Page 31 of A Taste of Torment
Jarron nods. “I’ll look into it. What else made you decide it was someone here?”
“Her journal. And a half-completed application for admission here.”
His eyes narrow. “She didn’t want anything to do with supernaturals either.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Anything else I should know? That’s enough for me to get started, but if there’s anything else that can lead me in the right direction…”
I shake my head. I wouldn’t share anything else with him even if I had it. Jarron seems to get that I don’t fully trust him. He knows that just because I’m here, doesn’t mean I’m all of a sudden team-demon. He’s a means to an end, and I’m—
I don’t know what I am to him. But I suppose I’ll figure that out eventually. For better or worse.
14
DEAR DIARY
A dayin the life of a demon prince’s girlfriend: Wake with a pounding headache, my dead sister’s journal still clutched in my hands. Shovel food into my mouth while my peers stare mercilessly. Listen to rumors and assumptions and criticism constantly.
“She literally has zero magic; how is she even at this school?”
“Ew, she thinks she’s better than us, doesn’t she? No magic but a prince likes her tits and her parents have money, so clearly she’s superior.”
“She’s such a pick-me.”
Go to class and try to pretend those words don’t get under my skin. Focus on studying, even though the subjects are simple and the tasks too easy.
Sit among predators during lunch and don’t eat a bite because my stomach is in knots while they slide in veiled threats and insults like I’m too dim to understand.
“Humans have the softest skin. Delicious.”
“Nah, she’s not my type. I don’t have a thing for little girls with big doe eyes and not a thought in their head.”
“Helplessness is sexy, didn’t you know?”
Chide myself for how unsafe I am. How terrified I am of being alone with him.
Spend every moment terrified he’ll kill me the way he killed her.
Hide away in Minor Hall with my only two actual friends, watching movies and taking notes in my journal, while the rest of Minor Hall avoids me like the plague. Reread my sister’s last few journal entries and contemplate all the things I did wrong.
“Did she resent me for pushing her out of the supernatural world?”
“If I hadn’t taken that internship, would she have told me about her boyfriend? Would I have noticed the signs?”
“Did I put her down too much? Suck away her confidence in her own strength and leave her vulnerable to the first predator to walk into her life with the promise of power?”
Fall asleep after hours of torturing myself.
Wake with a pounding headache and do it all over again.
15
Everything is a Competition Here, Even Friendship
“You okay?You look so stressed out.”
I glance up to Janet and Lola watching me, concerned expressions etched onto their faces. We’re sitting in the game room because it’s the only place I don’t get bothered by the whispers. Janet and Lola are doing their homework, but mine was done before I even left class, so I flip through my nearly empty purple journal, pondering all my life choices.
