“You should put a salve on that when you get home.” He flashes me a key, then unlocks the cuffs. First my uninjured arm, then the other.
I stumble backward, cradling my wrist to my stomach. I can’t even look at it.
He eyes me and my quick shuffle to the door.
“Invisible girl,” he calls. “If you don’t pay next month, expect a repeat. Or…”
It’s enough to give me pause, and he knows it. He’s dangling that job in front of me. Job or favor, I’m not sure what to classify it. It could be a suicide mission, for all I know. But I’m expendable.
We both know it.
He raises his eyebrows when I stop moving.
“Fine,” I grit out. “Is it going to get me killed?”
He laughs. “Only if you get caught.”
I swallow. “If I’m successful, we’re clear. No more debt. No more favors.”
“And if you’re unsuccessful, then payments continue… with double the interest.” He opens a drawer and removes an envelope, tossing it across the desk. “You have until the end of the month. That’s the only grace period I’m going to extend to you.”
I dart forward and grab the envelope. When I’m halfway to the door, he makes another noise. I slow to a stop, grinding my teeth.
“Yes, one last thing.” He strides across the room and steps into my space. Our height difference isn’t so great now, but he feels larger than life. A small smirk curls his lips. “If you even think of leaving Sterling Falls, all bets are off. I won’t just go for you, though. I’ll find your family. The accountant mother, the dear father who works at the newspaper in Emerald Cove… Or maybe that charming best friend of yours. Marley. She’d look good pinned to my desk, as you were. Maybe I’ll work my way down the line and see whose scream is the sweetest. I’ll take what’s due to me from their flesh… then I’ll take the rest from you.”
He pats my cheek again, then holds up a photo. It’s of Marley and me on the Sterling Falls University campus. I jerk back.
“Yes, invisible girl. I do my research. Whatever little plan you concoct to escape, know that I’ve already thought it. And moved to prevent it. Run along, now.”
I hightail it out of there with the envelope crumpled in my fist.
He knows my family. My best friend. That’s how all the villains operate, isn’t it? They find leverage and they’ll exploit it however they can.
Tears fill my eyes once I’m on the sidewalk and rushing away from Descend. I’m the worst sort of idiot. The kind who doesn’t even know she’s in over her head until she hits the bottom of the freaking ocean.
It takes me half the walk to realize that I could’ve skipped the brand if I had agreed to Kronos’ blind deal. My arm throbs, from my wrist all the way up my shoulder. I pull it away from my shirt and immediately put it back. My skin is angry red and blistered.
Downtown has changed with the rest of the city. Everything is at an angle, like the skyscrapers have buckled under expectation. In the daytime, the shops beckon passersby to enter. It was built to entice tourists and college students—people who don’t really understand Sterling Falls. It’s all a trap, though. A well-thought-out illusion. Behind every shop, every restaurant, is a darker scheme. And that became clear when the curtain was ripped aside.
My eyes were opened, and there’s no going back.
When I first moved here, I had no idea. Sterling Falls was my shining beacon of hope. The argument I had with my parents to even let me come here… I risked my relationship with them to make it work.
They’re reasonable people. Mom’s an accountant at a small, family-owned firm. She worked her way through school. Dad started as a writer for the Emerald Cove—the town I grew up in—newspaper, and since climbed up the ranks to editor without a degree.
But reasonable can only stretch so far to accommodate dreams.
And now… nightmares. Funnily enough, I moved here to escape my nightmares. Somehow, I waltzed right into another one.
I hurry through West Falls until I reach SFU’s campus. West Falls is Titans’ territory, something I didn’t know until after I accepted the loan from the man who calls himself Kronos, and I’m eager to leave it behind. He’s their leader. He must be. Kronos never said as much, but after today, I’m fairly certain.
The Titans and Hell Hounds are the two gangs in power. I want to know how Hades fits into it. Where Olympus sits in relation to the gangs. And I don’t want to know to satiate my curiosity—I need a plan.
Today’s conversation with Kronos solidifies my theory that the trio isn’t part of the Titans. Which leaves the Hell Hounds… or they’re something else entirely.
I slip into the student center, taking a seat off to the side until the attendant for the dining hall is distracted. Then I enter. No one bats an eye, and I load up a plate with food. Once that’s done, I fill a cup with ice, another with water, and find a chair at an empty table. I glance out the window at the darkening sky and let out a sigh.
I only allow myself a moment, though, before I shake out some of the ice into a napkin and cover my burned skin. I let out a hiss of pain and squeeze my eyes shut. One, two, three, four. The pain’s still there, but I’m not in that room.
My panic ebbs.
I finagle my setup so I don’t have to hold the ice, then dig into the food. I shovel it in like they’re going to kick me out at any moment—and at this rate, they might. I see some pitying glances every now and then.
Maybe that’s just my paranoia talking.
I need to come during busier times. To blend in even more.
The pasta sits heavily in my stomach, but I’m too hungry to stop. Too nervous about when my next meal will be to enjoy it properly, either. Every bite is bland.
Once the plate is empty, I push it away and guzzle the water. The ice in the napkin is melting into a puddle, and my wrist throbs, but I ignore those for the envelope. I pull it from my hoodie pocket and carefully rip it open.
Just a single piece of paper. That’s… it.
No instructions or guidance—just two words. Hades’ Mask.
My stomach flips, and I roll my shoulders back. He wants me to steal it? I can close my eyes and envision the white-bone skull mask. The twist of the cruel lips under it.
At that, I shift. There was nothing in my agreement with Kronos about protection. If I don’t do it, I’m destined for another brand on my arm, and paying with double interest—because I highly doubt I can come up with the money for payment by the end of the month. And I can only imagine how much my debt will rise the longer I’m unable to pay. If I can’t pay, he’ll take it out on my family. Or my best friend.
If I do it… Getting caught might get me killed.
I close my eyes and remember the man they gutted. They got away with that. I know they did, because there wasn’t even a blip of mention in the newspaper.
If I learned anything from my dad, it’s that people love macabre. A dead body—especially one with a knife wound in his abdomen—would make a great headline. But there was nothing. Just like there was nothing left of me.
I rotate my arm and stare down at the underside of my wrist. The skin is red, the hourglass bright and raised. The outer lines are thin and curved like two bells.