Vicious Minds: Part 3 (Children of Vice 6)

“The old woman is sick, right? She won’t even be the same—”

“I don’t care!”

Why the fuck did she have to be so stubborn?

“What do you care about?”

“Ethan. Gigi. Myself.”

So, fucking stubborn, bloody hard-headed…and childish! But also sincere. She really didn’t care beyond that. Part of me wanted to believe she was lying. That this was a trick. But I had seen it yesterday…I saw it again now. That look of desperation. Like a marathon runner who was exhausted but still had to cross the damn finish line no matter what. No wonder Ethan didn’t even bother speaking to her again. He knew she wouldn’t change her mind no matter what anyone said.

I frowned. “I’m not going to go easy on you.”

“Said the world to little Calliope when she was born,” she replied, grinning, obviously reminding me that she’d never had anything easy.

“If this takes you longer than—”

“Two weeks. All I need is two weeks. Then we can attack on Christmas.”

I sighed, moving to pick her off the floor again.

How did this become my life?

14

“Life is like a book. There are good chapters, and there are bad chapters. But when you get to a bad chapter, you don’t stop reading the book.”

~Brian Falkner

ETHAN

Stubborn.

Pigheaded.

Insane.

Infuriating.

Tyrant.

Yes, tyrant, that was a good word. She was a bloody tyrant—a person who ruled with absolute power. Calliope smiled, she laughed, and she pretended I was the boss, but she held everyone with this invisible power.

“She has grit,” my father said, coming and placing his arm on my shoulder. “It’s hard to deny a person that much determination. She must be in horrible pain, and yet still, she’s asking for more.”

That grit and determination were what made a tyrant…especially over herself and her body. And what was worse was if I called her that she’d say in Greek the origin of the word, tyrant, had no negative meaning, that it just meant ruler or king—then tell me to be a tyrant with her.

“You sure know how to pick the crazy ones.” He snickered, biting into his apple. Looking at him, I glanced at his arm on me for a moment before smacking it off. It only made him grin more. “You’re very worried about her. I can see it on your face.”

“Funny how you both know how to read between the lines when it is not important.”

He bit into his apple again. “Let it go already. If she can forgive the woman who shot her, then you can forgive us for an oversight.”

“Calliope did not forgive her.” I hated how they all thought they knew my wife or me, for that matter. “She is using her.”

“Then, use us.”

“I am, keeping you here, busy, under my eye, away from my work and the family, letting you heal as well so you will be strong enough to finish this war. That is how I am using you. None of that requires that I be friendly as I do it.”