I followed his eyes on the makeshift ashtray from an old book I gutted with what was left of my joint, just the ass, the roach. I didn't let any go to waste.
“Sure, Bolton. I'll be okay not being associated with losing the way we are this year.” I sat up, wondering what time it was and looking for my phone in my sheets as he scolded me silently. “Library in 20, Nyx. Don't make me come find you.”
Bolton was demanding, full of himself, and honestly, the biggest pain in my ass. He told me back home we were friends too, but that it was hard to believe I'd put up with him for an entire immortal life.
The only redeeming thing about these meetings was everyone wanting to hear themselves so much that me being silent went unnoticed. This was a smaller meeting, so I didn't know what to expect. If Bolton was having doubts, he didn't share them with me.
I was in the hallway against the railing before Bolton was out of his room. “I'm gonna assume she's learning quick?”
He shrugged. “Not quick enough. She still has no memories. Just nightmares.”
“What do you expect when dating you?” My voice cracked into a laugh before it could go up at the end.
The library was the only place on campus our keycard worked 24/7. My wheels turned, wondering where Luna went. I watched her closely, but I never followed. I wasn't ready to die that kind of death by stalking my prey.
Luna was already standing on the steps, shivering and waiting by Arianna’s side. I shrugged off my jacket without thinking twice. Walking past Luna, so she couldn't refuse to my face, I lightly placed it over her shoulders before I followed behind Bolton to the keypad.
I already knew we were headed upstairs. Bolton hated the obvious, and pushing Kate into complaining more was a past time we all participated in.
“What is this even about? We couldn't do this downstairs?” Kate’s complaining always came with a bit of whining and some hopeless huffing. We were all used to it.
Bolton barked out behind him, “I’m not doing this in the open.”
Now I was intrigued. Something was wrong, and it demanded privacy.
Bolton thumbed the spines of the old books that were off limits, when all of a sudden we heard gears.
Everything sounded louder in the dark.
The bookcase against the wall shifted, creating an opening I had never seen before and didn't know existed. I wasn't frequently in the library often enough to even know the second level was this big. I preferred firsthand experiences, not reading about them in books.
Luna went to sacrifice herself by stepping into the opening first, but my fingers wrapped around her wrist, drawing her back from volunteering. Bolton wouldn't intentionally hurt anyone, but I also wasn't taking that chance with Luna.
After everyone slipped through the opening, I took a closer look, “Stop throwing yourself on the damn cross and making me save you.”
Reaching out my hand, I waited for her to take mine, while I stood in the catacombs of our school with only our phone’s glow bouncing off the walls.
When she was safely through the gap, she pushed my hand away, “That's the difference between you and me. I'll die for someone else, but you'll kill.”
I didn't let our differences stop my arm from landing across her shoulders and protecting her as Bolton lead us down a long hall, which led to a large room, that had smaller hallways breaking off like veins, like lightning.
Once we all gathered up in the room, I heard footsteps coming towards us. I shifted myself in front of Luna, protecting her, tensing.
Caellum smirked at the room, like he knew no one could really cut him out of their lives for too long.
“Miss me, fuckers?”
“What the fuck is he doing here, Bolton?”
He didn't even let us adjust to the new surroundings when he dove right in, “Stand down, killer. We need all the allies we can get. Alba was hiding Arianna’s real file.”
Alba? Our mentor? Our friend? The keeper of the balance and virtue? He can’t mean the one man I trust in this mortal world, in this prison.
Kate was a walking eye roll and sarcastic tone, “And? I need more theories than accusations, Bolton.”
The clash between these two titans made me want to exit stage left and watch the show from a safe spot.
Arianna’s questioning voice, still confused and new to this asked, “Which sign is he again?”
Her dumbass question triggered a response I knew would set Bolton off when I looked at her truly spent. “Have you even been studying? Bolton is trying to give you as much time as possible before the ritual to remember, but you're wasting it. On what? Making out? We’re all riding on you catching up faster.”
Bolton was standing up straighter, and I knew this would end in blows if we argued. Considering he had no abilities; winning was rarely fair.
Luna frowned in my direction as she pushed her arms inside my jacket. I hoped it smelled like her when she was done. “He’s a Virgo. Give her a break. It’s a lot to take in.”
“It’s her history, origin. It shouldn’t be this hard to keep up, unless you aren’t Sag. We haven’t witnessed her do anything.”
Only in my fragmented memories.
Arianna was the most quiet I had ever seen her, silent, chewing her lips off. I sauntered towards her, only stopping in front of her to leave a few inches, “I don’t have to trust you. I’ve killed enough people that adding you to the body count won't affect me at all. It might break Bolton’s little black heart, though…”
I was pushing her into admitting she wasn’t who we were looking for or at least proving she was trying to care, learn, be part of the circle for once, instead of always being the one lost.
It had been a few times that the sign we needed to complete the circle wasn’t hers. Rare, but that dumbass Leo got sacrificed once and cried the whole time. He was dramatic, and thankfully the gods spared us that nightmare again.
I watched her lip biting become more aggressive, and her lips became a cherry color inside of the flesh tone pink they normally were.
Bolton shouted enough from his fake throne, sitting on some table, always perched above us, just to make sure there was no confusion.
I kept pushing her to show her true self or opt out of dying for no good reason, “Just admit it, Arianna: You aren’t one of us. You’re just a kid whose parents got sick of you making trouble, and instead of being comfortable being an outcast, you clung onto this absurd notion you’re the daughter of Zeus, all because your vagina reacts to Bolton.”
And just like that she came alive.
“Just stop it, Nyx! I didn’t ask to be this different. I didn’t ask for parents like this, and I didn’t ask to be your damn sacrificial lamb! Fuck!”
I watched her come undone, and a wall of tears glazed her irises in a thick fog. You could still see the flecks of purple matching her hair. I twisted around, bored with being this close to someone about to cry. Luna could tag in when they started to fall, the nurturer.
“Are you happy now?”
I stopped dead in my tracks, and my eyelids went half-mast, trying to discern if I heard her right. I heard the same phrase she barked at me in my memory when her father died.
Slowly turning back around to face her, I examined her face, features, anything that would confirm this was a memory and not some nightmare I created.