“What do you want me to do after that?” I ask quietly.
He lifts one shoulder, then pointedly examine his nails. “Bring him here or kill him. Either option will end the same. It just depends onyou.”
Fuck.
I get up and leave Madness. My phone buzzes.
Saint
We need to talk.
My nerves buzz, and I want to yell,No! No, you don’t want to talk. You want to stay as far away from me as possible.
But, in the end, I’m a slave to my master’s wishes.
40ARTEMIS
Dear Saint,
I brought up Nyx in group therapy. There was a question posed about if we had lost anyone close to us, and she was the first person I thought of.
It was refreshing to talk about her. I didn’t focus on her death. I told stories about how we met through Olympus, how my brother introduced me when I first got into fighting. Truthfully, that’s a story for another day. I don’t think I’ve told anyone that.
But Nyx was always a bright light. You said it, too. She was the stars, and the darkness made her shine bright. It was really true. I loved her, and talking about how she held herself, her morals, really made me miss her.
And then, in equal measure, there’s you.
The thought of her will never go away, but I’m glad she’s not between us anymore.
For once, I feel peace.
All my love,
Artemis
“Artemis.”Dr. Hawthorne approaches me at a fast clip.
Oh, shit. I got caught? I made sure to leave Lyssa’s room exactly as I found it. After I registered her name, I spent the next ten minutes hunting through every item in the room. I tried to connect it back to Gabriel or Kade.
IrememberLyssa.
She was the dark secret we kept after I rescued them. Her and Gabriel.
They were put in the lower level of Terror, where heroin and opiates keep them complacent. It was out of Antonio’s hands at that point, and I spentmonthsbribing the woman who administered the drugs to help me get them out.
She gave Lyssa too much, and Lyssa never woke up. Much to Gabriel’s distress. But once he moved her out of the long-term care unit Apollo was helping me pay for… well, I assumed she died.
Gabriel vanished after that anyway. It made sense to me that he would want to be far, far away from Sterling Falls.
It didn’t occur to me that he would hold such a grudge againstme.
“Dr. Hawthorne.” I shift my weight and contemplate an immediate confession. It would probably be easier, right?
Do I also tell her that I know her?
Well, knowofher?
I certainly know her brother and boyfriend. Benefactor. Whatever we want to classify Gabriel as.
