Page 20 of Venomous Lies
I’m glad you’re making friends, bats. Your mom is happy about that too. She just worries… That’s who she is.
I smiled at Ma’s handwriting as it filled the page.
Remember to write to us and touch base. But right now, it’s too late for your mom to be up. I’ve had to force her to get some sleep, and you have class soon, I’m sure.
Thanks. Love you, Ma.
Love you too, bats. I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll write you soon.
Letting out a huge yawn, I leaned back against the small bed and laid the magicked paper on the bedside table. Talking to them had been great, though I had quite a few questions for Demir when I finally heard fromhim again.
Flashes of memory hit me as I ran my hands over the blanket on the bed.
Skin against skin. Fingers trailing along my sides, nails digging into me as Echo desperately tried to feed. The sting of him sliding into me after chasing me down in the garden beyond the glass panes of the small study where I currently sat.
I’d spent the past week or more trying to chase Echo down and make him listen to me. I was fucking tired of it. Exhausted, really. Maybe I had run when I should have tried to be more understanding, but I couldn’t explain things if he refused to be in the same room as me.
‘He’ll be ready to listen at some point, beastie.’
‘Why should I care about his timeline?’I shot back at Cassius, instantly on edge. Why couldn’t he just be on my side?‘This is my life, and I’m not apologizing for finding a fated mate. Besides, it doesn’t seem like Echo gives a shit about what’s going on given how he’s treating this.’
Cassius didn’t say anything, but from the corner of my eye, I saw dark smoke forming. His tattooed face stood out first, then his amber eyes. His focus was on me as I stood up.
‘I’m sure it was a lot to process on his end as well.’
‘What aboutmyend of things, Cas?’I argued.‘What about the fact that I was fucking used for sex,for days,with no end in sight. Heusedme then ditched me like I was fucking nothing.’
When I stalked out of the room, Cassius kept pace with me in the glass panes, stopping just short of me when I came to a halt by the front door. Reaching for the doorknob came with a shock of warning.
The lockdown was still in effect.Why? What the hell is going on out there?
‘I’m not on his side, beastie. I’m just trying to be objective.’
‘I don’t want your objectivity, Cassius,’I replied coldly. Although I could sense the weight of his gaze trained on me, I didn’t bother to look over at him.
“Bones and I didn’t have a say in us being bound together by threads of fate. I guess I don’t get a say in the ripples it causes either.” My pain caused me to speak out loud instead of internally like we usually did. A humorless laugh escaped as I reached out, caressing the leaves of a nearby plant. “How fitting.”
‘Beastie…’He trailed off when I walked away from him, following the vines to the main part of the plant itself.‘I’m always on your side.’
“Should I feel grateful that the mysterious spirit who’s been living in my mind is on my side?” I felt emboldened here, in my element, and it loosened my tongue. “I know nothing of you, Cassius,nothing. You help me when it suits you then leave me on my own when it doesn’t. Whose side are you on if not your own?”
‘Isla… It’s a complicated story, and I don’t remember most of it.’
I whirled around, anger pulsing through me. The branches of nearby plants trembled under the weight of my emotions as I glared at the manifestation in the glass.
“Are you saying I’m too stupid to understand? Too simpleminded, young, inexperienced? What could you possibly know that I don’t?!Youlive inmyhead! You say some cryptic shit and then ghost, leaving me scrambling, trying to pick up crumbs.”
‘Isla—’
“No.” I took a shaky deep breath and turned my back on him. “I’m fucking tired of everyone making me chase after answers while they claim to care. Echo seemed to care, but now that he got what he wanted, he’s gone. You’re therewhen you choose to be, then you block me out whenever it’s too much.”
My voice cracked at that, and memories of the one boyfriend I’d had in the academy hit me. Always too much, too loud, too everything… I was exhausting, and that wasn’t changing anytime soon.
‘Stop it.’
“Tell me something. Tell me fuckinganythingat all to show that you give a damn about me as more than just a body you’re stuck in,” I offered quietly, weariness dripping from every word as I anticipated him sidestepping yet again.
That was what he did best.
