Black Iris by Leah Raeder

Author:Leah Raeder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

DECEMBER, LAST YEAR

I’d been crouching so long my knees had stopped burning and gone numb. Before us ice spread across the asphalt like ground-up glass, the cold so clear and sharp it hurt to breathe. All this poignancy was fitting. Very bad things were about to happen. At least the world knew when to wince.

I was reaching for another cigarette when the burner phone buzzed.

Armin and I glanced at each other, anxious. Even after hours of waiting, when it finally came it felt too soon. I pulled the phone out and we read the screen together.

Phase 2.

“Help me up,” I said.

He gave me a hand. I almost fell, blood thawing my frozen veins too quickly, that awful hot lifestuff gushing through me. Nothing hurts more than being alive.

I strode down the alley, Armin trailing behind. He kept trying to drag it out, feeding me chances to second-guess myself, renege. If he really knew me, he wouldn’t have bothered. There was no turning back.

I ducked into the lee of a Dumpster and signaled him to get in position across the alley. He paused in a long fang of moonlight, that white wolf face solemn, fixing me with an eye pure as a drop of liquid midnight.

“Armin . . .”

He stepped into the shadows.

This was it. God, this was it.

My high was gone. The tingle in my hands and feet was sheer adrenaline. I couldn’t feel the cold. I was colder than anything in this world.

I heard her first: that Roman candle laugh, the snarky Aussie drawl. Before I could hear him, I saw him. Two blond heads above heavy wool coats. Blythe’s dress shone in the streetlight, a slit of red running down her chest like a wound. She held her shoes by the straps and walked barefoot on the ice, impervious. Zoeller ambled beside her, listing, overcorrecting his steps. Drunk.

Good girl, I thought.

“Just up the lane here,” she said, smiling. The closer they got, the more canine that smile looked.

Zoeller stumbled into a trash can and knocked it over.

“Come on then. I drank more than you.” Blythe hauled him up by the elbow and he leaned on her heavily.

His gaze brushed my hiding spot as they staggered past.

“You’re fucking beautiful,” Zoeller mumbled, and for a terrifying second I thought he was speaking to me. But his hand slid down Blythe’s back, curving against her ass. “I’m gonna fuck you till you scream.”

A small crack popped in the ice inside me.

“Hands off, mate,” Blythe said, twisting free. “Let’s get to the car first, yeah?”

Zoeller came to an abrupt halt. Something snapped through him like a whip. Then he straightened and took a few steps toward her, fast. His hands clamped onto her shoulders. Blythe spun, fist raised, and he caught it like a viper.

My heart went hard and still.

“Let go of me,” she growled.

He wrenched her arm, forcing her to turn. “Where are your friends?” No slurring now.

“My friends are at the chapter house,” she said loudly, “and if they don’t hear from me in five minutes, they’ll call the fucking cops.

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