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Raiden looked up. “Such as?”
Zaine’s mobile pinged.
Let’s go, Storm’s message read.
Zaine headed for the door. It was time to weapon-up. “Call us if you crack Atlas open.”
“Will do.” Raiden flashed him a smile. “Have a nice flight.”
CHAPTER11
Octavius
All modern carwindows had UV protection, but much of the sun’s powerful rays beat through the glass, wearing them down. Octavius slumped in the front passenger seat while Saint dozed in the back with his suit jacket draped over his face.
“I don’t get out much. I mean, I didn’t,” Jayden said, comfortable behind the wheel. “I only learned to drive to go to college.”
Octavius sighed through his nose. His head throbbed. Was Jayden going to try to talk to him the whole way out of state? What could he possibly say that Octavius would be interested in? How many followers he had on TikTok? Octavius didn’tdosmall talk. “Uh huh,” Octavius mumbled back.
“That didn’t work out, so I got some bar work in St. Louis.”
“Do I look like I care?”
Jayden grimaced. “You don’t like people much, do you?”
“People don’t much like me.”
“Maybe that’s because you’re mean?”
He sighed again. This was happening then. He was going to speak with Jayden as though he wasn’t a feeder. At least if he talked to him, the agonizingly slow minutes might speed up. “People and me, we don’t mix. It’s always been that way.”
Jayden mulled over that for a while, then asked, “You seem kinda angry all the time. Maybe it’s a you problem? A friend of mine had a dog once—”
“You had better not be about to compare me to somebody’s pet.”
“No, I mean, kinda?” He screwed up his nose, then gleefully continued. “But this dog, it was a rescue, you know? When they found it, the poor thing was all kinda messed up, and angry all the time. It tried to bite everyone because that was all it knew. It had to be angry, to get by.”
Octavius huffed and rubbed his forehead. He wasn’t a fucking dog and he wasn’t angryall the time.He stared out of the window at the passing tress. It was just that almost everyone turned on him, eventually, so he turned on them first. He’d survived this long because of it.
“Just sayin’, it seems like you might have some… issues?” Jayden asked.
“Issues?” Octavius laughed. “What do you know about issues? You’ve been alive a blink compared to my existence. What issues could you possibly have in such a short life?”
Jayden fell quiet, watching the road, then said, “Must be kinda lonely, being an asshole.”
“Fine,” he snapped. Maybe if he told Jayden some of it, he’d shut up. “I was hunted, my whole life.”
“What for?”
“For being a witch because I get inside minds. And the hair.”
“Your hair is lovely. Very… Japanese anime.” He waved a hand. “You have a whole sulky, emo-goth-vibe going on.”
Octavius snorted. He had no idea what half of those words meant but Jayden seemed the sort to say every thought that entered his head, which in many ways made him more honest than most people. Perhaps he’d be able to tell Octavius about Saint—real information, not rumors and myths. “How did you meet Saint?”
“Oh, he stalked me,” Jayden replied breezily.
“Isavedhim,” came Saint’s grumble from the back seat. “Not stalking.”
