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Back When Villains Rise Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

And he did, she knew that. And she loved that he accepted her choice, he didn’t press. He’d be there if she needed him, and that was everything she wanted.

But as she leaned against him, her mind continued running in terrified circles, unable to contemplate a single scenario where she faced her mother and won.

Twenty-Seven

IT WAS ALMOST DAWN by the time they finished getting rid of Andrej’s body. Nita didn’t have a proper refrigeration unit to store all the body parts, and selling them would take time and tools she didn’t have. So she just threw the pieces, wrapped in plastic bags, into one of the many massive trash bins in the city. The trash compacter would come around that evening and deal with it.

The blood wine she kept. Easier to store, easier to transport, and better benefits.

Kovit checked his phone occasionally on the way back, and she thought he was checking for updates on the DUL, but when she asked, he admitted he was just reading group chat messages from his online friend group.

“They’ve decided to kick Gold and me out,” he admitted softly.

“I’m sorry.” Nita’s voice was gentle. “I know how much they meant to you.”

He shrugged, but she could see the pain in his eyes. “It’s okay. I never expected . . . They’re good people. I knew, when the news came out, that I would lose them.”

“It doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

“No,” he whispered. A sad, slightly amused smile crossed his face. “I guess Gold didn’t think it through, though. She’s having an online meltdown that they’re kicking her out too. I told the group what happened in Toronto. I guess Gold didn’t realize that spying and trying to bring me back to a torture cage would maaaaaybe horrify the others.”

Nita sighed, a sound part amused and part exasperated. The more she thought about Gold, the more she began to feel like she might finally understand the angry, vicious daughter of a mob boss.

“I think Gold is in severe denial,” Nita finally said.

Kovit tilted his head. “About?”

“Herself.” Nita’s gaze shifted to her hands. “I suspect she’s done and seen a lot of bad things, and she can’t square the things she’s done with the way she views herself. So focusing on zannies, on unnaturals, on making them evil, she can at least believe she’s the better person, even if she’s not good.”

Nita licked her lips. “If she accepts that you’re as human as she, then she loses that slim moral high ground, and she has to face her own monstrosity.” Nita sighed, lost for a moment in her own bloody past. “Losing that moral high ground means taking responsibility for what you’ve done, for what you’ve been avoiding thinking about. And that’s hard.”