Page 42 of Crown of Death

“Did you know about this, before you brought me here today?” Cyrus asks, following meinside.

“Yes,” I sayemptily.

I immediately head toward my bedroom. I pause in the doorway, pulling out my phone. I textAmelia.

A few changes of plan. I’m finding a new place to stay. Think you could pick up the last of your things in the nextweek?

She responds immediately.Oh, wow. Yeah, I’m just at Tanner’s. I can be over there in about anhour.

Anhour?

I swear under mybreath.

Great. There will be no avoiding a face toface.

I don’t own hardly anything. But I really doubt that Cyrus and I will be done in anhour.

K, I respond.See yousoon.

“Where would you like me tostart?”

I turn around to see Cyrus surveying everything, a look of pity and slight disgust on hisface.

He looks so out of place here. He’s so regal, so sophisticated. But here he is, in my dumpyapartment.

“Let’s get the big stuff loaded first,” I say, looking around. “Half is mine, halfAmelia’s.”

I’m grateful that Cyrus says very little as he helps me load the couch. The TV and stand. My dresser andbed.

Crap. My stuff iscrap.

Now that I’ve lived in Cyrus’ house for a while, I realize just how poor I am. How awful all my stuffis.

Why even keep any of my junk? I’ll be living out the remainder of my human days withCyrus.

But what aboutafter?

I have no idea where I’ll be expected to goafter.

Cyrus loads my few dishes into boxes while I finish packing up all my things in the bathroom and mybedroom.

I find two pictures in the back of my closet. They’re of me and Amelia our freshman year at Greendale Community. We’d snuck into this party. Greendale has no actual frats, but there was this one apartment building close to campus that tried to act like they were. It was so lame, we were laughing at all the thinly veiled attempts all the guys made to get us intobed.

We’d snapped pictures with all the drunk, passed out idiots we’d found, after we’d drawn mustaches on theirfaces.

I smile, remembering the fun, simple night. It had been exactly what I’dneeded.

But I look around, to my now empty room, and realize, there aren’t going to be any more fun-filled, lighthearted nights forme.

“Lo?”

All my internal organs disappear at the sound of Amelia’svoice.

“Oh, hi,” I hear her say as I scramble to my feet. “You, uh, you must beCollin.”

I dart out into the living room, just in time to see Cyrus walking toward Amelia, his handoutstretched.

“And you must be Amelia,” he says with a charmingsmile.