with Mom.

And then my mind flicked back to last Valentine’s Day. She’d wore a blue dress, cheerful and bright, with a silly heart-shaped headband perched on her head. She held a Valentine’s card in her small hands, clutching it like it was the most important thing in the world. I’d ruined that. Ripped it in pieces until it wasn’t the same.

I had fixed it. I tried, but she didn’t know that. She never would.

That night, she looked different. She was dressed all in black, her dark hair and somber outfit blending with the shadows of the garden and every dark corner of my mind. There was nothing festive about her now, nothing bright or hopeful.

Something twisted in my chest, sharp and uncomfortable. Did I do this? Did I hurt her so much last time that she’d changed? That thought squeezed my cold heart, leaving a bitter ache behind. It only lasted for a second before I reminded myself of why I did it.

She had no business trying to befriend someone like me. Someone as pure as her didn’t belong anywhere near the mess that I was.

I dreamed of black and blood.

Narrowing my eyes, my voice low and edged, I asked, "What are you doing here, Little Fox?"

She hesitated, her small hands twisting together, her gaze flicking to the ground before meeting mine. I noticed the way her throat moved as she swallowed, the tremble in her lips that made her look almost scared—or maybe sad.

For a moment, she didn’t answer, and the silence stretched between us, heavy with something unspoken. Then, finally, she whispered, her voice so soft I almost didn’t catch it:

“I didn’t want you to be alone.”

Thud.

Thud.

No.

Number 1. You’re always alone.

Blood.

Screams.

Darkness.

It all pulled me in every direction, and my blood boiled to the point I cut myself with my blade.

Poe.

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