Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
You are a smart girl, Kala Taggart. You could be great. You could be one of the real people of the world.
The worst part about talking to Julia Ennis? The fact that she made some sense. Julia had pointed out that her father had trained MaeBe Vaughn but not her. He’d left her training to a martial arts asshole who’d told her she was too intense. She had to find another one. He’d liked Kenzie, though. Kenzie had been teacher’s pet. Naturally she screwed that up for her sister.
I was a lot like you as a kid.
Kala had snorted and told her she doubted it.
No, I was. Tell me if I’m wrong. Your sisters are far more popular than you are. Your mother’s always worried. At least she calls it worry, but it feels more like she’s embarrassed. They have much easier relationships with the others. Sometimes you wish you didn’t exist at all. It would be easier on everyone else if you didn’t.
So much easier.
“Of course you were scared.” Her mom had gone all sympathetic.
But her dad watched her like he knew she was holding back. Like he knew she’d thought about it when Julia Ennis had offered to not send her home at all.
Once you let yourself be who you were born to be, you won’t sit around and worry why you’re not like your sister.
Could her father see through her? How disappointed would he be?
It was funny. She didn’t want Cooper now. Somewhere in all the hours of staring at the ceiling of her cell, she’d realized there would be no open arms for her. Oh, she was absolutely certain if she walked up to him, he would hug her and say all the right things and even take back everything he said that night. But it would be his guilt talking. It would be the Captain America part of Coop that couldn’t even be really mean to a villain. She got it. She was bad for his reputation. She would only ever be a dirty secret for him to enjoy, and she wouldn’t fucking be that for any man.
She didn’t need him.
She didn’t need anyone.
“What did she say to you?” Her father spoke in that deep voice he used when he was pissed.
Was he pissed at her? “Not much. Just some bullshit about how Kyle was her true love. She went on about that a lot. It was kind of pathetic.”
“Are you telling me you were never alone with her?” her father asked, those icy eyes pinning her.
She glanced over and Kyle was already back to kissing MaeBe. MaeBe, who her father trained and treated like she was worthy. MaeBe, who Julia Ennis would never in a million years tell the things she’d said to Kala.
When reality is flexible, we can all be heroes. We can all get what we need. When you no longer care what other people think, you’re free. When other people don’t matter at all, you’re completely free to remake the world the way you want it. Some people would call that evil, but evil is a word used by the weak. You and I don’t have to use that word. All that matters in the world we make is that we get what we want. Think about it, kid.
Like there was something deep and dark inside her Julia had seen. Like recognizing like.
Would Cooper find some sweet girl he wanted to date and then Kala would raze the earth beneath them? Would she be the evil queen? The evil queen did not get to run away with Prince Charming.
“I wasn’t the one she was interested in,” Kala said quietly, hoping Kyle didn’t hear her.
Kyle knew she was lying. Kyle knew exactly how interested Julia had been in her. She prayed Kyle liked her enough that he wouldn’t ever tell her parents how the most evil woman he’d ever met had seen so much of herself in his cousin.
“I doubt that.” Her father didn’t seem to want to give up. “Julia Ennis was a woman who liked to play games. Especially mind games. You say no one hurt you.”
Her calm threatened to rattle. She didn’t know. She didn’t fucking know. She only knew that everything hurt when she woke up and she’d wanted her mom and dad, but she couldn’t now. She couldn’t. Because she didn’t know. “Beyond the dude I fought with? He kicked me a couple of times before he managed to shove a needle in my shoulder, but in his defense, I did break his nose.”
Her mom had gone pale.
But her father merely leaned in. “Did she leave you alone with them?”
“With the guards?” She was sick of the interrogation. She wanted to put on headphones and shut out the world. Maybe if she got the music loud enough, she wouldn’t hear Julia’s voice in her fucking head.