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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

She closed her eyes. They’d managed so much together, from escaping and destroying the market where they’d met to evading black market hunters and setting Kovit free of the Family. It seemed so unfair that here, at the end, when they were so close to a fresh start, when the list was crumbling and the future was full of possibility, that it should all end. They’d always had the cards stacked against them. She supposed it was only a matter of time before they were dealt a losing hand.

She clutched the towel close, pressing it to her chest like it could stem the blood flowing from the wound in her soul, trying to imagine what she’d do without Kovit. The hard truth was, she could still do everything. Her life wasn’t over. She could still go to college. She could still have power over the black market. She could still live her life.

But it felt empty. Hollow. Like the whole world had lost its color. She didn’t need Kovit to achieve her dreams. She didn’t need his help against the market. Kovit wasn’t a tool she’d lost, or a change of plans. Kovit was Kovit. He was the person who held her when she cried. Who entwined his enemies with hers, so that she wouldn’t be alone. He bought her breakfast and told corny jokes. He slaughtered the people who tried to hurt her. He made her smile.

There, on the floor of the bathroom, Nita finally broke down. She curled in a puddle of his blood, clutching the towel, as the wound in her soul bled her dry, spilling out in her tears until she was empty inside.

Thirty-Nine

WHEN NITA FINALLY CAME OUT of the bathroom, she was a little more put together. She wore the scrubs and had washed most of the blood from her skin. Her face was still waxy, and her eyes were still dead, but she wasn’t covered in the blood of her best friend anymore, and that made a lot of difference.

A policeman was waiting for her in a chair by the bathroom, and he rose when she approached.

“Can we talk?” he asked. He kept his voice slow and gentle, and it was clear he was trying to be considerate of her shock.

All she wanted to do was tell him to fuck off. To slide Kovit’s switchblade across his throat. He was an obstacle in the way of her one and only goal, the last thing in this gray world that had any color in it.

Kill her mother.

That was all that was left. Kill her mother, end this once and for all. Get vengeance for Kovit, vengeance for herself, end her mother’s brutal control over Nita’s life.