The light on my phone flickers, then dies.
And I’m left in the dark.
Chapter One
Three Months Later
The dive bar is dark and crowded. It gives off a bad sort of energy that I only picked up on after I’d been there a few times. Every time I leave, it feels like the negativity clings to my skin.
Still, no one reaches out to grab me as I wind my way through the tables. The guys lounging at their tables ignore me. The waitresses and bartender turn a blind eye.
I’m invisible—my new profession.
The man standing guard at the back room holds out his hand.
Now I do pause, pursing my lips. “He asked to see me.”
“He’s busy.”
“Fucking a girl? Nothing I haven’t seen before.” Indifference.
That’s the only way I’ve survived the last three months. Uncaring. Stamping down every single emotion until there’s nothing left.
I’ve done my best to channel that moment. The one where Hades declared I didn’t exist. I didn’t believe him, but I’ll give him credit: he worked fast.
My escape plan was solid. Move to Sterling Falls, work over the summer, get to know the town and the campus, then start school in the fall. But when I arrived at my new job…
They acted like I hadn’t interviewed.
Hadn’t come into their office twice.
I was shown the door and asked not to return, like it was my fault they didn’t know me.
If I hadn’t sunk all of my savings into the apartment I rented, I might’ve just called it quits and went back home for the summer. But my rental lease was ironclad, and that meant I’d be out thousands of dollars if I turned tail.
And then summer orientation rolled around, and I was called to the financial aid office on the first day.
There was an issue.
My scholarship disappeared. An error in the system, maybe, because apparently they didn’t know I accepted it. My lack of response prompted them to offer it to another student, so there was no more money for me.
No job.
No scholarship.
I knew the point—he wanted me gone.
But too bad for him, because I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t. Not when I had someone even worse waiting for me in Emerald Cove. Call me foolhardy, but by June I was pissed as hell. The first month was the hardest. I applied for jobs everywhere, but no one called me back.
I should’ve withdrawn from SFU. Because of the eleventh-hour mix up, I had no financial aid to speak of, except for the last-ditch effort loan I was able to procure. It covered my first semester’s tuition and rent, because the only thing that would be shittier than this predicament is homelessness. I pulled five hundred dollars out in cash to use for food, but it went too quickly.
But now I’m here to try and beg for more time from my lender.
I know, I know, it sounds bad. What sort of lender conducts business in a bar?
But listen.
No bank in their right mind would give a jobless, creditless girl a loan. My first mistake was trying to find creative workarounds. My second mistake was telling the bartender of Descend all about it while spending my last few dollars on vodka instead of… I don’t know, a burger. Or a train ticket out of here.
It should’ve been a sign when the bartender didn’t card me.
And I was certainly not going to cry to my parents about this. Not when I fought so hard to get here. To them, everything is fine and has been fine. I just started classes last week, and being at a real university is everything I’ve wanted. It can help me land a decent job—in another city, to be sure—and I’ll actually go somewhere with my life.
My dreams are so close I can touch them… if I can figure this out. Reapply for the scholarship for next year, maybe. Something.
“He’s not fucking a girl,” the guard sneers. “He’s on a call.”
I cross my arms, snapped back from my depressing thoughts. It can be a bit of a downward spiral—but isn’t that what I’ve been doing for the last three months? Spiraling?
“A call,” I echo. “He asked to see me.”
He raises an eyebrow. “And you took your sweet time getting here.”
That’s true. But nerves delayed me, because being unable to pay means…
Well, I’m not sure. I managed to pay the first two months. Barely. But the third was due a week ago, and the price is too high. I don’t have the money. Any money.
I swallow. I’ve hit the bottom and somehow, I keep digging myself deeper.
I half-expected him to break down my door and cut off my hand when I told him I didn’t have any money left. I’d lost ten pounds in the last month, I felt tired all the time, but could I quit school? Admit defeat?
Absolutely not.
I borrow my school books from the library. Occasionally, I sneak into the dining hall so I won’t pass out from hunger. It might be slightly more than occasionally at this point, though.
“He has something for you.” The guard jerks his head toward the bar. “Sit. Eat something before you fall over. He’ll be out soon.”
I grunt, but my stomach cramps. I can’t even deny that I’m starving, so I slide onto a barstool and motion to the bartender. He comes over and takes my short order, returning fairly quickly with a basket of fries and a soda.
“You eat that crap?”
I glance over my shoulder at the guard. “You give a shit?”
“Just wondering how you stay skinny.”
I roll my eyes. “Eating on a budget, jackass.”
The fries are lukewarm and have a slightly stale taste, but it doesn’t stop me from eating as fast as I can. I feel a bit feral. No one gives a shit, though.
“Your turn,” the guard calls.
The door behind him cracks open, and I shove three more fries in my mouth before standing. I take my drink with me. The guard lets out a sigh as I pass. Am I that unsavory?
Three months in this town, and I don’t know how I ever thought it was normal. It’s ruled by two gangs, whose focuses range from war to money. But in the end, those two things both translate into one: power.
“My invisible girl,” the lender calls when I enter. He’s smug behind his huge metal desk. “How’s the food?”
“Could be better.” I shrug and sit, crossing my legs. I’ve made myself bold recently to hide my fear. He only gave me the loan when I demanded it. Said, at first, that he didn’t deal with little girls. I made him change his mind, and I wholeheartedly regret it.
He snickers. “Sure.”
“You needed me for something?”
His eyes light up, roaming up and down my body. My curves are hidden under a baggy t-shirt, but he doesn’t seem to give a shit.
“Do you know who declared you the invisible girl? Who wiped you off the map?”
I grit my teeth and don’t answer.
I’ve avoided Olympus like the plague since that night. It hasn’t stopped me from trying to sleuth out who they are. I’ve come up with nothing, though. And I can’t figure out where they fit in. Two feuding gangs have the power in Sterling Falls, but so do they.
Clearly, because one minute, my life was together. The next… poof. But I never learned his name. Just Hades. Their masked faces are burned into the back of my mind. Hades, Apollo, and the third with the blood-red mask. Hades was the one who decided I had to disappear. The one who pulled the strings and made it happen. I know it in my bones. He’s the one I have a grudge against.