The Girl From Above [Ground: Zero, Book 1]

30: Confession

His eyes were growing paler by the second. The rain pelted their sides, lightning cracked against the valley.

"I'm the one who killed Devany, little omen."

Ryan stood speechless. His words were full of malice that she didn't think even existed. Pure malice that only wanted to watch the world burn.

"It wasn't hard." He said. "A trusting little life magic slumped against the floor. A few stabs to the neck and she's Dust in a minute. I didn't even know I could clean up that fast, truly unappreciated skills if you ask me."

Why did he sound proud?

He adjusted his glasses, his smile unmoving.

"Of course, I had to make sure my message was conveyed properly. So I collected her dust and saved it for the morning, when I knew all of you would be out to meet me."

Ryan backed away from him. It couldn't be true, there was no way. How could her former friend be a murderer?

"Why?" She asked, her lip trembling. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Why?! Well, like I said, she kept getting in your way—getting in my way! I cherished her as a friend, but nothing will ever come between me and what I have long since deserved!"

His hair extended. He towered above Ryan.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be ridiculed for something you can't change?" He cried. "Skills you've developed year after year only for them to be thrown away as taboo by everyone around you?"

Ryan stood completely still. She dug her foot into the ground.

Yes, she did have an idea. She was mercilessly prodded about everything she was born with from by aunt. Every day brought a new problem. Her appearance. Her name. Her friends. Her dreams. She wasted away trying to make herself better for her aunt, but she was never enough.

There was never any pleasing those people. Some people just wanted to tirelessly pick at others until there was nothing left to pick at.

"Yes." She said. "I do Liam."

His expression brightened. "So you understand, you understand why!"

She dug her hands into her pocket and slipped on her knuckles. She clenched her fists.

"Do you want to know what else I did? You're going to love this!"

He took off his messenger bag and slammed it to the ground. Various vials filled with the same green liquid she'd seen earlier spilled out onto the ground.

He giggled. He picked up a vial with a lock of his hair.

"My powers. I can produce different types of chemicals. It's why I'm taboo. So I decided that perhaps I could instead use them to make elixirs."

He poured the vial out onto the grass and it hissed. It curled in an eruption of green smoke.

Liam stepped through the smoke. The smoke was the same color as his eyes and as the smoke that came from Carson and Dominic when they attacked her.

The realization formed a lump in her throat.

"You..." She said.

He jumped up excitedly, his hair splashing in the rain puddles. He cackled like a child.

"I used so many elixirs on Dominic and Carson! It was amazing! I could finally test my skills! I'd been waiting to get back at bullies like them and now it finally came to fruition!"