Chapter 18 Blaze
BLAZE
The moment River spots me, he freezes—and tries to walk the other way. I jog up to him anyway.
“What are you doing here, Blaze?” River asks.
There’s a bruise on his jaw. That’s new. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there a few days ago.
Was he fucking Pandora, too?
“What am I doing on campus?” I ask.
River rolls his eyes. “What are you doing by the engineering building? The dumbs are on the other side of campus.”
I frown at him. “The dumbs?”
There’s a long beat where River says nothing.
Finally he sighs. “You really haven’t heard that one before? Dyschord University of Management and Business? D-U-M-B.”
“But it’s the Dyschord School of Management and Business,” I point out, deadpan. Then I grin. “Of course I’ve heard that one before. Usually from people who realize too late they should have kept their mouths shut.”
“Oh, no. I’m so scared,” River deadpans. “Big bad Blaze might try to teach me a lesson about calling him dumb.”
“I really should.” I put my arm around his shoulder, ignoring the way he flinches.
Interesting.
I know he isn’t afraid of me, so why did he flinch?
“I need your help with something.” I glance at my smartwatch. “And it’s time sensitive. Drop whatever other plans you have.”
“Get Asch to help you,” River replies. “I have class.”
I grin widely and pat him on the chest. “I know you don’t. Besides, this is for Pandora.”
His eyes narrow as he looks at me. “What makes you think I want to do something for Pandora?” he asks.
“You gave her your finger back,” I point out quietly. “Is that something you usually do when you hate somebody?”
“I didn’t say I hated her,” he mutters. “Only that I don’t feel like running around doing errands for her. You might be on her leash, but I’m not.”
Sure, of course not.
I tighten my grip on him, which makes him wince. For some reason, I don’t think it’s from my words. I eye the bruise on his jaw. Where else is he bruised?
“Trust me, you’ll want to help me. And she didn’t ask me to do this. I’m just getting ahead of a little matter that could escalate. Pandora will murder somebody if we don’t do this,” I say.
“What happened this time?” he asks.
I’m surprised he hasn’t heard, but I’m glad too. Maybe it won’t be the talk of the college.
Pandora can handle herself, but I want to spare her this indignity, too.
“I’ll tell you later,” I say. “Now come on.”
I hear River sigh, but he follows me back into the engineering building and to the elevator.
“We’re going down,” I tell somebody who tries to follow us in. She sighs and backs off.
“Down?” River repeats. “Why?”
“It’s a shortcut.” I hit the button to take us to the tunnels. We’re starting to get to the time of year when more students will be using these, but for now, the tunnels are still mostly empty. We hear footsteps farther down the tunnel, and some giggling from a few students.
I lead us away from those people and in the direction of the tunnels leading to the gym.
“We could have walked above ground,” River mutters.
“We could have,” I agree. “But it wouldn’t have been as entertaining.” Then I hold my finger up to my lips.
As we walk, we start to hear voices and the soft sound of music. It echoes through the empty concrete, their location hard to pinpoint if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Thankfully, I spent enough time memorizing these tunnels to know exactly where I need to go. At the next intersection, I take us away from the gym and closer to where the sounds are coming from.
“Isn’t that—” River whispers. I hold up my hand to tell him to quiet down. He glares at me, but at least he obeys.
The tunnel opens up into a larger maintenance area. The smell of vape—cinnamon vape—assaults my nostrils.
Sitting on chairs around a set of speakers are Tate, Brock, and Holden.
River’s expression has gone dark and furious, and his hands clench into fists at his sides. He glances at me, taking a deep breath, then looks back at our other frat brothers.
“Having a party without us?” I ask as I step into the light.
Tate startles and drops his vape. “Fuck. Blaze. What the fuck are you doing here?” His gaze slides over to River, and he grimaces. “You get lost? The gym’s the other way.”
“Nah. I just thought I’d see how you’re doing,” I say.
Brock tenses up, and he pulls his hand, the one in the cast, closer to himself. “Tate, let’s get out of here,” he hisses.
“No need to leave on our account,” I say. I pick up Tate’s dropped vape. “I’d have thought you’d be put off by the scent of cinnamon.”
“I’m not the one with the allergy,” Tate mutters.
“No bad memories?” River growls. “No regrets? Just don’t care at all, huh?” He takes a step forward.
“Come off it. We’ve already been punished for that,” Brock says. “I’m off the team for the rest of the school year. I’ve got to fucking hope my hand heals right and I can play next year. If it doesn’t, maybe I’ll get my parents to sue you.”
I bark out a laugh and glance at River. “He wants to sue me. That’s a funny joke, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he says. “Hilarious. He’d get real far with that. Maybe we should give him another reason to try.”
Holden gets up and backs away from us. “You know, I think I’ve got an exam to study for.”
“You don’t,” I say sharply. “Sit the fuck down, Holden.”
Holden immediately sits down again.
I smile at all of them. “So who came up with the brilliant plan to throw water balloons filled with piss at Pandora?”
River’s head jerks up, and he stares at me for only a beat before he snarls and takes several steps forward. “They did what?”
Tate gets up and crosses his arms. He’s a big guy, muscular from playing hockey, and he’s used to intimidating people with his size.
Of course, he’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed either, so he says, “Yeah, it was me. So what? The psycho bitch deserved it.”
“Tate,” Holden hisses, his eyes going wide. “Bouchard, we’re sorry. It won’t happen again.”
River scoffs. “Yeah, until the next time Tate gets the bright idea to try something else.”
“You’re really bad at knowing when to keep your mouth shut.” I toss the vape at Tate. He catches it, but while he’s distracted, I lunge forward and punch him hard in the face.
Tate cries out and stumbles back a few paces. I see him steel himself though, and he gets into position to fight back against me.
I grin at him. “Think very hard what you’re doing, Tate. Are you sure you want to touch me? Are you absolutely certain you can handle the fallout of going up against me?”
Holden grabs his arm, but Tate shakes him off.
“Tate, just apologize,” Holden tells him, his gaze flicking between me and River. Tate might think that he has the upper hand, but Brock is still injured and Holden is a fucking coward.
“Somehow, I don’t think Pandora’s going to be thrilled with just an apology,” River says, his voice cold as he stares at Tate.
“Given your choice of revenge, I think Pandora might have been on to something about your little watersports kink,” I say. “Did the three of you whip it out together and enjoy some mutual pissing to fill those water balloons?”
Brock makes a disgusted sound. “It wasn’t like that! We weren’t looking at each other’s junk!”
River’s lip curls into a sneer. “You know, we don’t really care about that,” he tells Brock. “What I care about is that you’re too stupid to learn. And you’ll be really fucking lucky if we don’t decide you’re too stupid to live.”
No, the problem isn’t that they’re too stupid.
The problem is that they went after Pandora.
They upset her.
They humiliated her.
They hurt her.
Pandora has the right idea that they don’t deserve to live. I want to help her saw them apart.
I can’t do that, not without drawing even more attention to us. Ezio’s already asking questions I have no good answers to, and my father would notice if three of our frat members disappeared.
Not that he cares about them, specifically, but their parents would drop their support.
So I do the next best thing.
I grab Tate’s collar and kick him hard in the knees. He cries out and stumbles forward. I land a punch in his solar plexus.
“It hurts more to brawl when you aren’t covered in hockey padding,” I say cheerfully.
“Fuck you, Bouchard,” Tate growls. He elbows me into releasing him, but before he can follow up with another attack, River is on him.
River’s punch is beautiful, right into Tate’s nose. I hear the crunch of cartilage breaking. Tate cries out, and I add another kick to his side.
“Help!” Tate cries out. “Brock, Holden!”
I see motion out of the corner of my eye, but it turns out that Holden is only interested in putting more distance between him and us.
Brock is hesitating, too, looking down at his shattered hand instead of at us.
“Sorry, man,” Holden mutters.
The utter betrayal in Tate’s expression is almost more delicious than the pain he’s going to feel in about, oh, five seconds.
I throw another punch, and River follows up by hitting the exact same spot.
The music accompanies our beat-down, and I hum along to it as Tate goes down and tries to protect himself from our blows.
There’s nothing fair about this fight.
But I don’t give a fuck.
I won’t allow anyone to touch Pandora ever again.
We keep beating him until he’s sobbing and begging. “Blaze, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he cries.
I hold my hand up to stop River from delivering the next kick. River growls, but he lowers his foot. I squat down next to Tate.
“You’re going to leave Pandora alone,” I say very carefully.
“Because what I did to you? It’s still letting you off easy.
If you keep going, you’re not getting out of it with just a few punches and kicks.
You’re looking at table saws. Your fingers and toes getting cut off, one by one.
Then your hands and feet. Until it’s your head getting severed from your neck. ”
Tate lets out a hard gasp. “All because of… because of her?”
“Yeah,” I agree. “All because of her. You can transfer schools if you want. I won’t stop you. Just remember that you’ve already pledged. If you even think about going to the authorities or begging Mommy and Daddy to intervene… I’ve got all your secrets.”
I take my phone out and snap a picture of Tate’s battered face. He whimpers but otherwise holds still for the glamour shot.
I stand up and turn to Brock and Holden. “The same applies to both of you shits.” I motion to Tate. “Help him get patched up. And I suggest you all do your very best to avoid Pandora Pavone.”
“Y-yeah,” Holden says, looking down at Tate.
I’m almost surprised he hasn’t pissed himself again from fear.
River stands at my side, his eyes fixed on Brock. “Blaze isn’t the only one who can make you hurt. Don’t forget that.”
I go over to Brock and clap him on the shoulder. He flinches and looks down at his feet.
“Glad we understand each other. Don’t worry, I won’t sabotage your summer internships.” I let out a small laugh. “You’re still intending to intern with Telemere-Prinz, right?”
Brock nods. “Y-yeah. Okay.”
And that’s it. I whistle to myself and head away from their little secret smoke haven. River jogs after me, but he stays quiet until we’re far enough away that the music isn’t audible anymore.
“Piss balloons?” River finally asks. “The fuck?”
“Revenge for the party, I guess.” I shake my head. “He should have fucking let it go. I had to talk Pandora down from murdering them.”
“Are you sure you actually did?” River asks.
I consider the question seriously. “I think if they avoid her, yeah.” Then I sigh. “The fuck am I doing though? I’m supposed to hate her after all the shit she pulled on me.”
She’d ruined our fundraiser. She’s turned Asch against me. She tied me down and fucked me and almost cut me open.
But I still can’t get her out of my mind.
When I’d seen her drenched in urine, it had taken all of my willpower not to track Tate down immediately to teach him a lesson.
Pandora had needed me more, though. She pretends to be above it all, like her only emotions are joy and anger, but I’d seen it.
I’d seen the vulnerability.
I’d seen that she was on the edge of breaking down.
And the fact that Tate and his friends brought Pandora there is even more unforgivable than their fucking stunt with the vape.
“Her family cut my finger off,” River says, his voice deadpan. “She cornered me in the sauna and… Never mind. If anyone has reason to hate her, it’s me. But here I am, helping you beat the shit out of someone who hurt her.” He shrugs. “She has a way of getting underneath your skin.”
“She really does.” I glance at River, and I notice the bruise on his jaw again. “How’d you get that, by the way?”
“Boxing,” he replies. “Practice was brutal.”
Something about his voice sounds off, but I decide I don’t care that much. As long as he wasn’t getting into fist fights with Asch, it’s none of my business.
I take my phone out and open my texts with Pandora.
Blaze
It’s done.
I attach the photo I’d taken of Tate’s face.
Pandora
Are those River’s shoes?
I snort in amusement. How did she even notice them in the background?
Blaze
Yeah. He’s pretty good at boxing.
Pandora
He is! Give him a kiss from me.
I laugh, then show the text to River. “You can pretend I did,” I say when I see his nose curl in disgust.
“How about no,” he says. “Anyway, let’s hope that gets her off his case before we get a repeat of what happened with Zayden.”
If my table saw threats hadn’t put the fear of Pandora in them, then they’re really stupider than I thought.
“You want to grab dinner? My treat.” I take the tunnel toward the cafeteria.
“Yeah, sure,” River says. “Funny how a beatdown always stirs up your appetite.” He follows me silently until we take another turn. “Are you ever going to make up with Asch?”
“Sure, when Asch gets the stick out his ass,” I grumble. “Anyway, don’t ruin a good evening by bringing him up.”
The whole fight would have been even more fun with him there, though.