God of Malice

When Glyndon arrives at the apartment she shares with Ava, Cecily, and Annika, they question her about where she was. Remi, Creighton, and Brandon come over and warn Glyndon about going to the underground fight club again. Glyndon gets another text from the unknown number, which she realizes is Killian when he starts sending her sexually explicit messages about assaulting her again.

Late that night, Glyndon wakes up to find Killian is there: He covers her mouth, holds her down, and begins to assault her. As he tells her how she wants him to take control from her, Glyndon realizes that she does in fact want this, despite never telling anyone about these fantasies before. She awakens, realizing that this scene was a nightmare, and hears Brandon and Cecily talking about how they’ve been worried about her—but she wonders if this is another dream. The next day, Annika tells Glyndon about the Heathens’ initiation ceremony, which is happening that night. People invited get a text beforehand and are essentially tortured physically or mentally to see what they can withstand. This year, REU students will be invited along with King’s U students. Annika mentions that the last time an initiation happened, a student was so distraught about not getting in that they drove themself off a cliff the next day—which reminds Glyndon of how Devlin died. Recognizing that the Heathens might have something to do with Devlin’s death, Glyndon resolves to learn what happened to him no matter what she must do. Shortly thereafter, she receives a text inviting her to the Heathens’ initiation.

Glyndon calls her favorite person, her grandfather, after a particularly difficult art class during which she overheard the professor comparing her to the other artists in her family. Soon after, Glyndon lines up to be part of the Heathens’ initiation, and two guards in bunny masks put a mask on her before she goes into the clubhouse. Five men in different colored bunny masks address the hundred people who were chosen to come, and one tells them that they must outrun the five founding members to the end of the property to be inducted into the club. All participants are allowed to use violence and weapons and to show no mercy; the only rule is that no one can intentionally kill another person. Glyndon is terrified but knows she must do this for Devlin’s sake. The guests are given a 10-minute head start before the five founding members begin to chase them, and Glyndon lets her instincts take over as she begins to run.

Killian, Jeremy, Nikolai, and Gareth—the founding members who (along with an unnamed person whose identity this novel doesn’t reveal) are wearing bunny masks—discuss their plan for the hunt and take off before the 10-minute head start is over. Killian thinks about how his father used to take him hunting in an attempt to dull his homicidal tendencies, but Killian quickly became unsatisfied with killing only animals. He eliminates a few participants with a baseball bat but wants more of a challenge, finding one when one of the participants runs past him into the woods.

Glyndon, the participant who runs from Killian, hides in a tree, expecting him to be the one trailing her. When she thinks it’s safe to come down, she sees Killian beneath her, and he catches her before she falls. He reveals what she thought was a nightmare last night was real. He continues to pursue her but agrees to pause for a moment when she asks for more time, despite knowing that it’s just her attempt to figure out a way to get rid of him. As she tries to ask Killian more about himself, he brings up her thoughts of jumping off the cliff the night they met. Glyndon is fully aware of the contradictory feelings of loathing and attraction she has toward Killian yet is more willing to submit to him when he makes her perform oral sex on him again. This time, Killian does the same to her, bringing her to orgasm again. After he’s finished, Killian takes another picture of her.

After getting dressed, Glyndon tells Killian about a psychological effect called the “misattribution of arousal” or the “suspension bridge effect,” wherein one mislabels fear as romantic or sexual arousal. While Glyndon sees this as an explanation for her attraction to Killian, he thinks it’s just an excuse to deny her attraction to him. Killian lets Glyndon walk ahead of him as she tries to finish the initiation challenge. During their walk, he mentions that this is their third date and says that Glyndon is the only person around whom he can be himself. Glyndon asks who the person behind the fifth bunny mask is, but he refuses to answer that question. Just as she gets to the edge of the property, Killian taps her with his bat and disqualifies her. Immediately after, a gorgeous woman appears and takes off her own white bunny mask to greet Killian with a kiss.

Glyndon surprisingly feels rage when she sees Killian and this woman together, but she doesn’t want to admit that she feels jealous. Killian pulls the woman, Cherry, away from him as she reveals that she made it into the Heathens’ club. Glyndon leaves angrily, and Gareth leads her out of the house. He warns her away from Killian and apologizes when she admits that Killian is the one pursuing her, as Killian always goes after what he wants. Gareth knows that Killian will eventually become a killer, but Glyndon thinks Killian has more control than that. When she returns home and checks her social media, Glyndon sees that Killian liked all 500 of her Instagram photos an hour ago and also sees the facade he implements on his profile. When she refreshes his profile, she sees that he has posted one of the pictures he took of her, though only she knows who it is.