“What do you mean?” Galina asks breathlessly, her eyes wide.
“Ugh, I really shouldnotbe saying any?—”
“Ariiiiii!” Wren groans. “Come on!”
Arianna scrunches up her nose, then exhales. “Okay…” She grins mischievously at us. “So, Ididpeek at his profile one time. I mean, I was curious, you know?”
“Well,yeah,” Galina sighs. “He’s gorgeous. So? What's his thing?!”
“Is it peeing on people?!” Wren blurts.
“Eww!” Galina shrieks, slapping Wren’s arm. “Gross! Donottell me if it’s peeing or shitting on people!”
I realize my breath is held, my whole body on edge.
I already know what he’s into.
But I want Arianna to say it's something different from what happened last night, so I can tell myself it wasn’t Achilles.
“Well?!” Galina groans. “Enough with the suspen?—”
“Consensual non-consent, primal play, controlled dominance scenarios, and sadism,” she recites.
The four of us go silent for a second.
“Whoa,” Wren breathes.
“Holyshit,” Galina chokes. “I didnothave Achilles Drakos being a sadistic Dom with a rape kink on my Bingo card.”
“You guyscannottell a fucking soul, okay?!” Arianna pleads. “Like, for real.”
“Of course,” Galina assures her. “Right?”
“Right, definitely,” Wren nods.
“Lena?”
I swallow, barely hearing them over the dull thudding in my ears.
“Hello? Earth to Yelena?”
I blink and focus on the three of them. “Yeah, no. For sure,” I mumble.
I’m vaguely aware of them continuing to talk about how crazy this revelation is, but all I can really think about is that sensation that lingered between sheer fear and pure ecstasy.
The one I suppose I’ve fantasized about, but never actually experienced.
…Until last night.
WithAchilles.
The Golden Boy with a chase and consensual non-consent kink. The charmer with a lethally sharp knife and thick fingers…
In a daze, my entire body trembling with nervous energy, I say goodnight to my friends before we go our separate ways. Then I start walking home to Morvaine, still numb.
The white gravel, illuminated in a ghostly glow by the half-full moon above, crunches under my shoes. An owl hoots in the trees that come up on my left as the path winds closer to them.
I stop when there's a glint in the darkness right in front of me. For a breathtaking moment, I think it’s a knife. And for a mortifyingly exciting millisecond, I think that means it’shim.
