Page 130 of House of Ruin
At first, she was in shock, unable to process the events that had happened. But once all the walls came down and the emotions flooded in, Alecto cried and cried until there were no more tears left to cry.
When she was young, she’d thought she had cried all that she had in her. A lifetime of a witch’s tears. Apparently she’d been wrong.
There were still many more tears left.
She didn’t remember falling asleep. For the first few minutes of being awake, Alecto had the pleasure of forgetting what had happened.
But once she roused from the heavy sleep, the thing that brought Alecto to the present was a headache in her left temple threatening to split her skull into two.
And when she had trouble opening her eyes properly due to them being swollen to the Gods, all the memories of her conversation with Blaze also returned.
Alecto covered her face with a pillow and growled into it. Then she let herself cry a little bit, grateful that the soft, plushy pillow soaked in the sound.
Her heart almost jumped out of her throat when a voice came from the foot of her bed.
“Rise and shine, Black. No rest for the wicked.”
Alecto threw the pillow to the side and found Val, Jolene, and Andro standing in her room.
“What the fuck do you want?” she croaked, sitting down.
For the first time, Alecto didn’t give a shit about her state, how messy her hair was, how puffy and red her face probably was from poor sleep and all that crying.
None of her friends addressed it.
“I know you’re going through fucking drama of your own right now, but we’ve got shit to do.” Val inspected her nails. “Remember, there is a rat or two working with a rival House to take us down?”
Alecto glowered at Val.
“What she means is that we were worried about you,” Jolene said, her voice soft. She sat at the foot of the bed and patted Alecto’s leg.
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, sweetie. You look anything but fine.” Andro came to sit next to Alecto, pulling her into a hug.
“You fucked up,” Val said, her face soft for once.
Anger bubbled inside Alecto. But she didn’t have the energy to snap. “I fucked up? He’s the one who tortured me and then told me he can’t live without me. And I’m the one who fucked up?”
“Okay, I hate to break it to you, sweetie,” Andro said, resting his head on top of Alecto’s. She allowed herself to lean against him, welcoming any comfort she could find. “And listen, you probably won’t want to hear it, but someone’s gotta say it.Maybeyou two are just not meant to be together. They say to look for the butterflies and fall in love with the person who awakens them inside you. But maybe love and butterflies don’t go hand in hand after all.”
Alecto blinked, her eyelids heavy. Her heart sunk in her chest, heat surging to her cheeks.
“Of course, we’re not meant to be together,” she murmured, her eyes starting to burn again. She wasn’t sure whether it was anger or sadness at this point. Probably both. “We fucking hate each other. We can’t stand each other more than anything else.”
Andro exchanged a glance with Jolene. Val snorted. That bitch actually had the audacity to snort at Alecto.
“Listen, how about we drop the act?” Val said once she noticed the sharp gaze Alecto threw her way. “You clearly have the hots for each other. We know it. The rest of the House knows it. Fuck, the rest of the godsdamned campus knows is.”
Alecto stayed silent.
“What this dipshit meant to say,” Val continued, jerking her chin at Andro. When he flipped her off, she smirked. “What hemeantis that some people are tragic together, no matter the love or passion they share. You and Blaze are those people.”
She shrugged so easily, as if it were no big deal. Just a simple fact.
Alecto folded her arms around herself, sighing heavily.
She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but it was true. Blaze and Alecto were fantastic together; the thrill in her chest when he was around her couldn’t be compared with anything else in the world.
